First, “average” doesn’t mean “not admissible to any college, anywhere.” What is important for an “average” (and I use “average” loosely) student and their family is the college selection process–just as important as for EVERY student wanting to go to college. The selection process for the “average” student may include a different scrutiny of…
Tag: Motivation
The Pioneers Take All the Arrows
Risk takers are often discounted, pooh-poohed and can be actively campaigned against for stepping outside the status quo. Their daring to question what’s accepted challenges our seeming comfort, shining a light on the constant change surrounding us, yet can sometimes go by undetected. Think: Steve Jobs, fired from his own company than rehired to take…
B.A. in Common Sense
“Common sense can be uncommon.”–Art Baird Every parent knows with certainty their kid is smart. As Montaigne said, “Everyman has within himself the entire human condition.” Yet, what does smart mean? How smart is smart? Is our current generation of budding adults–actually legally an adult–but mere months away from teenager-dome, lacking common sense? Have we,…
“Why Do You Want to Go To College?” Has New Meaning
“How do employers look at college names?” is a typical question parents ask us, when trying to narrow their senior’s choices for application. Two meanings emerge from this question: What’s the value of a college degree? How, if at all, is value different for different colleges? The value in college question will be answered differently…
Back To School…More Complex Than Buying New Notebooks
BACK TO SCHOOL: Three words that can send excited nerves through a student’s, parent’s and teacher’s bodies. Students may lament, yet their friends are waiting on campus, after all. At the same time, there’s a frenzy of last minute summer reading and assignment completion while parents buzz in the background, brimming with “I told you…
Plagiarizing Doesn’t Happen Only in School
Original thought that contributes to common knowledge and greater understanding is demanded of students across the country. New software that scans students’ work and rates the percentage of the document that is potentially plagiarized are being used in high school and college classrooms. One high school junior told us that her teacher returned her history…
Fail to Succeed?
Steve Jobs on Failure: I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter into one…
Sidewalk Surprises
Look around every once in awhile. Other people’s good ideas can infuse your own.
Imagination is Not Just for Kids
“If your boy is a poet, horse manure can only mean flowers to him; which is, of course, what horse manure has always been about.” –Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine Children see the world through their own eyes. What are we adults doing to nurture their view? And, where, if anywhere, are we not nurturing? What can…
Thomas Jefferson for the Twenty-First Century American
Many years ago, in my role as a high school teacher of U.S. Government, I had the unique opportunity that allowed me to experiment–teach one and only one concept, one document to one group of kids for the entire school year. We studied the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson–attempting to understand and apply…
Risk & Reward
Fear of mistakes can become a liability. Henry Kissinger once warned that our search for certainty can leave us simply reacting to the next emergency. Yet, transformed, this same desire for perfection can create an exacting attention to detail and ability to forecast probabilities. Is your view that life is inherently full of risk or…
The “Muddy” Side of Learning
Do-it-yourself does not just refer to hours at Home Depot, then trucking all that stuff home to saw, sweat, swear and drive back to Home Depot for stuff you forgot, while your family watches from a distance–afraid of the snarls. As an educational tool, DIY refers to the blow-stuff-up, come-home-dirty-enough-so-your-mom-makes-you-change-in-the-garage, direct-your-own-project learning. You know,…
Maybe a Summer-Slide Is Just What the Doctor Ordered?
Annually, this is the time of year parents and teachers share concerns that students forget academic concepts, since they’re not in school several months. It’s often called, “Summer-Slide.” Yet, how much does consistency affect students’ comprehension and academic progress?
Reading Does Not Make You a Nerd
It’s summer. Hot (read: reason to stay inside). No school (read: students have LOTS of free time, for which their parents’ intentions and their own intentions may differ). So, its the season for numerous media articles lamenting “summer slide” or students “forgetting” the academic information from the previous school year to features of popular…
Being Special in a Sea of Special
Wow. In a time when it seems every 5 year old knows what “self-esteem” means, David McCullough Jr. reminded us of our basic human equanimity. “…even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you. ” Boy, that either fries your hide…