Thanks to Mary, my wife, we did at least one thing right while our kids were growing up (notice how I snuck in there to grab some of the glory...). We had books, lots and lots of books, for our kids. I can remember many nights reading to our three boys and starting to talk … Continue reading Books – the Great Equalizer
We were driving to a family reunion yesterday, and along the way we passed the building (shown above) where I used to work 37 years ago, Prudential Insurance. It was my first "real" job, working as a dividend analyst in the group insurance division. I was part of a management development program that would have … Continue reading What If???
This past week I read a couple of articles that talked about the potential impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on the future of work, and the articles noted that some jobs would likely be safe from being replaced by a robot. So I decided to look a bit more into it, and see if … Continue reading What Jobs Will Survive the Artificial Intelligence Revolution?
As if college isn't already expensive enough. According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2017–2018 school year was $34,740 at private colleges, $9,970 for state residents at public colleges, and $25,620 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. The College Board reports that the average cost of room and board … Continue reading What Does $999 Get You These Days? How About One Textbook…
One of my blogging colleagues, Justin Wheeler, told me that he uses the Hemingway app to help keep his writing simple and concise, something that Hemingway was famous for (although I was not aware of that). To use the app, you can either download an app and then enter your text into the app to … Continue reading Improving My Writing, with Hemingway at My Side
A couple of years ago I wrote about how prevalent a fear of falling is among the elderly, since the consequences of a fall can be devastating. Data shows that about 40 percent of those aged 65 and older fall at least once a year; one in 40 of them ends up in the hospital, … Continue reading Teaching the Elderly How to Fall
I recently heard a story about a Pakistani man who was fired from his teaching job because his mustache gave “liberal ideas” to students. The teacher, Haseeb Ali Chishti, elaborated on the story with IndianExpress.com “So I was hired right before the school term started. I taught for a week before finding out from another … Continue reading This Is Why I Never Grew a Mustache as a Young Teacher
In a previous post I wrote about how I've gotten a little braver about answering questions in class, even when I'm not quite sure of the answer. Well now I might have to go back to my old ways of being a "bump on log". The other day the teacher asked a question, and I … Continue reading I’m Just Glad My Teacher Didn’t Burst Out Laughing
I started teaching right around the time tools like PowerPoint first came on the scene. Since I've always liked to try out new technologies, I would give these tools a shot if I thought they would enhance my teaching. The first presentation software I worked with was a great program called Compel, which I thought … Continue reading Is This What Teaching Used to be Like?
This is the 74th in a collection of newspaper ads written by Harry Gray, then CEO of United Technologies, that appeared in the Wall Street Journal from the late 1970s through the early 1980s. Here is the text from that ad. A big city school system requires a student in the seventh grade to be … Continue reading The Decline of Standards
Borden's Blather 