NYTimes columnist Charles Blow writes today of getting a call on Saturday that his son, a Yale junior, had been held at gunpoint that evening after leaving the library. By the Yale Campus Police. Apparently they were responding to a burglary call on campus and determined that he fit the description of the alleged burglar. According to Blow, a [...]
How many of us have told our sons to "study smarter, not harder?" Sounds good, but how do you actually do that? In the recently published book, "How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens", New York Times science reporter Benedict Carey looks at the science of learning to try to answer this question. [...]
If your son is applying to boarding school or college this fall you may well be in the thick of school visits these days. Here are a few tips for making these visits as productive as possible for you and your son: Encourage your son to commit to this process of looking at schools, no matter how confused or [...]
It has been front page news for a few days now: L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling allegedly made some outrageously offensive racist comments about Black people to his Black and Hispanic girlfriend. Talk to your sons about this situation, and ask them what they would do if they played for or were the coach of the L.A. Clippers. The [...]
For the fifth year in a row, all 240 of Chicago's Urban Prep Academies seniors have been accepted into over 200 four year colleges and universities. The seniors, all African American young men, celebrated their success at a ceremony where they exchanged the red ties of their daily uniform for the red and gold striped ties signaling their impressive [...]
Time for some good and inspirational news: Three young African American men are making the news for their college acceptances. Chad Thomas, a senior at Booker T. Washington Senior High in Miami, has received 150 scholarship offers for his football skills and his abilities as a nine-instrument musician. He has decided to attend the University of Miami, and will [...]
By now many of you who are focused on high school education have heard that there will be changes in the SAT beginning with the May 2016 test. This will affect ninth graders and below, so those of us with middle schoolers and high school freshmen need to pay special attention. So here's what the new SAT will look [...]
Happy New Year! In this our third year of operation, we are going to mix it up a bit. In addition to posting longer one subject articles chock full of info, GCP will be doing quick posts of interesting bits--news items, parenting things to think about, etc.--on a more regular basis. The goal is to post more regularly, and [...]
It is an ugly truth: parents of African American children live with the constant fear that our children, especially our sons, may have an encounter with the police that ends in their arrest, or even worse, in their bodily harm. We know we need to have “The Talk” with them about what to do if they are ever stopped, [...]
Yesterday's post focused on talking to babies; today we are talking about what happens when these babies grow up into young adults: college opportunities. African American economist Carolyn Hoxby, a Stanford economist in residency at Stanford's Hoover Institute, is focused on helping students expand their opportunities to attend college. She recently presented her research at a "master class" at [...]