Tony Brewer

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!

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.

Where was the Internet when I was going to school? Having access to the Internet is what today’s life is all about. I can’t imagine not having the World Wide Web at my finger tips when ever I need it. Today’s students can get Online tutoring at sites like tutornext.com. They have tutors for any type of subject you would need help with. I really could have used some Statistics help back in my high school years.

All I had was this one little old lady (Mrs. C) that my mother hired to come over a couple of times each week and that would help me struggle with my assigned work that required difficult Math answers. She was nice enough but smelled god awful and having a little old lady in a teen aged boys room a couple times a week was just a bit much for me. But she did help me and I got through it all.

For Free math tutoring online tutornext.com is a good place to check out. To have a tutor at your finger tips is just way cool.

Do you realize that Christmas is only 4 months away? Summer is almost over, most kids are getting ready to go back to school. The outdoor swimming pools are looking to close up soon and the life guards will be looking for a new job soon or going back to school.

Fall is a great season, but it never lasts long enough and it’s a constant reminder that winter is looming.

Teri has been trying to locate as many of her relatives as she can fine so that she can hold a huge family reunion next summer.  One of the things that she has found during this endeavor is how many people in her family don’t even own a computer!  They have no interest in learning anything about the Internet!  We were really shocked by this because just about everyone we know in our families use computers and the Internet – at least for email!

So I’ve been thinking about how many people there are in our society that just are not tech savvy enough to take full advantage of valuable financial tools such as Online Trading .  I wonder how many of “us” don’t even know how to open IRA Accounts or get involved in creating wealth through Stock Trading.  I hope that the public schools are teaching the children in high school the things that they are going to need to really get along in the not-so-distant technologically intensive society we are heading into!