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News Articles

• Secret of Academic Success
  
• Language of Choices, Making the Right Moves To Communicate with the Masses
• How Can We Raise Our Teens to Become Wealthy Adults?
• Some Things I Learned From " Kids These Days"
• Discovering Art Together
• The Bridge Won't Stick to His Foot. I Promise.
• Finding Ideas, Not Discouragement
• Is Milk More Innovative than Traditional Schools?

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Secret of Academic Success
by Sun Bae

Hi everyone.

As some of you know, we actually moved from California to Texas about a year ago and as I was reminiscing about our last vacation there (I got to spend time with my parents, which is always good; though a part of me is saddened each time I see more lines on their faces and white hair on their heads…), my thoughts about my parents got me thinking about what ingredients makes for a successful education.

You see, my parents are about as old-school as you can probably get when it comes to education.  They believe in rote memorization of facts via constant drilling.  2 x 3? 6.  Why?  Because 1 x 3 = 3 and 2 x 3 = 6, that’s why!

Like I said…old school. ... read more

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Language of Choices, Making the Right Moves To Communicate with the Masses
by Beth Butler 

Have you ever pondered over which language you should put your mind to learning? Or perhaps which new language you should advise your middle school child to register for next school year? Sitting next to a family of four (mother, father, high school son and middle school son) and mercilessly eavesdropping, I was flabbergasted by the conversation taking place about which foreign language to study and the various reasons why. All were in agreement that the boys needed to complete two years of foreign language study prior to the end of high school; the disagreement that ensued was about which foreign language to take and why.

I’m not much of a stats geek; however I do study the trends as I like to keep informed in the educational genre of our society as a mom and as an educator. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2007 Statistical Abstract there are more than 265 million people age five and over in our country, and 216 million of them speak English in their home. The family involved in this nearby conversation clearly never read the rest of the report, tends not to listen to the languages being spoken around them in their community or simply does not care which language would be found most useful and practical as the boys travel through our United States of America.....read more

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How Can We Raise Our Teens to Become Wealthy Adults?
By Jill Suskind, WealthQuest for Teens

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a 100% Guaranteed Method for helping the teenagers in our lives grow into wealthy, fulfilled, confident and contributing adults?  Unfortunately, there is no such parenting guide, but if there WAS, here is what an excerpt might look like:

1.    Share and model positive ways to think about money.  Teens need help to adopt attitudes that provide a motivating context for becoming masterful money managers.  For example, lots of teens worry that if they choose a career that expresses their passions and interests, they won’t have a high-paying job; you can help them realize that good money management—and not salary alone—is the key to becoming wealthy.  Also, help your teen understand that money is a tool for making their dreams come true, and a powerful way to make a difference in the world.  Dreaming up a big exciting life should include a commitment to practices and attitudes that lead to financial well-being. ...read more

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Some Things I Learned from "Kids These Days"
by Jay Lambert, MPA MSW LCSW

I recently went with my wife to her 10 year high school reunion. As with most social gatherings of this sort, it was not something I had been eagerly anticipating. It’s not that I have a problem with social settings per se, it’s just that when I am asked what I do for a living and I tell people I’m a counselor, then I often find myself “on the clock.” Seems everyone has at least one family member or friend who “has had a hard time” or is “having some problems,” and since I’m a counselor they assume that I would like to talk about it. Now don’t get me wrong; I do not mind listening to people talk about their problems, even when I’m off the clock. But sometimes it just gets to be a bit much. I need a break like anyone else. So being at my wife’s reunion had me just a little on guard, wondering if it would be yet another one of those occasions.

Turns out, it was not like that at all. The night largely consisted of good food and good conversation. But the funny thing was that I had been so focused on my usual concern of not getting into one of those “oh, you’re a counselor, let me tell you about my sister” conversations, that I did not see one of the other things I look out for in social settings until after it happened. I am talking about the good old “kids these days” talk. That adult classic, the lamenting discussion of how these days, kids have gone too far and have crossed some sort of line from being kids to being something else entirely. I’m getting old enough where these are becoming more common than my previous nemesis, being caught in a conversation about a person’s personal problems. I have to admit, I’m beginning to prefer the old days, of people simply wanting to talk about themselves!.....read more

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Discovering Art Together
by Dave Coates

One of the simplest ways to make art a family affair is to visit an art museum. The museum doesn’t have to be as grand as The National Gallery of Art. It can be a small museum or gallery in town. Take an afternoon and walk around the museum with your children, talking about what you see. Try to spend a short time in each section to get an overall view of what the museum has to offer. Watch your children and observe how they perceive different types of art. Do their eyes lights up when they look at a landscape painting? Are they hurrying through the sculpture exhibit? Do they have questions about a particular genre? Children’s body language can tell you much about how they feel and whether they should linger or move along.

Interact with your children during your adventure. Ask them questions, such as “What do you ....read more

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The Bridge Won't Stick to His Foot. I Promise.
by Sarah Major, M.Ed

I have worked extensively with children who struggle with reading. What I learned in the process is that if there is a gap in understanding, that gap might as well be a mile wide because of how effectively it stops a child from progressing. Parents of kindergartners may not worry too much because they see that their children are still very young. They think that surely with more repetition, their children will begin to catch on and all will be well. It is a lot harder to be sanguine about a sixth grader who is still rooted to the same spot as she was in kindergarten. Unfortunately, now the issues have multiplied because the early foundation for learning was not solid.

The gap, or the missing element, might be a very small and insignificant concept; however, not successfully addressing the gap could result in failure for the child. Many gaps arise from our traditional system of teaching children to read in a sequential, highly left-brained manner. Children who are strongly right brained will, from time to time, simply not understand material that is presented verbally, sequentially and through symbols. These children greatly benefit from tools which utilize visuals, movement or story to create a bridge to understanding. It is easy to ignore the gap, and yet it is not hard to remedy--to provide a visual or kinesthetic bridge just in the nick of time....read more

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Finding Ideas, Not Discouragement
by Barbara Frank

With the renaissance of homeschooling in the early 1980s came a trickle, and then a flood, of books and magazines about homeschooling. These were eagerly read by homeschooling parents wanting to know how others were teaching their children, because there weren’t many homeschoolers around to talk with.

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Is Milk More Innovative than Traditional Schools?
by Bruce Friend

I recently attended the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s second annual national summit on education in Washington, DC. Started by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the Foundation works to improve schools by helping them achieve higher standards and using data systems to drive district- and school-level decision making.

To open the summit, Governor Bush compared today’s schools to milk.  Yes, I wrote “milk.”  At first, I thought that perhaps he was going to describe how schools, like milk, have changed little over the years and how the two could be described as somewhat bland. I was wrong.

Instead, he described how milk, not schools, has changed to meet the needs of diverse consumers:

“Go down the aisle of nearly any major supermarket these days, and you will find an incredible selection of milk. You can get whole milk, low fat milk or skim milk. You can get organic milk, milk with Vitamin D, or milk enzymes to improve the way your brain functions. You can get flavored milk—chocolate, strawberry or vanilla—that doesn’t even taste like milk. Most of the time, there is a whole other refrigerator case dedicated to milk alternatives—like soy milk, almond milk, and rice milk. They even make milk for people who can’t drink milk. Who would have ever thought you could improve on milk?  Yet, freedom, innovation, and competition found a way.”...read more

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