Your Friday Afternoon Video #26: Numbnut

This kid won the 2008 national spelling bee.

My Priorities

When I was in sixth grade, my homeroom had a project where every student was given the same 30 things and had to list them in order of importance. I can't remember very many of them now, but I know that health, a long life, money, family and religion were among them. We were each given a big board (about 2' by 3') to write out the list and then the boards were hung from the ceiling.

Wonder where my list is now. It may be packed away in my parents' garage. I remember that at the top of my list was a long life (I was really afraid of death back then) and at the bottom was religion. I should make a new list now, file it away, then take it again every ten years.

UCI

It came as news to me today that UCI is setting up a law school, the first public law school in California in 40 years. The David Bren School of Law at UCI is scheduled to open its doors in Fall 2009.

But that's not why I heard about it today. UCI is in the news because its Chancellor abruptly fired the law school's Dean, Prof. Erwin Chemerinsky, because he decided Chemerinsky is too liberal. (Lawyers may remember Chemerinsky from Bar/Bri classes-- he was the constitutional law guy who lectured for hours without any notes).

Proud to Be a Golden Bear

2005 UC Berkeley freshman class facts:

93% from California
87% from public high schools
68% have at least one parent born outside the U.S.
28% are the first in their family to go to college
74% receive some form of financial aid (all undergrads)

2005-2006 academic year in-state tuition: $7,434

Private Schools

When did everyone start sending their kids to private schools? I hardly knew any private or prep school kids until I moved to NYC. I figured it was mostly an East Coast thing.

Apparently it isn't. I'm finding that a bunch of people in LA are sending their kids to private schools. And these aren't just rich people. These are middle class folks putting all their money into private schools. Was it always this way?

I suppose if you grow up in the public school system, then basically all your friends are from public schools. Same goes for private schools. Two worlds of kids that don't really mix until they go to college (even then, they may not mix).

What really blows my mind is the idea of sending your kid to private school from age 5. Folks in Manhattan are even sending their kids to $20,000/year pre-school. Well, NY is different. But what about the rest of the country?

I can understand sending your kid to private school if your local school is abysmal, but what if your local school is pretty good? What's the value of sending your kids to private school then? What do you lose? I don't have kids, but the idea of sending a kid to private school all their lives is really troubling to me. High school, I can understand, sort of.