Remember TV Dinners? You, probably not. Me, unfortunately yes. They were introduced to the public in the 1950’s. TV trays followed around the same time. Combining both products provided harried and overworked family members with some screen time. No food preparation required. No interaction desired. Fast forward to today. TV Dinners and trays have given…
All of us tell our kids that “actions have consequences.” What we don’t tell them, maybe because we haven’t thought this through ourselves, is that there are initial or first order consequences and there are second order consequences. There may even be third order consequences. First order consequences are often very different, surprisingly different, from…
My wife and I home schooled all three of our children. All three went and graduated from college. And, all three are currently employed in fields unrelated to their degrees. As I tried to advise them post-high school, I think I operated under a false understanding of today’s workplace – at least for two of…
Maybe you remember an experience like this when you were in school. The bell goes off and class “begins.” Sort of. “Begins” is a relative term. The teacher waits for the two or three stragglers before beginning the lesson so she won’t have to repeat herself. The attendance record now needs to be revised. Pencils…
In my last post I suggested that content presented first is more easily grasped and retained than equally difficult content presented later in the same sequence. But, there is an exception. When content is more meaningful, or interesting to the learner, it will be more easily learned and remembered regardless of when it is presented…
If you’re like many of us, yesterday was the first day back to school after Christmas vacation. Hard to get going after being off schedule for a couple of weeks. Sort of like going to the gym after being away for a little too long and getting on the elliptical to warm up. After…
I can still remember it. “Back in the day,” my teacher was in the front doing his part, talking. I was doing my part, day-dreaming. I wasn’t invested in what was going on. My grade point average in middle school hovered around a D+. I didn’t care. It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s…
How do your children feel when asked to do something they’ve never done before? How do you feel for that matter? What if you’re asked to do something you’ve never done before in front of an audience? Of course, it depends on what we’re being asked to do. Our thinking may range from “You’ve…
In the 2006 movie comedy, Failure to Launch, the parents in the film are faced with an adult son who is living at home well past the time he should be. He hasn’t gone through the normal progressions that lead to healthy independence and the ability to manage life on his own. While the son…
At the end of this month, I’m back to school (literally) for some continuing education. I do this to maintain my certification as a part-time snowboard instructor at Mt. Hood Meadows. There’s a lot of similarity between the methods I use when teaching/tutoring here at Basic Skills and the way I instruct on the mountain. …