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It's a long four years between freshman orientation and graduation. Be sure to get your kids ready for the journey.
School’s out for the summer, but for some kids, school will be the only thing on their mind during the next couple of months anyway, particularly if they’re heading off to college for the first time in the fall.
Whether a kid is going across the country or sticking close to home base, there are things parents can do to make the transition to college easier and more manageable.
Here are some important things to keep in mind as your child heads off to an institution of higher learning:
Crack open the piggy bank and open a real savings account for you future Joe College.
Researchers at the College Savings Initiative, a group studying ways to ensure access to college educations at all levels of income, uncovered an interesting and significant detail about recent college students. The ones who had a bank account in their own name were six times more likely to enroll in college.
Even more interesting? Continue reading »
Is stealing not as bad if it's for a good cause? That's something Celestino Cruz can ponder in prison.
I get wanting your kids to have the opportunity to go to college. Come hell or high water, my husband and I will make sure that ours go. At this moment we’re not 100% sure how we’ll make it happen, but we’re saving as much as we can in the meantime and eventually we’ll figure out a way.
Of course we have our limits, one of which is avoiding jail time in order to scrounge up tuition money. But for one Florida dad, even the deterrent of prison didn’t stop him. Celestino Cruz, 56, stole more than $30,000 from his job in which he was entrusted as a bookkeeper just to make sure his kids realized a higher education.
Cruz was arrested yesterday afternoon on 34 counts of uttering a forged instrument and forgery, organized scheme to defraud, and grand theft. He oversaw the finances for Apogee Business Services on behalf of homeowners and condominium associations in Boynton Beach and was responsible for forwarding checks to vendors. However, about a month ago a property manager noticed a check was made payable to Cruz instead.
Do you want your kids to go to Harvard?
Earlier today, Madeline reported that Tiger Mom and author Amy Chua’s oldest daughter has been accepted to Harvard. That’s a mighty accomplishment, and it’s being touted by some as proof that the Tiger Mom method works. The only thing it proves is that Sophia can get into Harvard. That’s not a verdict on her mother’s parenting style.
First, congrats to Sophia. Getting into Harvard is no mean feat. As an education reporter, I’ve watched some very accomplished young people try and fail. Living just a few miles from the venerable school, I know my share of Harvard alums, and they’re lovely people. I’m sure she’ll get a great education there and go on to do great things with it.
My kids, however, won’t be following in Sophia’s footsteps. Or if they do, it will be entirely through their own efforts and no credit to my parenting. There are a lot of things I want for my kids, but a Harvard degree isn’t one of them. As Meredith writes, a Harvard degree isn’t the thing for every family.
Raise your hand if you'd rather cuddle with a panda than sleep with a tiger
Is anyone else over the Tiger Mom? Like, so over her? And now her kid got into Harvard. Hooray for her kid and also for what will inevitably be a surge in Amy Chua’s book sales with all of the nonstop press she’s been getting for months (you’re welcome from all of us here at Babble, Amy). But frankly, when did attending Harvard mark the ultimate in success for every kid in every family?
If you’re as sick as the Tiger Mom as I am, then you’ll be happy to know that another animal parent, Panda Dad, is now getting his 15 minutes.
Alan Paul, a freelance writer and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, lives in China with his wife and three kids. Instead of being a super-strict parent, Paul, the Panda Dad, thinks cuddly with just a little bit of claw is the way to go.
We got into Harvard! We got into Harvard!
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Tiger Mom Amy Chua’s daughter was accepted at Harvard. If you read the book, you know that Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld is smart, hard-working, talented and ambitious — all that before her mother even steps in with piano practice schedules and elite tutors. Sophia probably chose Harvard, not the other way around.
Of course, getting a child accepted to one of the nation’s most prestigious schools makes plenty of parents slobber all over themselves. How? What are the hoops? What can I do for (to?) my child so that he may have the same fate as Chua’s kid? Getting into an Ivy League school is proof that the Tiger Mom method of shaming the kids, competing with classmates, mastering a classical instrument through grueling practice schedules, name-calling, and forking over thousands and thousands of dollars to Mandarin-speaking nannies, violin and piano teachers, and private schools — and, famously, forbidding sleepovers and self-direction — works.
Right? It works! Well, sure. But the thing is, you don’t have to do all that just to get your kid into Harvard. Continue reading »
Shorter school days, short school years, hardly any homework: yet these kids are the best.
Finland is the tops when it comes to education around the world. At least it was in 2009 and several years prior to then, when results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed Finnish students came in second in science, third in math and second in reading. Only Singapore and Korea did better than Finland in those subjects, yet there’s a huge difference in what goes on in all three countries’ classrooms.
The two Asian countries employ drill-and-kill memorization of facts, student ranking, lots and lots of paid tutoring and high-stakes testing. In Finland? Well, they barely have homework, go to school only a few days more a year than Americans (who have a painfully short school year) and submit to standardized tests only a very little bit. Their average school day is also shorter than that of other countries, including the U.S.
How do they do it? It comes down to one thing: Continue reading »
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