Archive for October, 2010
Pros and Cons Of Public High Schools
Posted on Oct 19, 2010 03:06:01 AM
The trend of parents choosing to home school their children grows each and every year. There are many reasons why families choose to do this, and some of them are not the right reasons. There are many good reasons to do it, but make sure your reasons are sound. If you are not sure how you feel, or you are feeling guilty for not doing it, think about the good and the bad of public high schools in your area before you make your final choice.
Some families pull there children out of public high schools to home school them because of violence and drugs. These are two very good reasons to do it. If your children only have access to a school that is plagued with both, and you can not afford private school tuition, home schooling may be the answer for your family, as long as you understand the scope of what you are taking on. If your child is being bullied, this is also a good reason, but don’t pull them out because of small adjustment problems. They need to learn to deal with peers. Without this, they are going to flounder in college and in the work force.
Another good reasons to pull your children out of public high schools is when they are having huge problems keeping their grades up when they did well in middle and elementary school. It could be that the classes are too big and they can not get the attention they need. Make sure this is the problem though, as some students have learning disabilities that show up in high school that have nothing to do with the level of education they are presented with at school. If you feel your attention will help them learn, perhaps home schooling is a good idea for your family.
There are also some bad reasons to pull your children out of public high schools. Your child may be doing just fine there, and perhaps they are excelling. If you have a very smart child, there are things they can get through the high school that you can not offer them at home. You do not want to pull them out if they are doing well just because you feel like it, which happens quite often. If they have dreams of college, and you can not teach them trig or calculus, you may want to rethink what you are about to do and why you really want to do it. Remember, even though your child may have some issue with peers and may struggle on occasion with some grades, there is more to public high schools than you may realize, especially for higher education.
There are life lessons that students learn in any high school that they will not get from home schooling. These include being on time, following a schedule, dealing with tricky person to person relationships, answering to authority, making the right choices, and learning how to say no to things that may harm them. They can learn these things through home schooling, but so many parents take a lax approach because they can, and their children miss out on these valuable life skills. Home schooling can work, but make sure you are really up to the challenge before you dive in. Education is about more than what shows up in the classroom.
University Degrees Online
Posted on Oct 18, 2010 08:33:55 AM
In this day and age, everyone pushes you to go to school. While this used to simply mean finishing high school, it now means going to a university afterwards to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Or at least acquiring a two-year degree from a technical community college. The point is you really need a high degree of education to make it in the world today. You must keep in mind that a primary reason for this is the vast competition out there. With so many people all applying for the same job positions, it is clearly necessary to have something that makes you stand out. This is why you may want to consider university degrees online.
One aspect of college life that you may be thankful for is the fact that you can acquire a degree online nowadays. This makes going to college so much easier for people everywhere. After all, not everyone wants to do the traditional college thing, and head off to a massive university campus for a life of dorm rooms, macaroni and cheese, tight schedules, and frat parties. Especially those who already have lives and families to care for. This is why university degrees online can be so ideal for so many men and women. Imagine getting your college degree on your own time, and without all of the standard hassles of college life.
Let’s go over how university degrees online work. Essentially you have to start with the kind of degree you are interested in. So if you are striving for a two-year degree in computer maintenance and repair, then this is what you focus on. Do a quick online search in order to see what online programs are offered at this point. Now, you must take into consideration your schedule. How busy are you, and do you already have a full-time job? You may need to take classes part-time from home in order to manage online schooling, along with your day job. This is ideal for individuals who have children as well. You do not even have to leave your home.
There is a great deal of options regarding university degrees online these days. This is what makes this facet of higher education so wonderful. It no longer matters if you cannot do the traditional college thing. In fact, it does not even matter how old you are. If you are 45 and simply want a different career at this point, no worries. You can make this happen with university degrees online. Just start by researching college programs that can be completed from the comfort of your own home. As you may know, there is even student financial aid available for men and women who need it. Take advantage of this if you can.
College Entrance Essay
Posted on Oct 12, 2010 03:50:19 AM
College application counselors often have some very sound advice to give potential college applicants on how to make the application process go smoothly. The college entrance essay in particular, since it happens to carry disproportionately high influence for the outcome of the process, needs some of the best guidance measures they have. Among application counselors, it is common knowledge that a hopeful student can’t just work on the one essay and hope it will get him or her through.
The college entrance essay process is actually supposed to start perhaps six months before the actual event. We’ve 24 weeks to go, counselors advice there charges to gain for a new sample college entrance essay each week. They are to take up the subject of their choice and put everything they have to do it each week. Why you ask? It’s to get them used to the process of putting their thoughts to paper.
Each week, the counselor takes of each essay and critiques it. With the lessons learned, the student can hopefully put something better together the next time around. The college entrance essay typically belongs to one of two categories – the one where you’re supposed to show the college why you feel they would be a good fit for you; and the other where you show them why you believe you might be a good fit for them. Usually, the common application will ask you to write about a life-changing event that pushed you to deeply consider where you stood on a particular issue – a dilemma if you will. Most students what they come up against this has nothing better to say than perhaps how the movie The Matrix really made life seem so surreal. What do you look for it though was something that will set you apart – tell them you have something new in your character that’s struggling to burst free. If you hitchhiked your way across Europe, that might qualify; but if you did that and then stayed with the group of Romanic gypsies in Prague to better witness the evolution of folk dances, that would really qualify.
So you know now what direction to take with your college entrance essay. But the best ideas can lose the plot with poor technical skills in writing. The actual writing process is meant to put the reader directly in contact with the experience to detail. If the reader in the end doesn’t really know the situation you describe as well as you do, the writing is good enough. So from this rule follows the admonition that every word you pick needs to be there for a reason – clarity. While big words may be really attractive at first glance, they were going to really pull their weight once the admissions officer actually first read again to understand what they say. They do have experience to tell which words the high school senior is supposed to know. And being short, concise and incisive Bracey big points.
Some people try to go the other way with the big words – they get so informal that they can use street slang; this is almost certain to put the admissions officer off; to make sure that you use on his everyday language, make sure that it is fit for print. Everything you say in a college entrance essay as far as possible sounds best when done in active voice. The active voice instantly sounds more believable, and more pleasing. And on the subject of using and essay writing service – if all you plan to do with such a service is to obtain a good critique, that just might be worth a try. But for the most part, any admissions officer can easily tell a professionally written resume from one produced by a 17-year-old high schooler. Rolling out the heavy artillery really isn’t going to win anyway the marks.