Tag: education

With the holiday season fast approaching, I hope you are in good spirits.

This year, I’d like to talk a bit about shogi, the Japanese variation of chess.  You may be thinking “but you do that every year,” but this year I hope to give some context to my annual report on how

Perhaps because I spent most of 2017 thinking about time and how there is never enough of it, I dedicated 2018 to making the most of my limited time seeking to accomplish something new and concrete outside of my day job.

Dear Tom,

You and I will forever be bound by the bond we formed during our days at Boston College, so it's hardly a surprise that, as I attended your celebration of matrimony with Kris-Stella last month, I looked back on our time together at BC.

In particular, I thought about what it means to be a BC

Japanese and American people are truly remarkable people, although they amaze in entirely different ways.

The Japanese excel in order and discipline.

My favorite example to illustrate this is the shugaku ryokou, which is like a field trip for an entire grade over a couple nights at some exotic location like the historical city of Kyoto or Tokyo

I have had enough of reading about liberal college students on liberal college campuses complaining about their liberal sensitivities being offended.

These people are not entitled not to be offended.

The reason I know this is because if they have such an entitlement, so do I, and if I were to have such entitlement, the very people who

Dear Underclassman Eagles,

After you graduate from Boston College,  you'll realize that your years at Chestnut Hill shaped many aspects of your life.  The liberal arts education that instilled a sense of public service is one.  The life-long friendships that you formed is another.

As an underclassman, you're likely still building your circle of friends, and to those who

The 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution all started with a C paper.

It was 1982, and the constitutional debate du jour was the Equal Rights Amendment, which was intended to guarantee equal rights for men and women.  The amendment passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and was given to the states to ratify

I don't have a lot of regrets in my life.  If forced to name them, I have a list of three to choose from, but people laughed at me the one time I talked about how I forever regret choosing to study for my constitutional law exam instead of attending my very first Brad Paisley concert,

Dear Eagles Preparing for Senior Year,

After three years of hard work, I know it's tempting to look at your final year in college as the last hurrah before you have to face the realities of the real world.  Workdays, bills and taxes await you after graduation, and I don't blame you for wanting to make

I had one of the most deeply reflective moments about life in college in, of all places, math class, from a professor who shared a story about a failure of Johannes Kepler before he discovered that the planets orbit the sun in an elliptical curve.

Back in Kepler's days, scientists were aware of only six planets.  Kepler

Dear Overachieving Eagles,

Being a natural overachiever, many of you will seek to become the cream of the crop of American society by obtaining a degree that's even higher than the Bachelor of Arts, like M.A., M.D., J.D., M.B.A. or Ph.D.

As an overeducated double Eagle myself, I have some experience with knowing what it takes to

John was a couple years behind me at Boston College.  I don't exactly recall how we initially met, but we quickly became close friends because I was Japanese and he was interested in Japan.

John had a great laugh.  He and I come from a different political mold, he of the moderate left and I of

For the longest time, I had no interest in reading.  

I swear it started in high school, when novels like "The Grapes of Wrath," "Walden Pond" and "The Old Man and the Sea" sent me into temporary comas.  I think my experience proves that just because a book is a "classic" doesn't mean kids in

Last week, I learned of a ridiculous fact that Justin Bieber earned $50 million this year.  Besides making me think I definitely made a wrong career choice, it got me thinking about what I would do if I had $50 million...

I'll go to Monaco on a $1 million cruise trip and put $2 million on

Blaine Larsen's “In My High School” is one of my favorite songs.  It’s a soothing melody that reflects on what life and people were like in high school.

I wish I can say that the song brings back memories, but the song says nothing about juvenile delinquents who knew of no etiquette, decency or common sense

On April 27, 2011, residents of Franklin Lakes will go to the polls to elect new school boards and approve or disapprove the school budgets.  For the first time in two years, the election is competitive.  While it is cutting it close, it is not too late to get an absentee ballot.  I cannot think

A couple months ago, I defended lawyers. To show that I can make myself even more lovable, today I defend my educational background, which I thought spoke for itself.  For this show of narcissism that's paralleled, y'all can thank my office neighbor, who, upon hearing the details of my academic history,  questioned whether I slipped through the

The managing partner of my firm's Tokyo office once said that he considered anyone who claimed to be bilingual to be a liar.  Bilingual himself, he was being facetious, but he had an underlying point that I completely shared:  bilingualism just means that you're imperfect in two languages.

Dear Current Eagles,

It may come as a shock to you (and your parents who are footing the enormous tuition), but the purpose of your Boston College education is not to ensure that you have a job after you graduate.

Last week, I bought a TI-89 calculator.  It's like the calculator you used to get by calculus in high school, only this one is better.

I've wanted one for a long time.  My freshman year at Boston College, I got a TI-89 because I was well on my way to majoring in math.  This union lasted

I like history, but not necessarily social science.  I don't particularly care for Geography and predictably I'm not particularly good at it.

I find it appalling that 1/3 of Americans can't identify China on an unmarked world map, but then, I'm in no position to critique.  I took a mini Japanese Geography quiz at juku, my

The happiest moment of my life was when I got a 600 on SAT verbal.  You may say it doesn't take much to make me happy, but you'd be missing my point.  The statement is a reflection on my life-long struggle to achieve competence in verbalism, be it in English or Japanese.

I somehow managed to

On April 21, 2009, residents of Franklin Lakes will go to the polls to elect new school boards and approve or disapprove the school budgets.  While it is cutting it close, it is not too late to get an absentee ballot.  I cannot think of a more important election than those that involve the future

My college professor once sarcastically remarked that I'm a collector.  That I am.  I don't just collect the popular, and the more common sensical, baseball cards or foreign money.  No, no.  I collect crap like movie stubs and hotel card keys (which I eventually stopped because I realized that's not crap, it's trash).

Then there is

I think I'll make a great math teacher, not because I can teach well, but because the math education in this country is so fucked up I can't possibly do worse.

For those of you already teaching pre-college math, here are ten good places to start: