David Altshuler, M.S.
(305) 978-8917 | [email protected]

Category: Parenting

Achievement and Contentment

A loving mother joined our running group a year ago. Alexa only wants what is best for her children, aged three, five, and seven. “My oldest is brilliant and accomplished,” she began as we headed out into the early morning mist. “He excels at everything.” The older members of our

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Jefferson on Education

“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

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The Idiot-athon

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

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Opportunity

“What if the impressionists had been dentists?” queried a droll essay in 1978. A more intriguing question considers what might have ensued had Wayne Gretsky been born in South Miami. In baseball, pundits argue about the greatest player of all time. Ted Williams or Willie Mays. Barflies pontificate about Walter

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Wargames

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

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Teachable Decade

Dumb questions used to make me want to climb up a tower and hurl dry erase markers at random folks walking below. “I. Just. Went. Over. That.” I would sputter through clenched teeth. “Cosecant is the reciprocal of sine; cosecant is not a punk rock group.” Remember the man teaching

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Shh! I’m Hunting Wabbits.

Scholars disagree about the number of books in the Library at Alexandria when it was destroyed some 2300 years ago last Thursday. Estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 volumes. Even using the larger guess, an approximation of the sum total of accrued information available to the most learned academicians of

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Admissions Ethics

“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

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The Child You Want

A buddy of mine turned 50 the other day. On an early morning run, he whined yet again about how he hasn’t met anyone who meets his criteria for an amorous association. “Of course she should be bright and funny, but she should also be physically attractive and enjoy old

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Attitude of Gratitude

Competent, ethical college admissions counselors wear any number of hats including but not limited to the following: Coach Chapeau: “C’mon, you! Three more essays! You can DO this! Let’s go!” Mortician Millinery: “I’m sorry your dream of attending North Cornstalk State has passed away…” Balloon Popper Bowler: “No, that your

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Copyright © David Altshuler 1980 – 2022    |    Miami, FL • Charlotte, NC     |    (305) 978-8917    |    [email protected]