First Blog

The best any parent can do is to teach the three L's. They are    Live, Love, and Learn Community, family, and teachers all play an essential role in this equation. In rare cases, the parent can teach all three.  No surprises. In fact, the three L’s are the principal factors of every life.   ·         To live: This is the scope of your time on earth. It includes all you do, all your relations, all your dreams, and all your works. For example, you can live in a gossipy world of others or live in your personalized world of events. ·         To love: Love is the highest order found in living. It is that emotional feeling toward your life and its relations.   It is essential for the full realization of living. Many lives have no love, and without it, the life has less enrichment, stunted from higher possibilities. ·         To learn: Learning is the engine of life. It guides us toward fulfillment, improvement, and enlightenment. Too many seek the comfort of relying on early

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” -Henry David Thoreau Happy Thanksgiving to all.   This is the day of the year where we often eat too much and watch too much football. It is also a day to give thanks.   So, before the turkey is served, and before the games begin, I count the many blessings in my life.   First, comes my family.   With me or without, my family is a wonderful group of folks.   All are good people doing good things, working to be better, sacrificing for others, and helping their friends. It is my honor to be among you.    I am always grateful for my parents, both good people who helped me no end in those early years, pointing me in the directions of good works, morality, honesty, and strength of character. The second is my life, as in I still have one. Because my dad died so young, I thought the same would be my fate.   But now decades later I’m still here, and with a detour or two have my health – which I do appreciat

Cheating for college admission is just another form of free stuff. Many young students and millennials have already signed onto the free stuff agenda, supporting any and all. This supports all they think and all they do.   Getting it for free is OK, cheating included. As a college math professor with four decades of experience, I can note today’s students are among the third generation of cheaters. This means they were raised by parents who were cheaters and these raised by parents, themselves cheaters.   Today’s cheater feels no guilt whatever about cheating.   For them it is merely the business of getting ahead.   Their parents and their parent’s parents did suffer some guilt but not enough, in a diminished curve. Make no doubt, the kids of these cheating parents are already in the cheating game.  The parents were caught, but happily they are excused even though most kids knew the system was pay-rigged in their favor. Yet, to their view, cheating for admission only supports

The world you grew up in is no more.  The world of reasonable honesty and reasonable lies has been replaced by abject dishonesty and blatant lies. Lies.  Yes. People have always told them.  You have told them; so have I.   We need lies; they are a foundational structure of social living.  They both deceive and protect.  Children tell them to their parents to avoid consequences, like punishment.  Adults tell them to their bosses, to enhance their position and/or avoid consequences of poor performance.  Our bosses tell them to their boards to suggest business is good, the project is on target, or the detractors are wrong.  The boards tell them to shareholders to protect their own credibility and most importantly, stock values.   Our politicians tell lies to their constituents, though sometimes innocently with them not actually knowing much more than they've been told.  They enhance their positions to the detraction of their opponents and to the inflation of their personal positi

Premise: The US performs poorly international math tests, TIMSS and PISA The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. TIMSS is used to compare over time the mathematics and science knowledge and skills of fourth- and eighth-graders. TIMSS is designed to align broadly with mathematics and science curricula in the participating countries. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009001 Overall, the US came in tenth among four graders and ninth among eight graders. On the PISA test, the United States came in 25 out of 35.   China , which did best on the test, cited “ China also raised teacher pay and standards and reduced rote learning, while giving students and local authorities more choice in curriculum.” Comments from the big shots. Education Secretary Arne Duncan , “The results show that U.S. students must improve to compete in a global economy. … This should be a massive wake-up call to the entire country.” Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill