Category: Family & Education

How to Start a Backyard Garden

While spring is the ideal time to begin digging and growing a traditional vegetable or flower garden, plenty of planning and other tasks can be done at any time of the year. Gardeners spend most of the summer watering, weeding, and watching young plants grow. Fall is a good time to plant trees, shrubs, bulbs,…


Raising Independent Thinkers Who Pursue the Truth

Once upon a time, Chicken Little’s infamous phrase, “The sky is falling!” was the battle cry of alarm. Today, this classic signal of hysteria is in the process of being kicked to the curb, replaced by the new cry of “Fake news!” So prevalent is the fear of fake news that some states are seeking…


Setting Family Goals for a New Year

A new year is an inspiring time. It’s like a fresh piece of paper—a blank slate. It’s an opportune time for families to discuss their hopes and dreams for the year ahead and define some aims they’d like to strive for together. Setting goals as a family and working toward them together teaches children how…


An Old Textbook Has Some Things to Teach Us

Recently, a New York couple, readers of The Epoch Times, sent me a 1914 edition of “Essentials of English: First Book.” As stated in the book’s preface, the authors, Henry Carr Pearson and Mary Frederika Kirchwey, both associated with Horace Mann School of Columbia University, intended their textbook for “use in the fourth, fifth, and…


As More College Students Struggle With Mental Health Issues, What Can Parents Do?

This fall, North Carolina State University lost four students to suicide. Other colleges, such as Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, and the University of North Carolina, have reported student suicides on the rise. The epidemic of suicide attempts by young people is more than concerning—it’s frightening. For college-aged students, in particular, there has been a sharp increase in suicidal ideation. In fact, suicide is the second-leading…


The Sacred Nature of Family

Commentary Before the printing press and widespread literacy, signs and symbols were used as effective tools for teaching through art. Average viewers could recognize pictorial meaning even in the use of color. For example, red was a reference to humanity or the passions, purple indicated majesty, and white was an allusion to purity. Traditional symbols…


The Divine Winks of Advent

My parents could define almost any word because they had studied Latin in high school. Back in the ’60s, on our way to the Bronx, four of the seven kids in my family sat on the back seat of the family station wagon, awkwardly holding my dad’s gigantic, hard-covered, unabridged Webster’s Dictionary. We took turns…


A Positive Attitude is a Life Changer

“Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Radio.” “Radio who?” “Radio or not, it’s a new year.” Ah, I can hear the groans coming right out of my keyboard. But there’s a bit of truth in that joke. Ready or not, like it or not, the new year is indeed here. Some celebrants have watched the Times Square…


How to Be the Best Student

Learning, whether in-person or remotely, requires dedication on the part of the student and the instructor, as well as a respectful attitude. Be Nice Teachers and students are at their most productive when everyone is enjoying the learning process. It’s OK to be excited when the entire class is working together and engaging in positive…


Some Hidden Holiday Gifts for the Kids, and for Us

Recently, I stumbled across this adage attributed to Ben Franklin: “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” Often, we aim to become better people when the calendar flips us into January. Even the most common New Year’s resolutions, to exercise more…