According to author and mindfulness guru Eckhart Tolle, “fear is almost always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now.”* “Mindfulness” always sounds great on paper, but it’s never quite as easy to put into practice. …
“I hope they’re hiring at the English factory.” It’s an old joke, and not a particularly good one, but it encapsulates what some people think when they hear a young person say that he is planning to major in English …
Ah, the holidays: family, food, fun, parties, presents, decorations and…standardized tests, exams, and homework, of course! Hold on to your Santa hat, because this year, more students than ever before will be taking the ACT on February 6, 2016, and …
Observe a high school classroom, and you will sometimes—but thankfully not always— see a teacher lecturing or writing on the board while students feverishly try to copy every word into their notebooks. This mechanical, rote method of learning may be …
Dandelions can grow anywhere. You even see them popping up in between cracks in the sidewalk. They are hardy and resilient. They can withstand the harshest conditions. The orchid, on the other hand, is fragile and needs just the right …
Junior year is a crucial year. It’s the time of your academic career when everything starts to matter more. Gone are the halcyon days of freshman and sophomore years, when college seemed light years away. Suddenly, college is a real …
For many students, college is a new world of independence, a novelty compared to the high school experience. But why not expand the experience even further? Pretty much every college offers a study abroad program, and it is well worth …
It’s college essay season: if you are a junior, and you’ve been avoiding writing your personal statement, well…it’s probably time to start, with the January 1st deadline looming. Writing this essay is not always as simple as it sounds. You …
I’ll never forget him: the student who wouldn’t get out of the car. His Mom had come up to my office pleading with me to go down to the parking lot and coax him upstairs for his tutoring session. This …
I was a bad baseball player in high school. And I mean bad. Don’t get me wrong: I loved the sport; I just didn’t play it very well. You would be more likely to find me up in my room …