My son—for better or worse—falls in the camp of kids whose school requires a certain level of homework during the summer vacation months. (His buddy Conor, from the next town over, has no such burden, Nick reminds me. Cheap!) It’s not such an overwhelming load—a dozen pages of math review problems from the past year plus three books to read. Oh, and a science project.
The math is almost done. Two and a half pages to go, and apparently it was no heavy lifting (though my wife and I have yet to check his calculations.)
The science project isn’t so bad either—an expanded version of a water-cycle write-up and drawing that his class did this past year. I can’t say I get the point of it, but that’s another matter.
And the reading has been happily consumed. Nick’s on the third of his required books (Fever 1793, Tangerine, and King Arthur), and has finished at least three of his own choosing as well, and there’s still a month of summer left. He’s supposed to write a short comment about each required book on his English teacher’s blog, plus he’s been keeping a blog of his own that chronicles his summer exploits in includes full-length book reviews of everything he’s read. That’s his summer writing “assignment,” concocted by task-master dad, though he’s proud of the blog and (mostly) a willing author.
My wish for him is that he finishes his math and science work by this weekend—the book will be no problem. Then he can live every kid’s summer dream of no schoolwork.
Apparently that dream is a hot topic, at least as laid out in yesterday’s Washington Post. The article goes into great detail on educators’ opinions pro and con about piling on the schoolwork to keep young minds sharp and minimize backsliding over the summer. I have mixed feelings about this. On one side, I too fear that, left to their own devices (i.e., total slack-off), kids risk losing much of what they gained during the previous school year. This hinders the learning process at a time when our schools already are falling short of the mark, and adds stress for kids when they have to re-immerse themselves in intellectual activity after two months of goofing off. That doesn’t mean resorting to 6 hours a day of lessons while their friends head off to the beach, but it does require some small amount of effort in each of the primary subject areas. On the flip side, however, I believe kids need time to rejuvenate. And that means run around, get fresh air, veg out in front of the TV or PS2, laugh, play, etc. I know from my own experience that, after intense practice at something, I often make the biggest leap in learning by then NOT doing that thing for a while. Somehow it seeps in deeper than banging my head against the wall again and again.
And that is why I hope Nick finishes his summer schoolwork soon, so he has a couple weeks to not think about it. School time will come soon enough, and summer is supposed to be time off. He earned the break; he should get to enjoy it.
August 6, 2008
July 17, 2008
Nature of things
I haven’t written lately because, well, I’ve been busy. And now is supposed to be those lazy days of summer?? Apparently not.
Recent highpoints:
Work has had its ups and downs. On the downside – it’s budget time again and I had to come up with a 10% cut to keep pace with rising paper and ink prices, shrinking circulation, and other things out of our control. Painful, yes, but also a healthy exercise in product evaluation and quality control. On the upside, I was able to preserve the status of my most key personnel; I happily gave a glowing evaluation to a critical staff member; and today we got an RFP from one potential client, a “next steps” request from another, and an important commitment from an existing client. Not bad for a day’s work.
This is a busy period for my wife – a couple of those out-early-home-late performance weeks where she’s juggling back-to-back events, multiple press interviews and media queries, live performance photo shoots, and client visibility. She recently switched to a new web-enabled cell phone (a pocket-sized computer, really) that gives her mobility whole monitoring the several hundred e-mails she gets daily (plus weekends), and it’s already paid for itself in terms of flexibility. Now she can actually drive home from work (15 minutes) and deal with 30 or 40 e-mails before she walks in the front door. Or, if duty calls, she can book a newspaper interview from her beach chair—though she’d prefer to leave the thing at home rather than risk dropping it in the sand. In today’s anytime-anywhere now-now-now mode, that amounts to major progress.
I’m looking forward to early August, when we decamp to the Cape for two weeks. Nick will be in camp there (his annual infusion of rifle and arrow shootin’ and sailing), and while it’s absolutely not vacation time for either Kathy or me, there is a healthier pace to our life. I get to walk the dog in the early morning (something I don’t even consider at home, even though I get out of bed at the same hour either way). My “desk” is our outdoor dining table on our screened-in porch (Kathy opts for the indoor laptop and the AC). We have wireless Internet, a good printer, cell phones, and FedEx knows where we live. We haven’t figured out how to make this a permanent live/work location, but we’re considering the angles. Anyhow, I get a ton of work done on the porch and I get to hear the birds chirp – a win-win.
In non-work life, I have poison ivy for the second time since Memorial Day. Serves me right for trying to improve our view at the Cape. I don’t know where the poisonous plant was that I touched, but I’ll tell you this: Those recent reports about rising CO2 levels from global warming causing poison ivy to flourish – I believe them. Pretty soon, I’ll be like that boy in the bubble, never leaving the house without long sleeves and gloves, then stripping down to my skivvies using rubber gloves and tongs, and washing everything with Technu (I wonder if they make it in “fresh” scent?).
Then again, when I gaze over the cranberry bog across the road from our house, with its seasonal colors and soft contours, or see the stars and sky through the trees, I guess a little scratching is a small price to pay…
Speaking of nature’s modes of revenge, we have West Nile Virus/EEE mosquitoes in our Brookline neighborhood (everybody out of the pool!!); it’s tick season on the Cape; and the no-see-ums were out in force last weekend on the beach. On top of that, we have deer invading gardens in our neighborhood in Brookline and hordes of ravenous chipmunks devouring our tomatoes and digging holes in the yard on the Cape. And bunnies… lots and lots of rabbits this year. The only thing we haven’t had was the cicadas. This was supposed to be their big year (one in every 17, or something like that) and not a peep, or squeak, or whatever that sound is they make. Did they appear elsewhere and I missed out on the chorus, or are they waiting till there’s a new man in the White House and all’s right with the world?
Recent highpoints:
Work has had its ups and downs. On the downside – it’s budget time again and I had to come up with a 10% cut to keep pace with rising paper and ink prices, shrinking circulation, and other things out of our control. Painful, yes, but also a healthy exercise in product evaluation and quality control. On the upside, I was able to preserve the status of my most key personnel; I happily gave a glowing evaluation to a critical staff member; and today we got an RFP from one potential client, a “next steps” request from another, and an important commitment from an existing client. Not bad for a day’s work.
This is a busy period for my wife – a couple of those out-early-home-late performance weeks where she’s juggling back-to-back events, multiple press interviews and media queries, live performance photo shoots, and client visibility. She recently switched to a new web-enabled cell phone (a pocket-sized computer, really) that gives her mobility whole monitoring the several hundred e-mails she gets daily (plus weekends), and it’s already paid for itself in terms of flexibility. Now she can actually drive home from work (15 minutes) and deal with 30 or 40 e-mails before she walks in the front door. Or, if duty calls, she can book a newspaper interview from her beach chair—though she’d prefer to leave the thing at home rather than risk dropping it in the sand. In today’s anytime-anywhere now-now-now mode, that amounts to major progress.
I’m looking forward to early August, when we decamp to the Cape for two weeks. Nick will be in camp there (his annual infusion of rifle and arrow shootin’ and sailing), and while it’s absolutely not vacation time for either Kathy or me, there is a healthier pace to our life. I get to walk the dog in the early morning (something I don’t even consider at home, even though I get out of bed at the same hour either way). My “desk” is our outdoor dining table on our screened-in porch (Kathy opts for the indoor laptop and the AC). We have wireless Internet, a good printer, cell phones, and FedEx knows where we live. We haven’t figured out how to make this a permanent live/work location, but we’re considering the angles. Anyhow, I get a ton of work done on the porch and I get to hear the birds chirp – a win-win.In non-work life, I have poison ivy for the second time since Memorial Day. Serves me right for trying to improve our view at the Cape. I don’t know where the poisonous plant was that I touched, but I’ll tell you this: Those recent reports about rising CO2 levels from global warming causing poison ivy to flourish – I believe them. Pretty soon, I’ll be like that boy in the bubble, never leaving the house without long sleeves and gloves, then stripping down to my skivvies using rubber gloves and tongs, and washing everything with Technu (I wonder if they make it in “fresh” scent?).
Then again, when I gaze over the cranberry bog across the road from our house, with its seasonal colors and soft contours, or see the stars and sky through the trees, I guess a little scratching is a small price to pay…Speaking of nature’s modes of revenge, we have West Nile Virus/EEE mosquitoes in our Brookline neighborhood (everybody out of the pool!!); it’s tick season on the Cape; and the no-see-ums were out in force last weekend on the beach. On top of that, we have deer invading gardens in our neighborhood in Brookline and hordes of ravenous chipmunks devouring our tomatoes and digging holes in the yard on the Cape. And bunnies… lots and lots of rabbits this year. The only thing we haven’t had was the cicadas. This was supposed to be their big year (one in every 17, or something like that) and not a peep, or squeak, or whatever that sound is they make. Did they appear elsewhere and I missed out on the chorus, or are they waiting till there’s a new man in the White House and all’s right with the world?
July 1, 2008
Search Me?
I was killing time on the Web tonight, snooping on a few old friends to see what might turn up on Google. That led me to search myself.
Well, if I’d known how common my name apparently is around the world, I’d have changed it a long time ago, or at least taken my full, formal name more seriously to improve my future searchability. (I suppose it doesn’t help your Google ranking to modify the form of your name with each job change over the past decade or so…who woulda knew?)
Anyhow, I did turn up some interesting things. Like a link for a now-defunct video titled “William Weber eats small children.” I’m not really sure what to make of that. I’m also an author, a TV newscaster, a deceased actor (remember the 1943 classic “Happy Land”? … me neither), a film editor, the oldest living Cincinnati Reds ball player, a guitarist (whose slogan is “Buy me whiskey now!”), a plastic surgeon, and the fellow responsible for space telecommunications and navigation for the JPL. There are many references to other Dr. William Webers (something my parents would have wished for – but none of them links to anything about my uncle, the best Dr. William Weber in my book.) There’s even a whole Bill Weber directory on Linked In. (See if you can pick me out of the crowd.)
I did find a few links about me, including a reference to a job I had five years ago, found on a Swedish website. By adding my town to my name, I did find a few references to me connected to our local school’s School Improvement Plan (I’m on the advisory council), to my standing on our historic neighborhood board (I’m the V.P., heaven help me), and eventually to me at work.
And finally, there were a couple references to my favorite other William Weber, who lives around the corner. But I don’t need Google to find him. We not only live three blocks apart, we cross paths at the same car dealer, dry cleaner, video store, landscaper, HVAC service, market…
With or without Google, I guess, there’s a lot of me to go around.
Well, if I’d known how common my name apparently is around the world, I’d have changed it a long time ago, or at least taken my full, formal name more seriously to improve my future searchability. (I suppose it doesn’t help your Google ranking to modify the form of your name with each job change over the past decade or so…who woulda knew?)
Anyhow, I did turn up some interesting things. Like a link for a now-defunct video titled “William Weber eats small children.” I’m not really sure what to make of that. I’m also an author, a TV newscaster, a deceased actor (remember the 1943 classic “Happy Land”? … me neither), a film editor, the oldest living Cincinnati Reds ball player, a guitarist (whose slogan is “Buy me whiskey now!”), a plastic surgeon, and the fellow responsible for space telecommunications and navigation for the JPL. There are many references to other Dr. William Webers (something my parents would have wished for – but none of them links to anything about my uncle, the best Dr. William Weber in my book.) There’s even a whole Bill Weber directory on Linked In. (See if you can pick me out of the crowd.)
I did find a few links about me, including a reference to a job I had five years ago, found on a Swedish website. By adding my town to my name, I did find a few references to me connected to our local school’s School Improvement Plan (I’m on the advisory council), to my standing on our historic neighborhood board (I’m the V.P., heaven help me), and eventually to me at work.
And finally, there were a couple references to my favorite other William Weber, who lives around the corner. But I don’t need Google to find him. We not only live three blocks apart, we cross paths at the same car dealer, dry cleaner, video store, landscaper, HVAC service, market…
With or without Google, I guess, there’s a lot of me to go around.
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