August 2008 - Back to School Discussion

--------------------------------------------------------------
Live Well, Love with Passion, Laugh a lot with Friends

Uh - pencils have erasers for a reason, & keyboards have a backspace & a delete key for a reason. I guess that's also the reason for the invention of white-out.

Those on the other side of that HUMONGOUS desk in front of the classroom require two distinct skills. Not only is that one skill the expertise in whatever they're teaching. They also require that other skill of taking that expertise & making experts out of those facing the blackboard.

For those who end up facing the blackboard ... Do those assigned problems. Just litening & hearing & watching the person in front of the classroom are not enough to learn it. A long-winded way of "Practice makes perfect."

I like your words of advice to our students.

I have been shopping for my girls. Their clothes cost a fortune. School supplies like paper and pencils and backpacks..........I look for store sales and coupons. I try to do whatever I have to to save money and still get the girls what they need. Now that they are in High School, the teachers do not always send home a list of items that they will be needing. I have to kind of guess which makes things even harder. I think the price of school supplies have gone up again. At least, it feels that way.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Live Well, Love with Passion, Laugh a lot with Friends

Yeah - it's not just buying pencils & paper. It's the new clothes for the school year that's the big expense. The other supplies, even if the teachers do not send a list home, they usually tell the students in the class, & leave it up to the students to remember.

The real expense is college. Even in community colleges or state-run universities, there is financial aid & scholarships for those who need help. Some time after Y2K, many of the more prestigious colleges & universities have adopted a VERY new way to teach those calculus classes. They may have also done the same things in senior year high school. The expense there can be a pain, because of that fancy smancy programmable graphics calculator that students need to buy. Also, depending on the student's major, textbook prices are ridiculous, especially the technical ones.