Tony Brewer

Being a home owner is a never ending challenge. Last night I found that the dryer isn’t running properly. It’s an older model, bought second hand so there is no warranty on the darn thing. Looks like I’ll be spending some time this weekend working on it. If I can’t get it up and running properly by then I’ll be looking for a new one.

It is back to school for many of today’s students this week. We will be seeing the big yellow school buses on all the neighborhood roads each weekday morning and afternoon once again. Going back to school in August just doesn’t seem right. We never started school until the day after Labor Day for heaven’s sake. I hear that some schools started on August 2nd, isn’t that just crazy!

My favorite nephew will be graduating high school (at least we hope he will) this year and with the help of some college grants he just might be able to attend at least a half way decent university. Having the Internet certainly makes the task of college scholarships a much easier one to tackle, wish we had had the Internet back in my educational days. With websites such as schoolscholarships.org available even finding good quality minority scholarships shouldn’t be such a challenge.

I can’t believe that my nephew will be out on his own as soon as next summer. He is a good kid and will most likely go far given half a chance. Guess we will see how his senior year goes. I wish him luck!

I think these kids are nuts!

Pre Algebra is no longer a subject confined to middle and high schools.  Now it is taught as early as fourth grade!  I was really surprised to learn that my nephew Jason was learning about algebra equations in school. The kid is only ten years old!

I can remember learning how to divide and multiply in fourth grade when I was in school, but I certainly don’t remember going any more sophisticated than that! Sometimes I think that kids are being driven too hard and are not being given the time they need to actually BE kids. Having said that, I know that there are other societies where kids are forced to do manual labor in factories and fields, so maybe learning more advanced math in school isn’t such a terrible thing after all!  After all, many of the job opportunities of the future are going to be strongly rooted in one’s ability to solve problems.

I don’t usually watch The Weather Channel. If I want the weather I go online and have it in less than a minute for any place of my choosing. But The Weather Channel has a lot more to offer, they have some pretty cool stories and videos that are worth watching in between all of the weather forecasts.