This essay isn’t another vignette about meaningful insights gleaned during a marathon. This column is about an ultra-event, a 50-mile slog—not a typo, 50 miles–through the swamp at Fakahatchee. “Where fun goes to die” may be the motto of The University of Chicago, but I would venture to suggest that
The podiatrist greets the moth but before the podiatrist can say anything the moth starts talking. My life is an unending cycle of pain, the moth begins. My job is meaningless and repetitive, my boss is needlessly demeaning. I wake up every morning next to a woman with whom I
As an undergraduate I majored in mathematics. As a counselor, I advise students who want to study anything other than math, anything. Accounting, anthropology, astronomy, all the way through the alphabet to zoology. I don’t emphasize my ongoing love of number theory and I certainly don’t suggest that all my
Who reads undergraduate admissions essays? Who makes the determinations whether applicants get the coveted email with attachments for signing up for their dorm and selecting a roommate or the dreaded “we regret to inform you that we had too many qualified applicants this year and that there is no space
I read recently that the gap between measures of reading achievement between boys and girls was getting bigger. The author conveyed outrage. Those poor boys! Our educational system is failing them! When these tests were given a few years ago, girls were three months ahead, but now girls are five
Consider two hospitals, Hospital A and Hospital B. Over the course of a busy week, a thousand people are admitted to Hospital A and a thousand people are admitted to Hospital B. Of the thousand people who were admitted to Hospital A, three hundred of them die. Of the thousand
We don’t put pressure on our daughter. We never said you must get good grades. We always emphasized that we love her for who she is not what she does. Yet somehow she has internalized this perfectionism. I don’t know where she gets this harmful idea. She studies till all
Kids have always wanted to be heard, don’t you think? Adolescents want to find their place in the world, find themselves, find out where they belong and with whom. And then once they have found that spot, they want to communicate their allegiance, participation, connection. Isn’t that what the dyed
Student loan forgiveness has been a national discussion recently. My colleagues in the independent counseling world have been penning insightful posts about the subject. My limited understanding of the arguments on both sides is as follows: in favor, “student debt is onerous and unfair.” Against, “hard working folks shouldn’t have
That parents are out of control about where their kids go to college is not news. If the Varsity Blues Sadness teaches us anything, it is that folks will cough up $500,000 to help Buffy and Scooter scam admissions officers at U.S.C. of all places. I have written repeatedly about
Copyright © David Altshuler 1980 – 2022 | Miami, FL • Charlotte, NC | (305) 978-8917 | [email protected]
