Friday Tidings

Office Depot would seem an odd place for friends to meet, but not for Cindy. Coupons, both mine and hers were firmly in her grip. She was easily navigating the paper supply aisle despite her cart already stacked full of paints, pens, pencils, erasers, folders, multiple sized binders, rolls of colored paper, and spiral notebooks.  This was an annual event. Knowing students, both her former ones, and the new ones she’d soon meet, Cindy was gathering the tools of the trade—the stuff kids would need to face another year of school. Cindy saved all her spare change, so when the August back-to-school sales hit, she’d be ready. No student of hers would be without a binder, pen, and paper.  This ritual is just part of Cindy. It’s as premeditated as her daily planner—where she organizes lectures and assignments. I’ve seen that planner mid-year. In different colors are student names with ideas to help them through their school challenges. ...

Hard physical contact is a gridiron reality. But many are questioning if more changes need to be made to protect football players—specifically the player’s brains.  Former Dallas Cowboy Troy Aikman’s career was cut short due to numerous concussions, and he declared that no son of his would ever play football.  His sentiment was echoed by President Obama, in an interview in The New Republic , “I’m a big football fan, but I have to tell you if I had a son, I’d have to think long and hard before I let him play football.” According to the Center for Disease Control there are over 300,000 sports-related concussions each year.                                                  Concussions aren’t merely bruises or bumps—they can lead to serious issues. Enough NFL players have suffered the effects of head...

Attention students: leave your cell phones at home. Getting smarter means less smartphone time.  South Korea, the nation boasting the smartest students on the planet, is concerned about keeping their #1 status. Troubling research revealed a steady decline in cognitive abilities due to smartphone use.   The South Korean researchers compared overuse of smartphones to what they see in patients who’ve suffered head injuries or psychiatric illnesses. South Koreans are a mobile bunch. Slightly more than two out of three people use smartphones and more than 18% of their children ages 10-19 use their phone more than seven hours a day. Doctors speculate that smartphones cause the underuse of the right side of the brain—the part where our concentration happens. Germany, another academic powerhouse, is also concerned with smartphones impacting students. Manfred Spitzer, a German neuroscientist, believes that irreversible damage can occur in childre...

Even after a dozen years I can still remember it clearly. Looking in my car’s rearview mirror, I watched my daughter standing on the sidewalk, looking after me as I drove away from her college campus. Like many other parents have done, I’d checked her in, got her settled, and with a flight to catch, I’d left her to figure out how to make it on a campus thousands of miles from home. We’d seemed ready for this moment. But what teen is completely ready to move away even though they think they are? What parent can actually let go? She got smaller as I traveled further down the road and I wondered if she was feeling as bereft as I was. I realized my life as a parent had just experienced a paradigm shift. I was going home and she wasn’t. My rules and curfews would make no difference now. Her new freedom came with the highest level of personal responsibility she’d ever faced. She’d answer for herself now. Our final hours together were a blur of moving boxes and my...

God bless the IRS? Sounds weird, I know. But the IRS is peopled with working Americans—many are moms or dads. Some probably coach their kid’s teams and volunteer at their schools. They go to work, pay bills (and fill out tax forms just like the rest of us). The IRS workers are not the problem—we are. It’s our government. It’s grown beyond its ability to manage itself.  Just as when too many kids are crammed into one classroom with an overworked teacher—and students don’t do as well, our government suffers the same malady—too many programs and too little oversight to manage it all. Creating new programs and spending more money hasn't helped—it just made the problem bigger. Experts think we should allow the states to take over some of the federal duties. Makes sense. I have no clue what issues people are facing in rural Georgia—but I do know what we face in the rural parts of Washington State. Americans understand their own communities and most have some good idea...

Arguably, it was one of my most embarrassing moments in all of my seventeen years. Thankfully, I was 3000 miles from home and my dad would keep it secret. The whole trip to Florida was his idea. We’d be traveling up and down the coast, but the ultimate treat was ending up at Disney World! Our day at the Magic Kingdom started early. After we parked our rental car, I was so excited that I ran ahead of my dad. He was laughing at my exuberance and waved me on. I was barely inside the huge gates, when two uniformed guards came up on either side of me. The female guard asked if I’d come alone. No, I explained my father was coming just behind me. The guards waited for him to walk up to us. The problem was my cut-off shorts. The shorts themselves weren’t too short, but the 2” cuts on the sides exposed too much of my legs. The male guard, who looked as old as my grandpa, said that at my age I needed to set an example. Did I realize how often younger g...

Parenting today must be daunting. Children have computers for toys. They’re accustomed to spectacular motion picture graphics; dozens of entertainment options, and many have after-school programs keeping them busy until their parents pick them up after work. I’m not sure I’d do so well as a modern mom. Today’s parents must monitor online time, downtime, school time, and save precious hours for family time. With more kids having their own phones, email, and social media accounts, parents can literally lose their child in a virtual world. Hormonally driven puberty pressures assail kids, but now there are over two-dozen STDs instead of just two or three. Add in racy TV shows, sexy ads, computer porn, sexual predators, and the slippery slope of peer pressure and it can be overwhelming. Addictions to video games, drugs, and porn—begin younger then ever. By the teen years, parenting has been ratcheted up to intimidating levels. Wrong turns can be devastating...