In Israel, there's a state exam for second-graders that aims to identify advanced students. There are two stages of this exam; the children who pass the first stage go on to the second, more challenging stage. I don't have all of the information about this exam, but, essentially, children who are identified as "advanced" are… Continue reading The exam for advanced second-graders
A high school memory of mine I was in high school (eleventh grade, I think) when I first heard a female classmate of mine tell a friend of hers that she had recently shaved her forearms. I was shocked. "Why would you bother doing that?" I asked her. Previous to that incident I'd been aware… Continue reading Modern body image issues for young girls
An American sentence: Returning from summer break, two schoolgirls quickly find adjacent chairs. What's an 'American Sentence'? Allen Ginsberg, inventor of the American Sentence, felt that the haiku didn’t work as well in English. Ginsberg decided to remove the line structure of the haiku, maintaining the requirement of 17 syllables total. He felt that removing… Continue reading First, or: Second grade
And, just like that, my seven-year-old entered second grade today. My regular readers will recall that my wife and I were particularly nervous last year about her beginning first grade because she was one of three "new kids" in a class of thirty. The majority of the children in her class had been in preschool… Continue reading Entering second grade
Children's life stories A couple of months ago, the mothers of the girls in our daughter's class had a social gathering to discuss their children's relationships with one another. By all accounts, it was a very successful and sweet get-together. Each of the mothers talked about her respective daughter and the child's life experiences, personality,… Continue reading Empathy: Our daughter & her friend
Last night, my wife and the other mothers of the girls in our daughter's first grade class had an evening gathering to discuss the social dynamics that have been developing among our children. This was exclusively a meeting for the girls' mothers, rather than for all the mothers, because the boys and girls tend to… Continue reading You don’t know until you know
A haibun Click for full size Look, I don't identify as politically liberal or politically progressive. I'm very much a centrist and interested in understanding all sides of political arguments. Not only that, but I tend to support high levels of personal freedom. So, I'm totally open to having a guns rights activist explain this… Continue reading Humans, or: Statistics
AmeriCorps AmeriCorps is a Federally funded volunteer program in the USA, also known as the 'domestic Peace Corps'. The idea is that AmeriCorps participants work in various programs across the country, aiming to improve American society in sundry ways. I was an AmeriCorps member for two years after my university studies. During my first year,… Continue reading A personal anecdote about writing
The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
You must be logged in to post a comment.