Latest news with #SATs
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Why my 1-year-old grandson needs to grow up already
Dear Nicola, I know you're only 16 months old right now, still technically a toddler. But listen, sweetheart, you're no longer an infant. So, if you're going to grow up, you'd better get going. Nobody is getting any younger around here. I mean, you have yet to decide which college to attend, much less choose a major and decide which profession to pursue, nor have you established any criteria about whom to marry. You've mastered no discernibly marketable skills, either, unless potential employers now count being adorable. So, with all due respect, it's time to stop stalling around and babying yourself. I mean, nobody likes a slacker. Let me, as your doting grandfather, offer you some advice. The world you have inherited is highly competitive. Some kids start studying how to nail top scores in the SATs while still prenatal. Others see the crib as the perfect setting to peruse Proust, get the hang of trigonometry theorems and practice conjugating verbs in Latin. Have you even taken a first step in those directions? Now, in your defense — and much to your credit — you've already developed a lot in your first year-plus. You can walk. You can open and close cabinet drawers with impunity. You're second to none in feeding your face with your fingers. I see a lot of potential. But come on, pumpkin. You still run around the house wearing nothing but a diaper, if that, in the name of fun. You also have no blueprint for growing the global economy. And, for the record, I doubt you've even asked yourself whether God exists. I hate to break it to you, my darling, but you really need to pick up the pace. You have no business network in place for creating synergies. Your Twitter and Instagram followings are precisely zilch. Have you even begun to map out your fourth-grade science project? You're long overdue to start building your brand, baby. After all, history shows you're never too young to start acting older. Tiger Woods appeared on television practicing his golf swing at age 2. Pablo Picasso reportedly started drawing pictures even before he could speak. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his first symphony at 8. No wonder parents now hire violin tutors and tennis coaches for kindergartners. Expectations are hyper-accelerated. Age 5 is considered the new 10. Kids in sixth grade do homework for three hours a night. Academic pressure, advancing technology and the ever-quickening global marketplace conspire to end childhood — and start adulthood — earlier and earlier. So you really have your work cut out for you. If you're going to create a commercially viable portfolio for yourself and gain a competitive advantage, you have no time to waste. You'll have to fast-track yourself. Granted, my parents and grandparents happened to believe the opposite. They were infinitely more laissez-faire about my upbringing and career aspirations than I will ever let myself be with yours. Crazy as it now sounds, they wholeheartedly encouraged me to pursue whatever profession I wanted in my heart of hearts. What about a ditchdigger in a swamp? Sure, they said. Yes-man to a psychotic South American dictator? Of course, they insisted. Part-time assassin? Be our guest, they promised (but only provided the gig came with a comprehensive dental plan). In short, I had carte blanche. But, hey, what did they know? OK, so maybe a case can be made that each child has an individual timetable that should be followed organically, that you should grow up at your own pace, and that nobody should ever hurry anything as valuable and short-lived as childhood. Maybe one could even argue that you deserve the opportunity to savor being a little kid, and that childhood is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will be over all too soon and can never be fully recaptured. So maybe right now your agenda should be to kick a soccer ball around, pretend your stuffed bear can talk and make silly faces at grandpa. Maybe your highest priority should be to blow bubbles. Maybe you'll still manage to develop and mature and thrive, all without letting anyone rush you. Hey, I'm no helicopter grandpa. Please take your time deciding how fast you want to grow up. I'm sure you'll get into a really good medical school in due course anyway. Just do me a favor. Let me know which one by tomorrow. Love, Grandpa.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Triad foundation prioritizes mental health for young girls
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — Marginalized groups of young people in our community are often overlooked when it comes to developing critical life skills, but that's about to change in one city thanks to a grant from the Women's Fund of Winston-Salem. 'This was a necessary program for me,' says Sumiya Carter. She is a student ambassador for the Superintendent's Institute at Parkland High School. 'There were a lot of problems we couldn't help happening at Parkland,' she says. 'It was a very needed program at that time just because of the emotional turmoil.' Carter joined in her junior year. That's a tough time for high school students who are dealing with school, friends, extra-curricular activities, and prepping for the SATs. It can be a bit much and lead to trouble for some, and that's where the Superintendent's Institute, run by The Feelings Company, comes in. 'What we found was that due to pushout phenomena, black girls were being disciplined, and more black girls were having more problems in school,' says Karen Keithel, the Chief Emotions Officer for The Feelings Company. 'They felt voiceless, so we decided to do this program right here to give them leadership skills and the emotional intelligence skills that they need.' The Winston-Salem Foundation saw a need as well and is helping the program with a $15,000 grant from the Women's Fund of Winston-Salem. Keithel says the money will provide mental health literacy and mentorship for up to 25 black high school girls as well as give them the skills they need to be ready for college or a job after graduation. Jada Richardson, administrator for the Superintendent's Institute and Parkland High class president, says the program is a real success story. 'TSI made a difference in my life. I'm definitely more confident….more well-spoken, and I'm very in tune with how I feel and why I feel that way,' she says. 'When I was a child, I wasn't able to tell you why I was crying or what was wrong, but now I'm able to say, 'I don't like the way you treated me, or I don't like the way you said what you said to me.' I'm very confident and outspoken about the way I feel and why I feel that way.' In the end, emotional intelligence really does lead to success. If you know someone who might want to join the Feeling Friends or want to help, just email Karen Keithel at: karen@ Learn more about The Feelings Company at: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lewis Black Jokes AI Makes All College Kids Lazy, Even ‘Sasquatch in a Suit' Barron Trump
Veteran comic Lewis Black is worried artificial intelligence models like OpenAI's ChatGPT are 'making everyone lazy' in college, from professors to students alike — including Barron Trump. Black, during a Thursday night segment on 'The Daily Show,' railed against AI's rapid rise on campuses across the U.S. 'Come on, professors, if you replace your teaching assistant with AI, then who are you going to leave your wife for?' he joked. 'And if you're not using your brain as a professor, what is your job? You're basically a scarf model with a drinking problem.' Black added that it is 'extra insulting' that Harvard professors are now using AI more and more: 'You're the top school in the country. Why did your students even bother paying an Asian kid to take their SATs?' The 76-year-old comedian also said college is all about 'experimenting,' like seeing how much LSD you can do without forgetting your name. Black himself seemed to enjoy college quite a bit — he earned degrees from the University of North Carolina and Yale University back in the day. Nowadays, he is concerned college freshman, such as the president's son, Barron, who just started at New York University this year, will be turning to AI to answer questions they should figure out on their own. 'What are we going to do if a student like Barron Trump isn't using his full cognitive ability?' Black asked. 'The only thing AI should be telling that Sasquatch in a suit is 'Be shorter, you freak. You're blocking the goddamn sun.'' The post Lewis Black Jokes AI Makes All College Kids Lazy, Even 'Sasquatch in a Suit' Barron Trump | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mass. Sen. Warren has a few questions — OK, 66 of them — for Trump's Ed. Department boss
You could forgive U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren for flashing back to her Harvard Law School days proctoring exams for her students next week as she sits down for a meeting with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon. That's because, ahead of that June 10 session, the Cambridge Democrat sent the senior Trump administration official a sprawling list of 66 questions about the Republican White House's efforts to dismantle the Carter-era agency that McMahon was tapped to run. And no, they're not multiple choice. But some do have multiple sections, requiring those essay-style answers that you dreaded when you were taking the SATs. So how'd all this happen? Last month, Warren invited McMahon to a public forum on higher education affordability — she took a pass, instead asking Warren for a one-on-one meeting. In a statement, Warren said she 'rebutted' eight false and misleading statements that McMahon included in that May 12 letter asking for a sitdown. Those rebuttals were included in the Wednesday letter Warren sent to McMahon. Upping the ante, in the same letter, the Democratic lawmaker also hit McMahon with her list of 66 questions — roughly eight times the number of statements that Warren said she had to rebut. Those questions range from queries about access to debt relief and student aid to the impact of mass layoffs at the Education Department. 'Instead of continuing to avoid accountability for your policies, I urge you to listen to the voices of students, borrowers, and families around the country and stop giving DOGE and Donald Trump a blank check to destroy American public education,' Warren wrote. If nothing else, McMahon will come in prepared. On Tuesday, she played defense as Democrats and Republicans on a U.S. Senate panel peppered her with questions about her tenure and her role in the administration's crackdown on Harvard University, ostensibly in the name of combating antisemitism. "These were civil rights violations. That is why we filed a case and stopped the funding for Harvard as well as Columbia,' McMahon told U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., at one point, according to Inside Higher Ed. 'And in conversations with [the universities], we talked about different things that they should do coming back to the table.' Markey, advocates call out ban on states' AI oversight in Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Super PAC coordination allegations heat up Boston's mayoral showdown Late-night comics hope Trump, Musk can make up 'False narratives': Mass. US attorney blasts Boston Mayor Wu over remarks on ICE Math is hard. Midterm math is harder. The lessons Mass. needs to learn for 2026 | John L. Micek Read the original article on MassLive.
Los Angeles Times
01-06-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's claims about remedial math at Harvard don't add up
As the White House moves to revoke Harvard University's certification to enroll foreign students — escalating a battle between the administration and the oldest and wealthiest college in the U.S. — President Trump is falsely claiming that Harvard offers 'remedial mathematics' on topics such as simple addition. He most recently took aim at the school's math offerings during a swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office on Wednesday for Interim U.S. Atty. for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News host who was formerly a county prosecutor and elected judge, in response to a question from a reporter about how the 'confrontation' with Harvard will end. Here's a closer look at the facts. CLAIM: 'Harvard announced two weeks ago that they're going to teach remedial mathematics, remedial, meaning they're going to teach low grade mathematics like two plus two is four. How did these people get into Harvard? If they can't, if they can't do basic mathematics, how did they do it?' THE FACTS: Harvard does not offer a remedial math class covering basic arithmetic. Asked whether Trump was referring to a specific class, a White House spokesperson provided information about Mathematics MA5, which was introduced in the fall of 2024 as a new format for an existing course that offers extra support in calculus. The original course — Mathematics MA — is still offered. 'Harvard College does not offer any so-called remedial math classes,' said James Chisholm, a spokesperson for the university's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which encompasses its undergraduate program. He added: 'Math MA5 is a college-level calculus class. It is simply a new format of Math MA, the introductory freshman calculus course that has been taught at Harvard for decades.' Students in Mathematics MA and MA5 have the exact same homework, exams and grading structure, according to Chisholm. The only difference is that the former meets three days a week and the latter five days a week. They are both prerequisites for higher-level math courses. One question on a sample exam Chisholm provided asks students to write a formula for determining the total number of cases during a hypothetical epidemic after a certain amount of days. The Harvard Crimson reported in September that Director of Introductory Math Brendan Kelly said Mathematics MA5 is 'aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students' created by the COVID-19 pandemic. A course description notes that its 'extra support will target foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and quantitative reasoning.' The median math score for the most recently enrolled undergraduate class at Harvard College was 790 out of 800 on the SATs and 35 out of 36 on the ACTs. The average high school GPA was 4.2. 'There is no university in America that is as difficult to earn admission to as Harvard — no matter your demographics,' said Brian Taylor, managing partner at the college counseling service Ivy Coach. 'President Trump's math in this case simply doesn't add up.' Goldin writes for the Associated Press.
