Now back on school campuses, many students grieve the lost 18 months. Freshmen returned as high school juniors, confronting adulthood. Seventh graders returned as high school freshmen, skipping their tweens. College sophomores returned to confront graduating into life. The “new normal,” for students is wearing masks all day, teachers simultaneously managing social distancing requirements and…
The Fall 2021 PSAT is scheduled for either on October 13, 2021, October 16, 2021 or October 26, 2021, yet may be subject to restrictions or cancellation depending on public health conditions. Taking the PSAT, any high school students can practice for SAT’s or ACT’s, and, for Juniors particularly, taking the PSAT is also a…
Students applying to the University of California (UC) for Fall 2022 admissions and beyond can now fulfill their third year of required mathematics with a variety of math courses, no longer required to take Integrated Math III, Algebra II or an equivalent. However, potential first year UC applicants should still take a Geometry or Geometry-equivalent…
For many, we longed to be an “adult” from early childhood, seeking freedom from restrictions imposed “for our own good” by well-intentioned adults (namely our parents and teachers). However, perhaps what we’re seeking is simply agency to determine our own life’s course. But, two years into college, now on the cusp of assuming responsibility for…
On May 14, 2021, University of California (UC) officials agreed to extend “test-free” admissions policies through Fall 2025, meaning SAT or ACT scores will not be required nor considered in either admissions or scholarship considerations for the next four application cycles. Current Class of 2022 high school juniors through current eighth graders will be affected…
As the number of diagnosed COVID cases plateaus and more Americans are vaccinated, more K-12 administrators are reconvening classes in person, while educators who had already implemented a hybrid schedule during the past few months are now returning to full five day a week, everyone together on campuses. Yet returning to classrooms may be more…
More K-12 school administrators are either preparing or have already reopen(ed) school campuses amidst subsiding COVID related health concerns, declining infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Of course, variants (viruses evolve) or declining vaccination rates leading to worsening infection, hospitalization and even death rates, would lead to a likely-swift reversal of school reopenings. Reopen, yes, but not…
Students and their parents worry, as is often the case in this springtime of year, about who will be admitted and/or rejected at what college, believing that the outcome of a meritocratic, formulaic decision making process that defines winners (those accepted) and losers (those denied) is the final arbiter of who succeeds in life and…
To learn effectively is to practice humility, to admit how little we know, and recognizing the cost of remaining ignorant is the antidote to pride and the beginning of the journey of discovery, fueled by curiosity which results in the acquisition of knowledge which applied in a continuous collaboration with others who are willing, results…
In spring when high school juniors begin devising their lists of colleges in preparation for fall applications, panic can quickly arise, when asked the typical first question, “What do you want to study in college?” which to a teenager translates to: “I must choose a career, right now at seventeenish years old, sign my name…
E.O. Wilson, a Harvard-trained renowned biologist, and reported Father of Sociobiology, the study of the social behavior of insects and animals which includes humans, has published an entire biology course—an interactive tome—synthesizing much of Professor Wilson’s life’s work, a rethink of the biological idea, free to anyone on iTunes, Biology: Life on Earth. Image of…
In virtual school, where the learning process is digitalized, students are struggling to access assignments, and to demonstrate mastery of the curriculum being presented, therefore, how can it not be that the potential for greater learning is lost? Students learning virtually must navigate and utilize a sundry of online learning tools, reducing their time to…
Distance learning isn’t a perfect system. But, being home, we have the full support of our families. 😂 Some “enlisted” their family’s cooperation: But, in other situations, moms readily lend a “helping hand”: And, so do little brothers: Lastly, when students and teachers do return to the classroom, all that family “support” may be this…
Recently, Art and I reflected about the effects of COVID-19 for our company and in our history. As an educator in private practice, I have pivoted frequently not only to meet the needs of clients, but remain competitive in the near perfectly competitive educational support industry. I, working with my partners have continuously sought to…
Twas the first days of winter vacation In hopes of relaxing from a semester of deprivation Not a teenager eschewed a multi-days long hibernation Where the XBOX was humming, punctuated by the occasional deviation To the refrigerator. All finals were taken No impending projects to be done As the holidays arrived Full of food and…
