As I write, the Washington Redskins are battling the Seattle Seahawks in the wild card game to see who will play in the NFC divisional playoffs. All Redskins fans are hoping that the dynamic duo of their rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III and rookie running back Alfred Morris will lead their team to this important victory. Tens of thousands [...]
Let's start the New Year off on an inspirational and positive note. For those of you who don't follow football or missed this, it was recently discovered that Colin Kaepernick, starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, wrote a letter to himself when he was in the fourth grade detailing his plans for the future. (You can see a [...]
On November 21, DreamWorks will release "Rise of the Guardians", its latest animation feature. Based on “The Guardians of Childhood,” a series of children's books by author and illustrator William Joyce, the Guardians are a no-nonsense Santa Claus, a rebellious Jack Frost, a fearless Tooth Fairy and a tough Easter Bunny, who must band together to protect the children [...]
Have to pass along this inspirational story of Julian Merchant, a New Rochelle, NY high school sophomore who is making his mark on the world of fencing. Read it here, and share with your sons. Maybe they'll want to give fencing a try! Kudos to Julian and the Merchant family, and thanks to Roy Johnson for bringing this story [...]
Last night I had the incredible pleasure of sitting at a friend's small dinner party for Jazz at Lincoln Center and listening to Wynton Marsalis jam with his quintet in her living room(!). As Wynton introduced their final piece, "Take the A Train", he mentioned that he had the opportunity to meet Duke Ellington back in 1971, when he [...]
Walter Dean Myers, award-winning author of "Hoops", "Monster", Fallen Angels," "Sunrise Over Fallujah", and many other young adult novels, has been named the nation's third Ambassador for Young People's Literature. As the new (and first African American) National Ambassador, Myers will tour the country for two years, speaking at schools and libraries about reading and literacy. Myers, 74, will [...]
Here's an inspirational story for you, as reported in Yahoo! Sports: Braylon Edwards, who was a Cleveland Browns rookie in 2005, promised back then to give $10,000 in scholarships to 100 Cleveland area eighth-graders if they could graduate high school with over a 2.5 GPA and 15 hours community service. Of the 100 who were afforded the opportunity, 79 [...]
Today's New York Times has a full-page ad courtesy of Baylor University celebrating Robert Griffin III's winning the 2011 Heisman Trophy. (For those of you without access to a hard copy of the Times, here is a link to a not so great shot of the ad). Above a large picture of Griffin in uniform, smiling as he holds [...]
Here's an inspirational story from The Washington Post to savor along with your Thanksgiving leftovers: Coach Natalie Randolph, an African American believed to be the only woman currently coaching a high school football team in the country, led her Coolidge High School Colts earlier this week to the Turkey Bowl, Washington D.C.'s public school football championship. This was the [...]
In Part II of GCP’s interview with Dr. Pedro Noguera, Professor of Teaching and Learning at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, GCP asked Dr. Noguera for suggestions to help parents identify the best educational settings for their sons from pre-school to college. Pre-school Dr. Noguera noted that parents often look for the most [...]