1) James won his age group in a small local race recently. He ran 10 kilometers in 50 minutes. How great is that? Of course, many of the more talented runners were contesting other distances–half and full marathons–so the competition was modest. Just the same, James won in the 60-64 year old division, got a…Read the full article

“Yesterday, I saw the sun rise and the sun set from the same chair.” As the risk of missing the point, I replied, “Must be quite a chair.” “Yeah well, everybody studies hard,” Chad went on. “It’s not competitive necessarily. It’s just that the tests are fairly thorough.” “Thorough,” I thought. “So that’s what they’re…Read the full article

Given how busy everyone is lately I thought I might take the liberty of writing a couple of speeches for you. I know it may seem like the wedding of your son is some years away, but tempus seems to keep on fugit-ing, whatever that means, so let’s not wait to the last minute like…Read the full article

There may be some child somewhere for whom higher SAT scores will be important in the college admissions process. For your child, the chances are that higher SAT scores won’t matter at all in determining where she is admitted. Bold statements, I know. But after 30-something years of counseling students and their families about choosing…Read the full article

A buddy of mine is a world class distance runner. If I mentioned some of his accomplishments–running across Costa Rica, for example–you would just shake your head in wonder. He is a complete and utter beast. Never having run more than 50 miles in a day myself, I’m in awe of someone who disdains an…Read the full article

When a slot machine pays out ten thousand dollars, sirens blare, lights flash, and young women in bathing suits crowd around to help pick up the explosion of spewing quarters. The joyful winner bathes in admiration and coins up to his ankles as joyful music plays and the crowd cheers. Gamblers at nearby machines smile…Read the full article

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. That’s as may be, but the issue of who gets educated where remains unresolved 200 years after Jefferson wrote about our fledgling democracy. It is not news that those from enriched environments are more…Read the full article

Of all the gloriously exuberant excesses of the “Idiot-athon”, surely the shuttle run was the silliest and the most fun. After running 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 yards out picking up and putting down blocks of wood, competitors were required to remove a plastic bone-the femur if memory serves-in the game of “Operation.” Touching…Read the full article

Before Matthew Broderick was Ferris Bueller and Ally Sheedy was the weird girl in “Breakfast Club,” the kids starred in “War Games,” an uplifting film about global thermonuclear war and the end of all life on the planet, that sort of thing. Spoiler alert: the world does not come to a fiery end in the…Read the full article

“How has the college admissions process changed in the 30-something years that I have been helping students choose and apply to college?” When I give talks or appear on radio shows, I typically point out how students are filling in more applications and that therefore it’s harder to predict who will be admitted where. I…Read the full article