School
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Parent's Resources
Doing Well in Elementary School
Raising Money for the School
Collecting pull tabsIf every child brings in 2 aluminum cans that would be worth $23.
Elementary School Problems
Grades
Junior High
Making Friends
The best thing about high school will be the friends you make. I'm still in touch with some of the friends I made there.The most important thing about high school is getting good grades and participating in clubs, and volunteering, to improve your chances of getting into the college of your choice.
Be Careful of
Booze - In a teenager's life the most dangerous time is driving. More parents loose their children that way than any other accident. We love you too much, so we don't want to make it easy for you to loose your life. We don't want you to ride with anyone else either. The more teenagers in a car, the more likely it is to crash (2x for two and 4x for three or more!).In addition:
These are the reasons insurance is so expensive for teenagers. They are the most likely to be involved in accidents.
Remember, if you ever feel uncomfortable about driving, or riding with someone else, call me, and I will stop whatever I am doing and come pick you upAnd please don't ride with someone if there is another passenger.
Here's a story about a police officer that lost his own child to a car crash. It takes only one second to loose your life.
Proms, graduations and teen crashes: The worst season for police official and father
Drugs -
Sex -
Guns -
Status -
Clothes -
Wasting time with: Porn, TV, Computer games,
Scams -
Cliques
You will find that student groups will be 'in' or 'cool' but unless you find that you share their values, which are usually superficial(sp?), ignore them. Find the clubs with kids that enjoy doing what you like to do.The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Getting into College
University of Maryland is a good school, and we've got a college savings plan for you there. You'll be close to us, but you can also live in the dorm if you choose. However, you might choose another school to. Just make sure you are comfortable there. Be sure to visit the schools you're interested in first and do research. Don't be as stupid and focused on one school as I was (see below).
To get in you'll need more than good grades. You'll need to show you are a well-rounded individual with other activities and responsibilites. Join clubs, sports teams, have a part-time job, volunteer, help others. Have a leadership role somewhere, and travel.
The Prom
I didn't go to my Prom and I made my sort-of girlfriend, Celia, angry when I told her I wouldn't take her to hers (she was going to Las Vegas High School, since she didn't switch to Gorman, like I did). But I didn't know how to dance, didn't have a girlfriend at Gorman, and wasn't interested in it. Was I a nerd, or what? :-)
Graduation
Like my Prom, I didn't go to my graduation ceremony. I don't remember my mom expressing any interest in it, either. Instead I spent the evening writing a COBOL program for an advanced computer programming class at A HREF="http://www.unlv.edu">UNLVMy Experience
I went to three highschools. The first was because the real high was crowded so we continued going to Junior High. My last two years were at a private Catholic High School, but they forgot about me the first year and I didn't have to take the mandatory religion class. Unfortunately, the rememebered me next year :-(
Getting into College
I wanted to go to University of California at Davis. The main reason I wanted to go was because I'd read that the town had bicycle paths. The school had an electrical engineering and computer science program. (Duh! I'm sure all UC schools did!) And my mom agreed to move there with me - she knew gardening would be easier there. We drove through it once, I believe, on the way to visit my cousin Glen. (We had a pop-up tent trailer, but that was the only time my mom and I ever went camping together after my father died. She didn't like it and we sold the trailer. After that, I went camping by myself).
But when I received their rejection letter (although it did offer to admit me to UC San Diego which I visited later when I went to visit my old high school friend Dick Hopkins. They have the most unusual library in the world there - an upside down pyramid (see picture), I was devastated. I thought my life was over and I took out my dad's 357 Ruger (which I kept under a table near my bed), and contemplated suicide. What would be the good and bad things resulting from the action?
As I was sitting there on the bed, my mother walked in and asked me what I was doing. When I told her, she said, "If you're going to kill yourself, then shoot me first." I told her I was just thinking about the pro's and con's. But I was never really seriously thinking I would do it.
The only other time I thought about it was during the six months in the hospital. When I kept loosing more and more of my foot and leg. Each operation was supposed to be the last, How far up the leg was each amputation going to go?
However, the time I was most devastated (before my mother's murder) was when Angela, my fiance' broke up with me. But I didn't consider suicide.
Scams -
Credit Cards -
In addition, you should also look for a job that is interesting, intellectually challenging, one that helps other people. In other words, a job where you'll enjoy going to work each day. You might also think of a job with a skill that can take you anywhere in the country.
From: The Washington Post Magazine, "Education Review" November 2, 2008.
Summer Before College
Travel to Europe
Youth Hostels
Eurail pass
College
Checklist for Picking a College
Dangers to stay away from
Fraternities and Sororities -
Picking a Major and a Profession
Selecting a major - How to select your first major? It's to prepare you for the job you think you'd like to do for most of your life. Hopefully you can pick a profession that you'll enjoy and pay good money. There are so many professions out there, I don't think you need to settle for one that doesn't pay much.
Majors and jobs to stay away from
One Downside
There is an inverse correlation between majors that pay well and financial aid. In other words, financial aid is more often given to people in the Arts, than in the sciences, since people in the sciences can more easily find jobs when they graduate, than can people with Liberal Arts degrees.
Skipping College
I wouldn't advise that, even police officers benefit with a college education.
Vocational education - mechanic.
Summer jobs
Summer jobs are a great way to check out different professions, and if it's an internship you might get paid, but the competition will be stiff.
Taking Classes Overseas
American students often venture overseas barely able to speak the language, clueless about other cultures or just not quite ready to be so far from home for so long. But almost invariably, they return worldlier and more confident, with wisdom that will last a lifetime.
Innocents Abroad
Graduate School
M.A. M.S. or Ph.D.?
Choosing the Right Graduate School
Paying For it
Dreams of Academe? First, a Course in Reality
My Undergraduate Thesis
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