Latest news with #Skipper
Newsweek
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Millennial Dad's Observation on Parenting Now vs in the 1990s Goes Viral
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A millennial dad is going viral online for his take on parenting differences between the 1990s and today. Jack Skipper (@mrjackskipper), 37, posted a clip on TikTok arguing that parents today keep their kids entertained by giving in to what they want to do, like going to an adventure playground or planning a scavenger hunt. "When I was growing up [in the 90s], you just did what your parents wanted to do. You just had to sort of follow them... and make your own entertainment," Skipper said in his clip. Millennial dad wearing a black shirt speaking to the camera making a TikTok video. Millennial dad wearing a black shirt speaking to the camera making a TikTok video. @mrjackskipper The UK-based comedian told Newsweek he was planning his son's birthday when he realized the family had already done a lot of the options he had for a party on an ordinary weekend. "It just made me think, we're always doing stuff," he said. "When I was a kid, we only did special activities on birthdays." Skipper also told viewers that most of his childhood was spent following his mom around while she shopped and trying to help her find the correct size for clothing items she wanted. "It's the closest I came to a scavenger hunt," he quipped. The father of two told Newsweek that his children are "unfortunately" too old for soft play now—an ideal activity for them to burn off energy and him to relax with a coffee. Now, he taps into some free activities to keep his kids entertained. "I try not to spoil them, so we enjoy doing things like going for a walk in the park or the playground," Skipper told Newsweek. "I think it gives us a good opportunity to bond and chat." Still, it's a far cry from his own upbringing. He recalls that if his dad was going to the dump, "I'd go with him and that would be a treat, or if he had to go to [the hardware store], I'd come along," he said. "Even if my mom was going shopping, even if I didn't want to go, I didn't have a choice. I just had to go and make my own entertainment." Generational trends expert Daniel Levine told Newsweek that the way children spend their free time has changed since the 1990s. "Kids' time was a lot less structured back then," he said. "It's not that children have changed, but their parents have. Today, parents stuff their kids' schedules with things to do, mimicking the trend towards busyness that adults have created for themselves." Levine pointed to two major trends behind this shift: Many modern parents actively manage their children's schedules, aiming to expose them to a variety of activities. On top of this, dual-income households and busy schedules make families strive for "quality time" rather than just running errands together. "[Skipper] seems bemused by this change, and the consequences are both positive and negative," Levine said. "While it's good that children are exposed to a wider range of experiences and skills, we're also seeing increases in anxiety among children and a dependency on parents far later into adulthood." Skipper's clip has amassed over 368,000 views and resonated with other millennials on TikTok, many of whom recalled their own childhoods spent trailing their parents in their adult lives and making ther own fun. "I was dragged around carpet shops," one user shared. "Don't forget car boot sales and charity shops. Hated it," another wrote. A third user wrote, "Kids come first these days, expectations are so high." Skipper, who is currently on his tour "Skint," told Newsweek that he didn't expect the video to garner so much attention. "It's a bit of a gamble, but that one seemed to hit home for a lot of people," he said. "I've tried to integrate some of that old school 90s parenting into my modern parenting to show the kids there are different ways you can have fun."
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘Equitable and fair': BPS leaders weigh significant changes to exam school admissions policy
Related : Any change would require a vote by the board and would come about five years after the district completely overhauled admissions to the three schools: Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O'Bryant School of Math and Science. Tuesday's presentation will lay out a timeline of community engagement throughout the summer followed by a potential superintendent recommendation and committee vote in the fall. The current policy was intended to make the exam schools more demographically similar to the city's schools as a whole. The three schools had long enrolled larger proportions of white, Asian, and non-low income students than the rest of the district. Advertisement 'The exam school admissions policies have been largely successful at making the student body at the exam schools more representative of our communities geographically, [in] racial and ethnic diversity and [in] socioeconomic background,' Mayor Michelle Wu said in an interview Tuesday, prior to the meeting. Advertisement But the policy has also resulted in large disparities in admission rate based on where students live in the city, she said. Some years, there were 100 percent admission rates in certain neighborhoods and less than 50 percent admission rates in others. The simulations outline potential policies that would preserve the socioeconomic tiers but ensure all students have a chance at an exam school seat, regardless of where they live or go to elementary school, Wu said. 'Every policy within BPS, we have to look at to make sure it's equitable and it's fair,' Superintendent Mary Skipper said. 'We want all students to see themselves in the exam schools.' The review of the exam school admissions policy comes a month after the Trump administration Related : 'We're aware of many lawsuits at this point that are happening around selective schools and in process,' Skipper said. 'This was in the courts [and] it came out that the process we've used at the time was considered valid.' The Supreme Court last year Under the district's current policy, Advertisement Applicants receive a composite score out of 100 based on their grades and entrance exam scores. Students can get 15 bonus points if they live in public housing, are homeless, or are in foster care, or a varying number of points if they attend schools where at least 40 percent of students are low-income. The school-based bonus points vary by tier from two points to 10. As part of the review, the district found bonus points have not had a significant impact on invitations, Skipper said, as most applicants attend BPS schools that get bonus points. All the simulations prepared for Tuesday's meeting eliminated the bonus points. Skipper said district staff would analyze versions with the bonus points in the future if the School Committee requests it, but they found the points make the policy more confusing, create a sense of competition between schools. They also have even created unattainable admissions cutoffs in some cases for students without bonus points. The idea of scaling the tiers by number of applicants, rather than the number of eligible students, is a frequent demand from some parents. The most affluent tiers have historically had the most applicants, but since all tiers get the same number of seats, admission is particularly competitive in those areas. New data released Tuesday show that distinction has faded somewhat, with application rates falling in Tier 4 (the wealthiest area), and rising in Tier 1 (the least affluent area). Still, the admission rate ranged from 59 percent in Tier 4 to 77 percent in Tier 1, and the minimum scores for Grade 7 admission remained significantly higher in Tier 4. Advertisement The latest year's data also showed fewer Black students earning admission than in the prior years. Skipper said district staff are still exploring the data for explanations. Related : Under the simulated policy that equalizes tiers based on applicant numbers, the admission rate would have been about two-thirds in each tier. Two simulations with different versions of a citywide pool of seats each result in the wealthier areas having the highest admission rate, around 70 percent. On the other hand, district leaders again rejected a different frequent request in Tuesday's presentation. School Committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez has repeatedly called on the district to abandon school-based bonus points and instead award bonus points based on individual students' socioeconomic status. In a memo for the committee, Skipper said individual bonus points are not feasible due to operational challenges and because some low-income students do not participate in programs used to determine eligibility for immigration status reasons. Wu and Skipper underscored in the interview that while the exam schools are highly-sought after and serve a large and growing proportion of the district's teenagers, they cannot be the only focus. 'The driving goal is for BPS to be the first choice for every family in the city of Boston, and that means making sure we have high quality student experience at seats in every high school,' Wu said. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at
Miami Herald
28-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Man credits store clerk for big lottery win in NC. ‘You've just changed my life'
A North Carolina man almost walked away from a lottery ticket that held a life-changing prize, lottery officials said. Kenneth Skipper tried to purchase the ticket three times, but the card reader wasn't working, he told the North Carolina Education Lottery, according to a May 27 news release. It was the clerk who encouraged him to try one more time, leading him to a $2 million jackpot prize in the $2 Million Vault game, lottery officials said. Skipper said he stared at the ticket after he learned of the win for about five minutes, according to the lottery. 'I called my wife and told her, 'I think I just won the lottery,'' he said. 'She started freaking out.' Then, Skipper told lottery officials he went back into the store and found the clerk. 'I pulled her to the side and said, 'You've just changed my life,'' Skipper said, according to the lottery. He bought the winning ticket from a convenience store in Fayetteville, about a 140-mile drive southeast from Charlotte, lottery officials said. He plans to use the prize to pay bills and give to his church, the lottery said. The $2 Million Vault game began May 6 and features prizes ranging from $20 to the $2 million jackpot, according to the game's web page. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 1,729,430, and the odds of winning overall are 1 in 3.35, lottery officials said. Two out of three jackpot prizes remain to be claimed, the lottery said.
Boston Globe
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Boston's brightest: 33 valedictorians celebrated at annual luncheon
Advertisement After countless hours in the classroom and the dance studio, Pires is headed to New York to attend Fordham University while dancing at the renowned Alvin Ailey school. She will pursue a pre law track with the hopes of becoming a criminal justice lawyer. Pires was celebrated among 32 other Dozens of family members watched their graduates receive a certificate and shake hands with Mayor Michelle Wu, Superintendent Mary Skipper, and School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson. Christina Yang, from the Josiah Quincy Upper School, poses for a photograph with, from left, Mayor Michelle Wu, Boston School Committee chair Jeri Robinson, and Superintendent Mary Skipper during the annual valedictorians luncheon. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff 'You could have taken an easier route. You could have decided just to put off homework or do something that would give you a little bit more time to maybe relax or hang out with friends,' Wu said to the valedictorians. 'You made a hard choice – time after time after time – to invest in yourselves.' Advertisement Wu, a valedictorian herself, congratulated the students on their achievements while urging them to consider staying in Boston or returning to the city if they go away for college. 'This is your home. It always will be, and I wouldn't be doing my job as mayor if I weren't making a pitch that we need your leadership here in this community,' she said. Related : Christina Yang, the valedictorian of the Josiah Quincy Upper School, is staying in the city to attend Boston University. Yang wants to become an educator, maybe a teacher or counselor. She said her experience as a student has inspired her to pursue a career in education. 'I see myself working in a school setting with children and helping to seek advocacy for the younger generation,' Yang said. 'I have a very compassionate heart for younger people, and I love working with little kids.' After struggling her freshman year, Yang said she learned how to advocate for herself and seek support when needed. A daughter of Chinese immigrants, she will be the first generation in her family to attend college. 'From South America and Italy to Vietnam and Dorchester, our valedictorians truly come from all over the world,' said Robinson, the school board chair. 'Your journeys are a testament to the rich tapestry of our community and the strength that lies in our diversity.' Skipper said 60 percent of the valedictorians are the first in their families to go to college, while 40 percent are from other countries. Advertisement 'In a time when we question in narratives — federally — the value of our immigrants, this room is an example of the value of our immigrants,' Skipper said. Many valedictorians worked jobs while in high school, while others were caretakers for young siblings, Skipper added. 'You have the opportunity and obligation to take all that talent that each of you possesses and go to a next level with it,' she told the graduates. The room gave a silent applause for Ahmed Sharif (not shown), from the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Among the colleges the students will attend include Harvard, Northwestern, UMass Amherst, Smith College, and Bowdoin College. Kaylee Nguyen, valedictorian of TechBoston Academy, will attend Northeastern University on a full scholarship, majoring in accounting. As part of the class of 2025, she transitioned from middle to high school during the pandemic and struggled with the social adjustment. 'I was really scared of what people thought of me. But once you surround yourself around people who are like you, then you're free to do whatever,' she said. Pires, who delivered a keynote address to the attendees, told the crowd the valedictorian title is bigger than grades, awards, or a speech. It comes with responsibility. In New York, Pires hopes to dance professionally for the Alvin Ailey company and to inspire younger people to follow their dreams, regardless of the obstacles. 'This is what the next generation is looking for. They're looking at me as an example,' Pires said. 'I really worked for this, but now I have a bigger responsibility of going out there and doing amazing work so that the next generation can follow through.' Advertisement After the program, the students and presenters posed for a group photo at Fenway Park. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Marcela Rodrigues can be reached at
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Former Vermont basketball player is returning to the Catamounts
Jackson Skipper is returning to Vermont basketball. The former Catamount — who left Burlington to play at Oral Roberts this past winter — is transferring back to Vermont, The Athletic's Tobias Bass reported on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, on Monday afternoon. Skipper also announced his commitment to Vermont on social media. Advertisement The 6-foot-6, 190-pound Skipper spent his first two collegiate seasons at Vermont, redshirting the 2022-23 year and playing a reserve role in 2023-24, averaging 7.1 minutes per contest in 11 appearances, as Vermont completed an America East championship three-peat. Skipper started 11 of 26 games for Oral Roberts, Skipper's hometown school located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He put up averages of 4.9 points and 2.3 rebounds per game while shooting 36.1% on his 3-point attempts. He reached double figures four times, including a career-high 20 points in a 92-54 victory over Texas A&M-Texarkana in December. Oral Roberts went 7-23 this past season, losing in the play-in game of the Summit League tournament. Advertisement Vermont previously picked up forwards Gus Yalden, Ben Michels and Trey Woodyard via the transfer portal this offseason. Head coach John Becker and his Vermont staff still need to fill three more scholarship spots for the 2025-26 campaign. Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@ Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5. This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont basketball: Transfer Jackson Skipper returning to Catamounts
