Browsing Tag: education

    pepperdine-dorm-11
    Miscellany

    Photos: Back to Pepperdine for a Day

    December 12, 2012

    pepperdine-dorm-11

    That’s the view that I had every day of my freshman year at Pepperdine University. It’s a photo from the front of Dorm 11 and … wow … it was even more beautiful last month than I remember it being 25+ years ago.

    We had some Search Engine Land/Marketing Land staff meetings last month down in the Los Angeles area, and I couldn’t resist the chance to check out my alma mater for the first time in (I think) about 12-13 years. So I took a day off and arrived early, rented a car and made the short drive up Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to Malibu.

    Fun! It actually reminded me of the beautiful drive from the Maui airport west toward Ka’anapaali Beach.

    I made plans to meet up with an old friend — my friend Alan of Historical Tweets book fame — for lunch, but since I got to campus at about 10:00 am, I had plenty of time to walk around. I checked out the dorm area and the upper sports area (soccer field and track). I hiked up to the new Communications Division and found that they’re showing a photo of ABC’s Bill Weir, but not a photo of me or my friend Kent … even though we’re the ones who gave Bill his first at the campus TV station!

    It was a great visit and now I really want to go back again with the rest of the family. Until then, the McGees will have to settle for the 16 photos that I’ve shared on Flickr. I’ll embed the slideshow below. Enjoy!

    Miscellany

    School Overcrowding? As if…

    March 2, 2011

    School Overcrowding? As if...

    That’s my class photo from 2nd grade. 1976. Aside from the dodgy clothes and bad hair, you know what stands out? There are 37 students in this picture. And, for all I know, there were a couple kids absent that day, too.

    This was normal for the time. I was tagged on Facebook recently in some other class pictures from elementary school — there were 39 students in one of them! And get this: we only had one teacher! No teacher’s aides, no parents helping in the classroom, no nothing. One teacher and close to 40 kids.

    And we got a GREAT education.

    So, I can’t help but wonder … in this era when schools complain about having more than 22-24 kids in a classroom, when there’s a teacher and an assistant and often parents helping out, too … why are so many parents and educators complaining about overcrowding in the classroom?

    Miscellany

    WSU: Good for Entrepreneurs, Bad for Football Players

    September 10, 2008

    I’m one of the few men living in the state of Washington who doesn’t give a rat’s arse about the Washington Huskies vs. Washington State Cougars rivalry. (My allegiances are elsewhere.) The whole state is going gaga with both schools still winless for the football season. I couldn’t care less.

    But when one of the big state schools does something cool or gets recognized, I’ll applaud and give credit where it’s due. And that’s what I did when I saw that Washington State made a list of the Top 25 Undergraduate Programs for Entrepreneurs.

    WSU, good for Entrepreneurs

    That’s pretty cool. The rankings are done by Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review. Hats off to WSU. After your football team lost its first two games by scores of 39-13 and 66-3, I think this kind of thing really needs to be promoted.

    Miscellany

    Shoes and carrots

    March 8, 2005

    There’s nothing like a carrot in front of the nose to get someone to do something.

    We’ve been working with Sean for the past 6 months to teach him how to tie his shoes, but he’s never been able to pick it up. I’ve kinda thought the problem is partly motivation, as he’d much prefer to have Mom or Dad do it, anyway.

    Finally last week, must’ve been Thursday or Friday, I told him we were gonna go 100% at it over the weekend and teach him how to tie his own shoes. But this time I offered a reward: I’d buy him “MVP Baseball 2005” for the Playstation as soon as he learned.

    We started Saturday morning around 10 am. At 3:30 pm Sunday, we were in line at Circuit City, a copy of MVP Baseball ready to be bought.

    Finally!

    Miscellany

    What are they teaching my kid(s)?

    May 23, 2004

    For the past two weeks, my son — and his entire kindergarten class — has been counting down the days until May 25th. That’s not the last day of school. No, that’s the day an incubator full of eggs will hatch live chicks in their classroom. According to the “Egg Countdown Calendar” on our fridge, tomorrow they may be able to see the chicks pecking at the inside of the egg as they try to start getting out. Oh, and it also tells us that the eggs sit inside the incubator at a temperature of 100-degrees, and that the incubator must stay closed these last few days in order to keep the humidity high enough to soften up the shells so the chicks can get out.

    Meanwhile, in other kindergarten news, the entire class has already been taught the differences between the various types of clouds — cirrus, nimbus, stratus, etc. Oh, and Sean has recently passed his first Advanced Reading test which says he’s reading at least at the 2nd grade level.

    When I was in kindergarten, we didn’t have Advanced Reading tests. We didn’t learn about clouds until 2nd or 3rd grade, and we sure as hell didn’t incubate eggs for the purposes of watching chicks hatch in front of our eyes. When I was in kindergarten, we learned about colors. We learned simple addition, like 2+2 and 3+3, and even 4+5. We learned how to tie our shoes and button our jackets. We learned, most importantly, how to get along with one another. We learned to share and take turns. We even (gasp!) took naps.

    They don’t have time for naps in the 21st century kindergarten. They might sleep right through the chicks cracking their shells. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy with what Sean’s learning. This isn’t a complaint. It’s more of a documentation, a “is this really how much things have changed?” post. I just can’t believe what they’re teaching in kindergarten….