As a parent interested in providing her child with the necessary skills to thrive and succeed in the real world, I wanted to teach my son the fundamentals of computer programming. To me, it seemed as basic and necessary as learning the alphabet. Consequently, several years ago I began a personal quest to teach him basic computer programming. The only catch? I knew nothing about computer programming myself. I didn’t even understand all the various coding languages out there. Java, JavaScript, C++, C#, Scratch, Python, Tynker and on and on…. I didn’t know that Java was different from JavaScript! Yikes.

I searched the Internet in earnest for tips on computer programming camps and websites that could get us started. There are so many resources out there, but most just list a bunch of websites that have free lessons without much guidance on where to begin. Fortunately, it was the beginning of summer, and my son’s private school had a summer camp session on MineCraft, the popular game that many kids play using blocks to build forts and virtual cities. My son who was 9 at the time was already obsessed with MineCraft so I figured that this was the perfect way for him to get started. Fortunately, he was hooked.

I then learned from speaking with his MineCraft teacher that Scratch is a popular, relatively easy language for beginning programmers. Scratch was developed by the MIT Media Lab and is widely used as a stepping stone to more advanced computer programming. Using Scratch, kids can create their own video games while learning basic coding skills. Many schools, including our own middle school, use Scratch as the beginning computer programming language. So the next summer, I enrolled Dylan in an iD Tech camp in a Scratch class. He loved it and wanted to be more challenged after playing around with it for a summer.

Taking computer programming to a slightly more advanced level was harder, especially during the school year. Although summer camps had been plentiful, how was I going to keep up my son’s interest in computer programming during the school year, especially with all of his other activities? After an extensive web search, I stumbled onto a great website called Art of Problem Solving . It’s actually a math-oriented website founded by a math genius for students who want to take their math to the next level through online webinar courses. But it also offers great computer programming courses (it makes sense that a lot of the gifted math students would be interested in programming as well).

As an experiment, I enrolled my son in the beginning Python class. I figured that if he understood even 50% of what was going on in the class, it would be money and time well spent. The classes are online at a set time each week, and there is also a chat forum where students can ask questions to the instructor. The students create a project and learn the basics of Python. Python is a general purpose, higher level coding language that many programmers use but is widely praised for its simplicity. Thankfully, my son was interested enough to stick with the class and wanted to continue on. Then he signed up for the next level Python class which, in his opinion, was much more difficult.

After the Python class came the Java class. Java is an advanced programming language used to create applications for your computer. According to the Art of Programming website, students who complete the Java class should be prepared for college level computer science courses. The Java class was much more difficult and Dylan felt that he would need to repeat the class again to learn more about it. In addition to realizing that he needed a lot more practice and time to become a proficient coder, Dylan discovered that there are other coding languages he would need to learn to be fully proficient at coding,.

Now I would definitely not claim my son (now 12 years old) to be any kind of a computer genius, but is he pretty comfortable with basic coding at the end of all this? Definitely! Would it be easier for him to pick up a new coding language as a result of this experiment with coding classes? Yes! Can he look at a bunch of Python and Java codes and have a basic understanding of what is going on? Yes! So all in all, mission accomplished.

Like any other language skill, however, I find that computer programming needs to be maintained. Accordingly, I bought him a book on creating various games using Python on his own for the time being. As an incentive, he has to create games to earn Yankees baseball tickets. So far so good. He has gone to quite a few games this year.

Note: For parents who want to introduce their kids to computer programming, there are several websites out there that are described in the article “Teach Your Kids to Code” by Matt Davis. In addition, Khan Academy offers various computer programming classes online.

PTA’s are volunteer organizations generally run by parents of the school with involvement by the teacher representatives who work collaboratively to enhance various aspects of the school. For example, a PTA can organize and host carnivals, staff appreciation days, cultural awareness days and other social events for students. In addition, most PTA’s are heavily involved in fund-raising so that they can host various academic and social events and purchase school supplies that are not usually in the school’s budget. In New York City, for example, parents at the Anderson School, a highly regarded K-8 on the Upper West Side for gifted and talented students, were able to raise over $1 million in a single school year.

The Parent Teacher Organization for the Lincoln School in Westfield, New Jersey was able to support its school with the purchase of iPads for every classroom and other tech purchases as well as an additional $3000 in books and supplies, etc. Although not all PTA’s are able to draw on the financial clout of their wealthy student body, other PTA’s are still able to provide scholarships for special research projects for students or teachers or ice cream socials for families. In addition, in schools where there are no school cafeterias, the PTA’s often step up to run lunch programs for its students.

All this activity requires a lot of dedication, commitment and hard work by the parent volunteers in the PTA. Some heavily involved parents work as much as 25 to 40 hours per week on PTA duties. This is not usually the case, however. PTA’s can offer volunteer opportunities of all scope and sizes. In fact, most parents start being involved by taking on less time-consuming, concrete tasks. One working mom in New York volunteers 2 hours every other week at the school store, selling school supplies and school gear. Another mom in Beijing, China volunteers at her daughter’s international school manning concession stands during school sporting events about once a month on the weekends. Even the heavily involved PTA parents started with discrete tasks before taking on larger roles such as being the President or the Treasurer. According to Diane Gurden, a PTA parent in Scarsdale, New York, who currently serves as the Treasurer for the Greenacres Elementary School, “There are jobs of all sizes on the PTA. You can start with something small and then see if you want to take on more responsibility.”

If excessive time commitment is not the necessary element to being a successful parent, then what is? Soo Sang, a PTA parent from Westfield, New Jersey, believes that the most important ingredients to being a successful PTA parent are the “desire to help or improve and effect change in a positive way” and “a sense of commitment and willingness to be actively engaged in shaping your child’s school experience.” Soo adds, “Most importantly, a willingness to try! Do not feel that you can’t participate in something or even run a committee because you have never done it before in your life. You will be amazed at what you are able to do!”

It is important to note that PTA’s are not all about hard work. They offer social outlets as well, especially for parents who are looking to build connections in a new community. One of the most often cited benefits of joining the PTA is “meeting other parents who have dynamic, interesting, varied backgrounds.” Particularly for working parents and parents with smaller young children, it can often be difficult to connect with other parents in the school. Joining the PTA can be extremely helpful in building friendships with other parents who are actively involved and plugged in with the school. Another PTA parent reflects, “I have met wonderful parents every year, which has resulted in having an amazing group of supportive moms that I can call true friends whom I can rely upon – which is really a nice thing to have in a time when people often do not even really know their neighbors!”

The value of an active PTA organization cannot be understated. Consider the example of a young middle school student whose mother took an active part in the Mothers Club of his school and organized a rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric computer for the school’s students. Thanks to the role of his school’s PTA, the young man was able to become actively involved in computer programming, wrote his first computer program on that machine, and developed a life-long passion for computing. He then went on to start one of the most important companies in the world: Microsoft.
For parents with school age children, it’s a yearly ritual. Every fall or late summer, parents sit eagerly at the school orientation meeting anxiously hoping to gather information about what the new school year will bring for their kids. Amidst presentations by the principal and various teachers about the academic programs, the extracurricular activities, and the school cafeteria, there is invariably the friendly PTA representative who asks parents to sign up and volunteer. Particularly for newbie parents, however, Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) can seem intimidating. Does it require a lot of commitment? Does one have to be a gung-ho Tiger Parent to be involved? So what’s a PTA and what’s it about?

PTA’s are volunteer organizations generally run by parents of the school with involvement by the teacher representatives who work collaboratively to enhance various aspects of the school. For example, a PTA can organize and host carnivals, staff appreciation days, cultural awareness days and other social events for students. In addition, most PTA’s are heavily involved in fund-raising so that they can host various academic and social events and purchase school supplies that are not usually in the school’s budget. In New York City, for example, parents at the Anderson School, a highly regarded K-8 on the Upper West Side for gifted and talented students, were able to raise over $1 million in a single school year.

The Parent Teacher Organization for the Lincoln School in Westfield, New Jersey was able to support its school with the purchase of iPads for every classroom and other tech purchases as well as an additional $3000 in books and supplies, etc. Although not all PTA’s are able to draw on the financial clout of their wealthy student body, other PTA’s are still able to provide scholarships for special research projects for students or teachers or ice cream socials for families. In addition, in schools where there are no school cafeterias, the PTA’s often step up to run lunch programs for its students.

All this activity requires a lot of dedication, commitment and hard work by the parent volunteers in the PTA. Some heavily involved parents work as much as 25 to 40 hours per week on PTA duties. This is not usually the case, however. PTA’s can offer volunteer opportunities of all scope and sizes. In fact, most parents start being involved by taking on less time-consuming, concrete tasks. One working mom in New York volunteers 2 hours every other week at the school store, selling school supplies and school gear. Another mom in Beijing, China volunteers at her daughter’s international school manning concession stands during school sporting events about once a month on the weekends. Even the heavily involved PTA parents started with discrete tasks before taking on larger roles such as being the President or the Treasurer. According to Diane Gurden, a PTA parent in Scarsdale, New York, who currently serves as the Treasurer for the Greenacres Elementary School, “There are jobs of all sizes on the PTA. You can start with something small and then see if you want to take on more responsibility.”

If excessive time commitment is not the necessary element to being a successful parent, then what is? Soo Sang, a PTA parent from Westfield, New Jersey, believes that the most important ingredients to being a successful PTA parent are the “desire to help or improve and effect change in a positive way” and “a sense of commitment and willingness to be actively engaged in shaping your child’s school experience.” Soo adds, “Most importantly, a willingness to try! Do not feel that you can’t participate in something or even run a committee because you have never done it before in your life. You will be amazed at what you are able to do!”

It is important to note that PTA’s are not all about hard work. They offer social outlets as well, especially for parents who are looking to build connections in a new community. One of the most often cited benefits of joining the PTA is “meeting other parents who have dynamic, interesting, varied backgrounds.” Particularly for working parents and parents with smaller young children, it can often be difficult to connect with other parents in the school. Joining the PTA can be extremely helpful in building friendships with other parents who are actively involved and plugged in with the school. Another PTA parent reflects, “I have met wonderful parents every year, which has resulted in having an amazing group of supportive moms that I can call true friends whom I can rely upon – which is really a nice thing to have in a time when people often do not even really know their neighbors!”

The value of an active PTA organization cannot be understated. Consider the example of a young middle school student whose mother took an active part in the Mothers Club of his school and organized a rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric computer for the school’s students. Thanks to the role of his school’s PTA, the young man was able to become actively involved in computer programming, wrote his first computer program on that machine, and developed a life-long passion for computing. He then went on to start one of the most important companies in the world: Microsoft.

Starting from 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world Top 500 universities annually based on transparent methodology and third-party data. It has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy one.

While the website explains its methodology:

Universities are ranked by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution. For each indicator, the highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score. The distribution of data for each indicator is examined for any significant distorting effect; standard statistical techniques are used to adjust the indicator if necessary. Scores for each indicator are weighted as shown below to arrive at a final overall score for an institution. The highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score. An institution’s rank reflects the number of institutions that sit above it.

Harvard University has never dropped below #1 in the 13 years the list has been published, while Stanford has never ranked lower than #3. The highest ranking Asian university in 2015 is The University of Tokyo at #21, while no Korean universities place in the top 100.

I am not talking about home schooling my kids. Hat seriously off to anyone who accepts sole responsibility for his or her child’s education.  Instead, my goal has been to enrich and encourage my children’s math awareness. I have found that if I work with my kids for little pockets of time (like even 15 minutes) and do it in a way that is entertaining, they look forward to, even love, having their math time.  I am not a math teacher or really any teacher, so you don’t have to be either. I just like introducing mathematical concepts to my kids before their schools do, and they love to get ahead of their classes.

My suggestions are for younger children (since at 5 and 8 that’s what I’ve got), but can certainly be geared toward older ones.  I just started early because tiny brains are sponges, and connection, experience, and growth are critical in the first few years of life.  Teaching is also a great way to spend time, especially on stormy days that can seem endless. It’s never too early to start, but if you didn’t do that, no worries! It’s not too late to start either!

1.  Early Start. Pretty much by the time my kids were grasping words, their math education had begun. What did this mean back in the day when they’re just mastering walking, and I am still introducing solid foods? At this point, I added numbers to their first words to start them counting.  We would count everything we saw – jars, diapers, apples at the store – and point out numbers in everything. At the check out lines in grocery stores, my husband would carry our daughter and randomly stop at different checkout aisles, asking her to identify the number hanging in that aisle. Then we would separate numbers and colors, categorizing everything by similarities. Once our kids could handle crayons, I showed them how to write their numbers. They thought it was hysterical when I used a medieval themed Etch-A-Sketch to draw the numbers up to 20 and had them guess what the number would be before the night or dragon erased it. For early geometry, School Zone has a great, inexpensive workbook for identifying shapes, and small kids can spend hours finding varying geometric shapes all over your home and anywhere else you go.
2. Ordering. The next step was to introduce the concept that numbers have order and relate to one another. Once they could count to ten, we used connect-the-dot books, so our toddlers could understand that numbers come one after another. We began talking about ordinal numbers so that they could better understand placement. Curious George cartoons actually helped a lot. There are some wonderful episodes involving ordinal numbers and number values. Besides, who doesn’t love Curious George?
3. Arithmetic. Once my kids were fully comfortable with identifying and counting numbers, I started the process of teaching them to add things together. This was a very visual process for us at the beginning. I would set out one object, then add another object and have the kids count them.  We would do this with larger numbers, and once they felt comfortable with adding (then subtracting), I would take away the visual cues and allow them to add and subtract in their heads. When the kids became “expert” at counting and adding and subtracting simple numbers, I moved them on to counting by numbers other than one, so that they could ultimately count by every single digit in sets up to 100.

These steps help build an easy transition to multiplying. Consequently, I never had my kids memorize the multiplication table. Instead, they placed “sets” of items together in their heads. So three sets of eight would be. . . .8, 16, 24. Voila! Multiplication! Division was just the opposite.
4. Funbooks! Okay, they’re actually called workbooks, but who wants to do something voluntarily that starts with the word “work”?  I’ve used them with my kids since they were able to write numbers, and they help give structure to our at-home math education. Again, we do not sit down for hours at a time with our workbooks- just a couple times a week for fifteen to thirty minutes at a time. It doesn’t sound like much, but after a few years, your child has learned a lot of math. There are different styles of workbooks, but we have used Singapore Math workbooks, which you can purchase on Amazon and are relatively inexpensive (free shipping for Prime Members! : ))

5. Spatial Relations. Teaching your kids numerical ability skills is practical and in many ways logical to small kids. Spatial relation skills may not come as readily, so introducing these at home can be tremendous preparation for school. We used games to help develop these skills. First, we started using tangrams (colorful pieces that fit into various pictures) when the kiddos were about three years old. They have varying levels of difficulty that reach expert levels that are challenging for adults. Tangrams utilize different skills than arithmetic and enhance a different set of abilities like geometry and spatial reasoning.  We used these tangrams to start, and the kids had a lot of fun with them.

Second, Sudoku, basically a numbers crossword puzzle, is a fun math game that is also able to scale itself from simple to complex. It enables a child to look at numbers from a different perspective, showing them how they can relate to one another in various ways at the same time. There are numerous free, on-line printable Sudoku games, like this one.
6. Money – At a toy store one day, I was surprised to see an 11-year-old boy had no concept of what change he should receive from a cashier. That weekend, I started teaching our kids about money – the value of coins and paper and how to use it and receive change. Our kids enjoyed this toy cash register for years:

In addition to coin recognition, it provides arithmetic and place value games.

Whatever math you choose with which to engage your kids, please make sure you and your kids are having fun. As with most challenges, math can be frustrating, so take your time. Comprehension will come, and your kids will have a wonderful and practical skill they will use for a lifetime.

I am not talking about home schooling my kids. Hat seriously off to anyone who accepts sole responsibility for his or her child’s education.  Instead, my goal has been to enrich and encourage my children’s math awareness. I have found that if I work with my kids for little pockets of time (like even 15 minutes) and do it in a way that is entertaining, they look forward to, even love, having their math time.  I am not a math teacher or really any teacher, so you don’t have to be either. I just like introducing mathematical concepts to my kids before their schools do, and they love to get ahead of their classes.

My suggestions are for younger children (since at 5 and 8 that’s what I’ve got), but can certainly be geared toward older ones.  I just started early because tiny brains are sponges, and connection, experience, and growth are critical in the first few years of life.  Teaching is also a great way to spend time, especially on stormy days that can seem endless. It’s never too early to start, but if you didn’t do that, no worries! It’s not too late to start either!

1.  Early Start. Pretty much by the time my kids were grasping words, their math education had begun. What did this mean back in the day when they’re just mastering walking, and I am still introducing solid foods? At this point, I added numbers to their first words to start them counting.  We would count everything we saw – jars, diapers, apples at the store – and point out numbers in everything. At the check out lines in grocery stores, my husband would carry our daughter and randomly stop at different checkout aisles, asking her to identify the number hanging in that aisle. Then we would separate numbers and colors, categorizing everything by similarities. Once our kids could handle crayons, I showed them how to write their numbers. They thought it was hysterical when I used a medieval themed Etch-A-Sketch to draw the numbers up to 20 and had them guess what the number would be before the night or dragon erased it. For early geometry, School Zone has a great, inexpensive workbook for identifying shapes, and small kids can spend hours finding varying geometric shapes all over your home and anywhere else you go.
2. Ordering. The next step was to introduce the concept that numbers have order and relate to one another. Once they could count to ten, we used connect-the-dot books, so our toddlers could understand that numbers come one after another. We began talking about ordinal numbers so that they could better understand placement. Curious George cartoons actually helped a lot. There are some wonderful episodes involving ordinal numbers and number values. Besides, who doesn’t love Curious George?
3. Arithmetic. Once my kids were fully comfortable with identifying and counting numbers, I started the process of teaching them to add things together. This was a very visual process for us at the beginning. I would set out one object, then add another object and have the kids count them.  We would do this with larger numbers, and once they felt comfortable with adding (then subtracting), I would take away the visual cues and allow them to add and subtract in their heads. When the kids became “expert” at counting and adding and subtracting simple numbers, I moved them on to counting by numbers other than one, so that they could ultimately count by every single digit in sets up to 100.

These steps help build an easy transition to multiplying. Consequently, I never had my kids memorize the multiplication table. Instead, they placed “sets” of items together in their heads. So three sets of eight would be. . . .8, 16, 24. Voila! Multiplication! Division was just the opposite.
4. Funbooks! Okay, they’re actually called workbooks, but who wants to do something voluntarily that starts with the word “work”?  I’ve used them with my kids since they were able to write numbers, and they help give structure to our at-home math education. Again, we do not sit down for hours at a time with our workbooks- just a couple times a week for fifteen to thirty minutes at a time. It doesn’t sound like much, but after a few years, your child has learned a lot of math. There are different styles of workbooks, but we have used Singapore Math workbooks, which you can purchase on Amazon and are relatively inexpensive (free shipping for Prime Members! : ))

5. Spatial Relations. Teaching your kids numerical ability skills is practical and in many ways logical to small kids. Spatial relation skills may not come as readily, so introducing these at home can be tremendous preparation for school. We used games to help develop these skills. First, we started using tangrams (colorful pieces that fit into various pictures) when the kiddos were about three years old. They have varying levels of difficulty that reach expert levels that are challenging for adults. Tangrams utilize different skills than arithmetic and enhance a different set of abilities like geometry and spatial reasoning.  We used these tangrams to start, and the kids had a lot of fun with them.

Second, Sudoku, basically a numbers crossword puzzle, is a fun math game that is also able to scale itself from simple to complex. It enables a child to look at numbers from a different perspective, showing them how they can relate to one another in various ways at the same time. There are numerous free, on-line printable Sudoku games, like this one.
6. Money – At a toy store one day, I was surprised to see an 11-year-old boy had no concept of what change he should receive from a cashier. That weekend, I started teaching our kids about money – the value of coins and paper and how to use it and receive change. Our kids enjoyed this toy cash register for years:

In addition to coin recognition, it provides arithmetic and place value games.

Whatever math you choose with which to engage your kids, please make sure you and your kids are having fun. As with most challenges, math can be frustrating, so take your time. Comprehension will come, and your kids will have a wonderful and practical skill they will use for a lifetime.

As a student in middle school or high school, it can be difficult to discern which information is significant to your GPA, and which information is essential as a building block to your future. With few exceptions, writing is one of the most important skills you will learn that is critical to your GPA and your future; Learning how to write well is a gift you will enjoy far beyond your academic tenure, and the earlier your writing education begins, the greater your potential growth as a writer in the years to come.

Prior to college, I had spent my formative educational years matriculated in a large public school district known for academic excellence.  Foundationally, my public school experience taught me how to navigate challenging material without a lot of attention devoted to my individual needs as a student. Substantively, my schooling had prepared me well for my time as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. There was, however, one area in which I felt surprisingly unprepared: writing. Writing had always been something I took for granted before college. I assumed I was an excellent writer because most written assignments I had received in middle and high school returned to me with an “A” and a compliment such as “Wonderful!” or “Thought provoking!” written on the top of it. I was wrong. Those writing assignments that I had glided through in seventh through twelfth grade had not prepared me for the rigors of writing in the Ivy League. After I turned in a draft paper to my Linguistics teacher, she reviewed and returned the paper with a message on top that read something like, “Stilted use of language. Try again!” I felt like I had been slapped. Stilted?  From a linguistics teacher, no less! My friend next to me had “Great job!” written on her paper, and I shoved my paper in my backpack, red with humiliation.

Eyes welling with tears, I ran to the library and started reading up on writing and how to write effectively. In the days that followed, I read THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by Strunk and White and ON WRITING WELL by William Zinsser with desperate intensity. Writing was no longer just about writing down facts you looked up in the library or about appropriating flowery language. At Penn, it was about creating compelling arguments after extensive research. With a new perspective on my own writing style, I tore apart, restructured, and edited my paper.  I learned to write then put my writing away for a period of time. Taking time away from my writing gave me new perspective and the consequent ability to edit further with a fresh eye. When I received an A on the final copy of my Linguistics paper, I exhaled and smiled. Despite my relief, I knew I was behind.  Other students clearly had a much stronger foundation in writing. I was playing catch up, and writing assignments at Penn would take me twice as long as my friends because I would edit them over and over again.  With a great deal of effort, my writing improved during college and even helped me gain admissions to Columbia University School of Law. I still struggled with writing my first semester at Columbia, and it took me a large chunk of my first year as a law student before I finally felt like I was writing as effectively as my peers.

It wasn’t as though I was trying to overcome a weakness for posterity or pride, believe me. As soon as I had seen that detested “Stilted” on my rough draft, I knew that good writing was critical to academic success in college.  Writing was impossible to avoid back then and remains an inevitable reality today. Even engineering majors at most top-rated schools like Yale and Cornell have writing requirements.  As a Psychology major, I wrote numerous papers, which incorporated technical and scientific terms at every turn. Apart from my requisite Calculus class, most courses I took required some writing, whether in the final exam or in a paper.  For a comparative religion course, I spent hours poring over citations, making sure that my references and context were accurate. High school citations seemed like casual references compared to the detailed annotations required by some Penn professors. Annotated bibliographies were like writing essays unto themselves and took almost as long as the core assignment.

In law school, I don’t recall taking one course that didn’t involve either writing a paper or writing for hours as part of a final exam. In many of those exams, professors presented us with a hypothetical situation and a limited amount of time to collect our thoughts, organize a response, and answer in a precise yet expansive manner. Writing is the backbone of legal education, and a successful law student has mastered the art of writing prior to entering law school and uses this skill to advance herself in her coursework.

Although I very much felt alone in my experience at the time (way, way back in the 90’s), this may be a growing problem among top colleges and universities throughout the country. A few years ago, a Stanford professor surprised students by suddenly and publicly berating a student for poor writing skills and then followed up with an apology, explaining that her outburst was expressing a “frustration at what I perceive as a general decline in writing skills.”  In addition, William Ellet, an adjunct professor teaching writing at Brandeis International Business School and former writing teacher at Harvard Business School, believes that the problem starts in middle school, stating that “nobody takes responsibility for writing instruction”, citing to a Department of Education study from 2011, which found that a paltry 24 percent of eighth and twelfth graders were proficient in writing.

It is because of my past challenges with writing that I understand the true importance of learning how to be a strong writer at an early age. If I had received the individualized attention I clearly needed in middle and high school, writing would have been more of an evolutionary process, not a crash course in survival. Teaching someone to be a good or even great writer is difficult and takes years. There are so many elements critical to the writing process, and all of them need guidance in their development: Brainstorming, Outlining, Drafting, Citation, Styling, Revision, and Proofreading.  Each step requires thought, and without intensive, individualized interaction with a teacher, even the strongest of students can get lost or simply not appreciate the significance behind writing development. With training, however, young students can develop their craft as they grow as students and as people. Their writing style can evolve, so that by the time they reach college, they can write independently and with polished finesse.

There is a reason that Penn and Columbia and other top schools require writing as part of a student’s curriculum. Writing is integral to life. It doesn’t matter which career path a student chooses. Obviously, as an attorney, effective writing is paramount. Beyond the law and other careers that traditionally depend upon a person’s writing skills, the written word continues to grow more significant, as many of our communications that were once verbal are now written – and in a format, like e-mail or text, that can be recorded indefinitely. Doctors and others steeped in the sciences will need to write papers that explain their research and findings to peers. Business people draft presentations and memos on a daily basis. As the CEO of iFixit, the largest online repair community, aptly stated:

Just because most team members don’t have “professional writer” in their job descriptions doesn’t mean writing is off limits to them. Everyone here is a writer.

As students, excellent writers build their skills and achieve academic success. As these students become professionals, these same writing skills can help pave the way for a bright future in any chosen career.

중고등학생들은 어떤 정보가 학점에 중요한지, 그리고 어떤 정보가 미래를 형성하는데 본질적인지를 파악하기가 쉽지 않다. 거의 예외 없이 작문은 여러분이 배울 가장 중요한 기술 가운데 하나이다. 이는 학점(GPA)을 위해서도, 또한 미래를 위해서도 중요하다. 글을 잘쓰는 방법을 배워두면 학창시절뿐 아니라 그 이후로도 오래동안 즐길 수 있는 선물이 된다. 또 작문 교육을 일찍 시작할 수록 앞으로 글쓴이로서의 잠재적 성장은 더욱 커진다.

대학 진학에 앞서 필자는 학업이 우수하기로 소문난 대도시 공립학군 지역에서 학창시절을 보냈다. 기본적으로 공립학교에서는 학생으로서 개인의 필요한 부분에 많이 집중하기 보다는 도전적인 자료들을 다루는 방법을 가르친다. 필자가 받은 공교육은 나중에 펜실베이니아 주립대학(유펜)의 학부과정을 잘 준비하도록 만들어 준 것은 사실이다. 하지만 놀랍게도 미처 제대로 갖추지 못했다고 느낀 한 가지 분야는 바로 작문이었다.

대학 진학 이전에 작문은 항상 자신있게 여기던 분야였다. 필자는 훌륭한 글쓴이라고 생각했다. 왜냐하면 중고등학교 시절 작문 과제는 대부분 A학점을 받았고 “훌륭하다”거나 “생각을 가다듬게 만든다”는 등의 극찬을 받았었기 때문이다. 하지만 그게 아니었다. 7학년부터 12학년까지 곧잘 해 왔던 작문 과제들은 아이비리그 대학의 철저한 작문을 대비하기에는 역부족이었다.

유펜에서 당시 언어학 교수는 필자의 과제물 초안을 받아 검토한 뒤 “과장된 언어 사용, 다시 할 것”이라는 문구를 달아 되돌려줬다. 필자는 볼을 얻어 맞은 것처럼 당혹스러운 기분을 느꼈다. ‘과장되다니? 다름아닌 언어학 교수로부터!’ 더구나 바로 옆의 여학생은 같은 과제물에 “참 잘했음”이라는 평가를 받았다. 급기야 필자는 굴욕감에 얼굴이 벌겋게 달아 오른채 그 과제물을 가방에 구겨 넣고 말았다. 눈에서는 눈물이 맺혔다. 이어 도서관으로 달려가 작문과 효과적인 글쓰기 요령 등을 다룬 책들을 읽기 시작했다.

그 뒤 며칠이 지나 필자는 스트렁크와 화이트가 집필한 <문체의 기본요소들THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE>과 윌리엄 진서가 쓴 <글 잘쓰기에 관해(ON WRITING WELL)>를 읽어냈다. 하지만 작문이라는 것은 단지 도서관에서 훑어본 지식들을 나열하거나 적절히 미사여구를 사용한다고 해서 되는 것은 아니었다. 유펜에서 작문은 집중 연구를 통해 자신의 주장을 관철시키도록 만드는 작업이었다. 필자는 결국 자신만의 문체를 갖춘 새로운 관점으로 이전의 과제물을 뜯어 고치고 재편성하며 교정해 나갔다. 필자는 그 시절 글쓰기에 자신만의 문체를 담아내는 방법을 배웠다. 또 글쓰기로부터 잠시 동떨어진 시간을 가짐으로써 결과적으로 색다른 시각으로 글을 편집하는 능력을 갖게 됐다.  마침내 언어학 과목 과제물 최종본에 A학점을 받았을 때 필자는 안도의 숨을 쉬며 회심의 미소를 짓게 됐다.

이처럼 가까스로 위기를 모면했음에도 불구하고 필자는 여전히 동급생들에 비해 뒤쳐져 있다는 사실을 깨달았다. 다른 학생들은 분명 작문에 있어 훨씬 더 탄탄한 기초를 갖추고 있었다. 유펜에서 필자는 다른 학생들을 따라잡기 위해 애썼으며, 과제물을 작성하는데 친구들보다 두배는 긴 시간이 소요됐다. 계속해서 내용을 수정해야 했기 때문이다.

수 많은 노력 끝에 필자의 작문 실력은 대학시절 많이 개선됐다. 나아가 컬럼비아 대학 로스쿨 입학 허가를 받는데 큰 도움이 됐다. 필자는 그러나 여전히 컬럼비아 대학 첫 학기부터 작문 때문에 고군분투해야 했다. 이는 로스쿨 신입생에게 큰 부담이었다. 시간은 지나 마침내 필자는 다른 또래들처럼 효과적인 글쓰기가 가능한 것처럼 느끼게 됐다. 그렇다고 필자가 마치 후세들을 위해, 또는 자존심 때문에 약점을 극복하려 노력한 것은 아니었다. 믿어달라.

필자는 과제물 초안이 과장됐다는 저평가를 받자 마자 대학에서 좋은 성적을 받기 위해서는 작문을 잘하는 것이 중요하다는 점을 깨달았다. 작문을 회피해는 것은 당시 불가능했고 오늘날에도 불가피한 현실로 남아 있다.

심지어 예일대와 코넬대처럼 최고의 공학계열 대학들도 작문은 필수요소이다.

학부에서 심리학을 전공했던 필자는 매학기마다 기술적이고 과학적인 내용들을 다루는 수많은 과제물들을 작성해야 했다. 필수과목인 미적분 수업을 제외하고 학기말 시험이든 과제물이든 대부분 교과과정에서 작문을 필수로 이수해야 했다. 또 비교종교학 과정에서는 참고문헌과 문맥이 정확한지를 확인하느라 인용문을 검토하는데 상당한 시간을 소진했다. 평범한 참고문헌처럼 보이는 고등학교 시절 인용문들은 유펜 대학교수들이 요구하는 상세한 주석과는 비교됐다. 주석이 달린 참고문헌들은 그 자체로 에세이를 작성하는 것과 같았고 마치 핵심 과제인양 분량도 길었다.

로스쿨 시절 필자는 모든 교과에서 과제물을 작성하든지 아니면 기말시험의 일부분으로 장문의 글을 쓰든지 둘중 어느 하나는 반드시 해야했던 기억이 있다.

교수들은 시험을 치를 때 가상 상황을 부여했고, 생각을 모아 답안을 정리하며 포괄적인 방식의 정확한 답변을 하는데 제한된 시간만을 제공했다. 작문은 법학 교육의 근간이다. 또 성공적인 법학도는 로스쿨에 입학하기 전에 이미 작문 기술을 통달하며 수업에서 자신의 두각을 나타내도록 하기 위해 이같은 작문 실력을 이용한다.

필자는 비록 대학시절인 1990년대 혼자만의 경험으로 매우 많은 점을 느꼈다 할 수 있지만, 이제는 미국 전역의 모든 일류대학에서 문제시 되는 것 같다. 수년 전 스탠포드 대학의 한 교수는 갑자기 어느 학생의 글쓰기 실력이 형편없다며 공개적으로 질타해 학생들을 충격에 빠뜨린 적이 있다. 그 뒤 그 교수는 학생들의 글쓰기 실력이 전반적으로 퇴보했다는 점을 알고 좌절감이 들어 갑자기 감정이 북받쳤었다며 사과했다.

하버드대 경영대학에서 작문을 가르쳤었고 현재는 브렌데이스 국제 경영대학에서 역시 작문을 가르치고 있는 윌리엄 엘렛 겸임교수는 이같은 문제가 중학교에서 시작된다고 믿고 있다. 엘렛 교수는 8학년과 12학년 학생들의 경우 24%만이 작문에 능숙하다는 2011년 교육부 연구자료를 인용해 작문 교육에 아무도 책임을 지지 않는다고 지적했다.

작문과 관련한 과거 도전들로 인해 필자는 이른 나이에 훌륭한 글쓴기를 배우는 것이 정말 중요하다는 점을 깨닫게 됐다. 만일 필자가 중고등학교 시절 부족한 부분과 관련해 교사로부터 개별적인 관심을 받았었다면 작문은 생존속 충돌과정이 아니라 혁명과정 그 이상이 될 수 있었을 것이다.

누군가를 좋은, 심지어 훌륭한 글쓴이가 되도록 가르치는 것은 어렵고도 오래 걸리는 일이다. 작문 과정에는 수많은 중요한 요소들이 있다. 이는 브레인스토밍(창조적 집단사고)과 개략화, 기안, 인용, 문체다듬기, 퇴고, 교정 등을 포함하는데, 이들 모든 요소들을 발전시키는데는 적절한 지침들이 요구된다. 각 단계별로 사고과정, 과장표현 배제, 교사와의 개별적 상호작용을 필요로 하는 것이다. 심지어 학업수준이 매우 우수한 학생들도 작문 발전 분야는 확연히 뒤쳐지는 상황이 벌어질 수 있다. 하지만 어려서부터 훈련을 받게 되면 학생들은 시간이 지날 수록 작문 실력을 개발할 수 있게 된다. 문체는 세련되어지고 대학에 들어가 독립적이고 능숙한 기교로 글을 쓸 수 있게 된다.

유펜과 컬럼비아대와 같은 일류대학들이 교육과정에 작문을 필수로 하는 이유가 있다. 글쓰기는 삶에서 빼놓을 수 없는 부분이다. 이는 단지 어떤 직업의 길을 선택하느냐의 문제가 아니다. 변호사로서 효과적인 작문은 분명 매우 중요하다. 전통적으로 개인의 작문 실력에 의존도가 높은 법조계와 같은 직업을 떠나 글쓰기는 계속해서 더욱 중요해지고 있다. 가령 오늘날 통신 환경은 무한정 저장가능한 이메일이나 문자처럼 말보다는 글자화되고 있는 추세이다. 의사나 과학자들은 자신들의 연구 성과 등을 동료들에게 설명할 수 있도록 보고서 작성이 필요할 것이다. 기업인들은 일상적으로 기업설명회 초안과 메모를 작성한다. 최대의 온라인 수리 전문 커뮤니티 ‘아이픽스잇(iFixit)’의 최고경영자는 이에 대해 적절한 언급을 한 바 있다. 그는 “최정예 직원들이 전문 글쓴이로서의 직무를 갖고 있지 않다고 해서 그들에게 작문이 출입금지 구역임을 의미하지는 않는다. 여기서는 모두가 글쓴이다”라고 말했다.

학생으로서, 훌륭한 글쓴이들은 실력을 다지고 학업적 성취를 이룬다. 이런 학생들이 전문가들이 될 때 이같은 작문 실력은 어떤 직업을 선택하든 밝은 미래의 길을 닦아 나가는데 도움이 될 것이다.

Kindergartners who share, cooperate and are helpful are more likely to have a college degree and a job 20 years later than children who lack those social skills, according to a new study.

Kids who get along well with others also are less likely to have substance-abuse problems and run-ins with the law.

The research, which involved tracking nearly 800 students for two decades, suggests that specific social-emotional skills among young children can be powerful predictors for success later in life. [Read More]

Author Emma Brown writes about the latest research from Pennsylvania State University which found that kindergartners’ ability to share, cooperate and get along well with others can be powerful predictors for success later in life. According to Damon E. Jones, the lead author of the research published in the American Journal of Public Health, this study suggests that early childhood education programs and schools could help develop these social skills early on to help promote later success.

Kindergartners who share, cooperate and are helpful are more likely to have a college degree and a job 20 years later than children who lack those social skills, according to a new study.

Kids who get along well with others also are less likely to have substance-abuse problems and run-ins with the law.

The research, which involved tracking nearly 800 students for two decades, suggests that specific social-emotional skills among young children can be powerful predictors for success later in life. [Read More]

Ma, a former hedge fund analyst, makes bets on student admissions the way a trader plays the commodities markets. Using 12 variables from a student’s profile—from grades and test scores to extracurricular activities and immigration status—Ma’s software crunches the odds of admission to a range of top-shelf colleges. His proprietary algorithm assigns varying weights to different parameters, derived from his analysis of the successes and failures of thousands of students he’s coached over the years. Ma’s algorithm, for example, predicts that a U.S.-born high school senior with a 3.8 GPA, an SAT score of 2,000 (out of 2,400), moderate leadership credentials, and 800 hours of extracurricular activities, has a 20.4 percent chance of admission to New York University and a 28.1 percent shot at the University of Southern California. Those odds determine the fee ThinkTank charges that student for its guaranteed consulting package: $25,931 to apply to NYU and $18,826 for USC. “Of course we set limits on who we’ll guarantee,” says Ma. “We don’t want to make this a casino game.” [Read More]

The perspective may be that attending a private school or boarding school from K-12 offers a leg up in college admissions, but this is simply not the case. Attending a public high school can actually be better in the long run than going to a “fancy” private school in determining your college admissions odds. Colleges today are trying to diversify when it comes to their admitted classes. Dartmouth College, for instance, typically accepts 69 to 70 percent of its incoming freshman from public high schools, which gives students the chance to be at the top of their class in a larger pool as compared to a smaller private high school. In short, pick a college because of the FIT, not based on any perceived admissions advantage.

Dr. Michele Hernandez, the author of several well-known books on college admissions and former Assistant Admissions Director at Dartmouth University, shares her 10 best secrets for top college admissions. For example:

The perspective may be that attending a private school or boarding school from K-12 offers a leg up in college admissions, but this is simply not the case. Attending a public high school can actually be better in the long run than going to a “fancy” private school in determining your college admissions odds. Colleges today are trying to diversify when it comes to their admitted classes. Dartmouth College, for instance, typically accepts 69 to 70 percent of its incoming freshman from public high schools, which gives students the chance to be at the top of their class in a larger pool as compared to a smaller private high school. In short, pick a college because of the FIT, not based on any perceived admissions advantage.

Introducing computer programming to your kids can be a challenge, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the nuances of code. Fortunately, in the last few years, a number of apps, software, and guides have been produced that make the often-complex subject of computer coding easy to grasp for young learners. So where to begin? These are a few resources that parents can share with their kids to help them start learning about programming. [Read More]

Is your child a future Bill Gates? Author Matt Davis shares online resources and tips for parents who want to get their kids started on learning computer programming.

Introducing computer programming to your kids can be a challenge, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the nuances of code. Fortunately, in the last few years, a number of apps, software, and guides have been produced that make the often-complex subject of computer coding easy to grasp for young learners. So where to begin? These are a few resources that parents can share with their kids to help them start learning about programming. [Read More]

America’s Most Challenging High Schools ranks schools through an index invented by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews. The index formula is a simple ratio: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school in 2014, divided by the number of graduates that year.

Noted in our national and local tables are the percentage of students eligible for government meal subsidies — a common benchmark for poverty — and each school’s average scores on the SAT, a common college entrance exam with a national average of 1497 out of 2400. [Read More]

Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews shares his 2015 list for America’s Most Challenging High Schools. Surprise — many are in Arizona, Texas and Florida!

America’s Most Challenging High Schools ranks schools through an index invented by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews. The index formula is a simple ratio: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school in 2014, divided by the number of graduates that year.

Noted in our national and local tables are the percentage of students eligible for government meal subsidies — a common benchmark for poverty — and each school’s average scores on the SAT, a common college entrance exam with a national average of 1497 out of 2400. [Read More]