I remember leaving high school and being completely confused about how to conduct some financial aspects of my life without the help of my parents. How do I file my taxes? What does signing a lease and renting an apartment actually entail? How do I finance a car? All these thoughts and more were running through my head at high speed when I [...]
The United Kingdom currently uses the two-hundred-year-old British undergraduate degree classification system as a grading structure for undergraduate degrees. This system consists of degree levels divided into five distinctions: first-class honors; second class, upper level (also known as a 2.1); second class, lower level (2.2); third class; and pass without honors (or an “ordinary degree.”) Though many other countries including Australia, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa [...]
The world is constantly moving toward an overwhelmingly technological future. Every day, there is a new high-tech innovation or breakthrough—it’s rather exciting to be living in the forefront of the Information Age. With the way technology seems to be incorporating itself into everyday life, it’s essential that schools and classrooms become more equipped with digital-based curricula and devices. To get the ball rolling, in [...]
I just graduated from college, and I can guarantee that at least half my classmates were sometimes more concerned with how the football team did than with whether they could explain the thematic convolutions in Great Expectations or find the rate of flow through a wire suspended on the surface of a four-dimensional plane. (I knew that calculus class would pay off someday.) It’s expected [...]
Lincoln Logs, Legos, Tinkertoys, K’Nex, GoldieBlox. While we may associate these names with simple creative outlets for children, more adults are seeing the opportunity to teach kids about engineering beginning at an early age. With the recent increased focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), new programs are emerging to keep students engaged in these subjects throughout their academic careers, beginning as early as elementary school. [...]
I distinctly remember taking the ACT my junior year of high school. I had signed up late, so my dad and I had to drive to a school nearly an hour away because it was the only available testing site left. I was exhausted from all the ordinary stresses of junior year, and I was sick with a head cold that made everything [...]
When I was in high school, I had a forensics teacher who spent a majority of his time nagging the administration to implement a new system for learning. It involved giving each student a laptop. “Too costly,” they would say, “This plan isn’t good enough, detailed enough, etc.” I know this because he used to vent to our class about the situation, and [...]
Growing up in the Midwest, I took some form of state assessment every year from third through eighth grade and another set of tests throughout high school. My peers and I knew how we ranked against each other in almost every subject—but only within the state of Kansas. Our assessments were different from those given in any other state, making it difficult to [...]
What constitutes a genius? Is it someone who can think and discover revolutionary theories, like Albert Einstein? Or is it someone who can paint and sketch legendary conceptions and ideas far beyond their time, like Leonardo da Vinci? One thing seems to be clear: Genius necessitates creativity, and creativity can be found in everyone. In schools, a creative concept called “genius hour,” an integrated [...]
As a child, I spent almost every day at the library, especially during the summer. While part of it stemmed from my addiction to reading, the main draw for me was the library’s many programs. Each summer, the library followed a theme that included a suggested reading list for all ages, fun raffle prizes and programs that ranged from the usual sing–alongs and [...]