Category Archives for "School"

0 What to do for a science project

wish_ROX asks: What should I make for my science project?

Hi wish_ROX –

I have a simple answer for you, though you might not like it.  It’s “Whatever You Want!”

But I’m not saying that to be bratty, wish_ROX.  What I mean is that, if you’re going to devote a lot of effort to a project, it should be about something you find interesting.  If you’re super-interested in animals, and find machines a little boring, then you shouldn’t be trying to build an engine.  And if you’re obsessed with powerful things that make bright lights and noise, you shouldn’t be bothering with breeding mice.

What really excites you, wish_ROX?  Think back over the last Continue reading

0 How to keep information in your memory for a test

daisymimi22 asks: I learn things before I take tests, but when I am writing on my test sheet, I forget everything. What should I do?

Hi daisymimi22 –

I sure do relate.  When I was getting trained, I would learn all the things I was supposed to do – “Come,” “Sit,” “Stay,” “Heel,” and such – and really have them down.  Then Handsome would take me in front of some friends of his and say, “Shirelle’s so smart!  Let me show you!  Okay, girl, Sit.”  And I’d have absolutely no idea what he was talking about!

How wildly irritating!  He’d be embarrassed, I’d feel dumb, and his friends would be condescending, like “Well she’s a cute puppy anyway, that’s enough.”  Oh how awful that felt!

So here’s the problem I had, which I imagine you’re also having.  Brains (both dog and human sorts) have sections that store different sorts of Continue reading

0 What are good poems for children?

moavia asks: I want to see poems for kids.

Hi moavia –

Oh there are SOOOO many poems for kids out there!  Here are a few to start with.  None are new or rare, but once you’ve started with these, you’ll be set to discover many new magical ones!

“Mother Goose” – of course the most famous collection of children’s poetry ever.  There’s nothing I can say about it that hasn’t been said a zillion times over.

“A Child’s Garden of Verses” by Robert Louis Stevenson – Pretty old stuff now (19^th century), but Continue reading

0 Who to ask for help in school performance

ian asks: Who can help students throughout their problems in their school performance?

Hi ian –

There are almost an endless number of folks who intend to help students with their problems.  The tough question for students is who to choose to ask for that help.

For example, many schools offer Continue reading

0 What to do if you’re addicted to Facebook

Hachiko asks: I have been getting addicted to the Internet (especially Facebook). I can’t close it because my best friend and I live very far so we can talk there. I also play a game there called Youville, and am addicted to that too. Could you please help me?

Hi Hachiko –

Facebook is, I suppose, the most profound change in humans’ social world of the last decade.  I don’t even know what would come in second place!  It has exploded in popularity and importance so quickly that most of the world has been struggling to keep up with it – including trying to grasp what its advantages and disadvantages are.  Besides its original intent to create a place for friends to meet online, it has contributed to the fall of empires, to countless reunions of lost contacts, and – yes – to millions of acts of thoughtlessness and cruelty.

I’m only a dog and don’t have nearly the imagination or wisdom to know all the advantages or disadvantages inherent in Facebook.  But there are a few things I do know, and they all have both in them!

1)    Facebook is an amazing way of getting news about yourself out to a Continue reading

0 How to find a tutor

zipingo asks: I am a special child – I can’t walk and am in a wheelchair. I need a tutor to teach me in Urdu. Can you help me?

Hi zipingo –

I don’t know enough about your specific situation (where you live, etc.) to give you exact information, but I think the Internet is your best bet.

Let’s say you lived in, oh, Paris.  Well I imagine you could go onto a search engine like Google or Yahoo or whatever, and type in “Tutor Urdu Paris” and that a number of names would come up.  Then you could check with all of them, and see who you can trust and like the most.

But also, I would imagine, if you live in a city, there will be places that provide tutors for Continue reading

0 What to do if you’re sent to a scary school

amason7 asks: I failed 2 subjects at school, and my parents say that they are going to change me to a very bad school. I fear for my future. What do I do?

Hi amason7 –

I’m not sure what you’re fearing – if it’s the effect of failing the classes or the bad school.  Or both.

If it’s about the classes, the odds are you’re worrying more than is deserved.  People fail classes and exams all the time, and manage to move on to great lives and careers.  There may be lessons to learn from the failures, and if so I’m all for that.  But in terms of the immediate effects of the exams, you might have to retake those classes, or not get into some schools you want, but in the long term I think it’ll be fine.  Hey I had to get trained in staying so many times – each time I’d think I’d nailed it, I’d screw up and have to go Continue reading

0 How to react to racism

amikellia asks: I attend a school. As I got there people started disliking me for no reason. One girl said to another person that I am an African and they are very ugly, I am an African but I don’t know why people dislike Africans. Some of them have to be forced by a teacher to talk to me or group up with me, and so on. Some of them don’t even like sitting down next to me. They make fun of me behind my back, call me names and laugh at me anytime I lose something! If I tell a teacher, it becomes even worse. I try to ignore them, but it is very hard. They even mock my accent because I am an African. I don’t like it at all. Please help me.

Hi amikellia –

In most ways, humans are a lot smarter than us dogs.  Humans can invent and create automobiles, humans can do math, humans can write songs and symphonies and poems and novels… humans are just brilliant.

And then there are the areas where humans can be absolute idiots.  Racism sticks out as maybe the biggest of these.

You say you don’t like the way you’re being treated?  Well I’ll take you one further – I HATE it!  What you’re living through is unbridled cruelty, to the point of real bullying.  And it is SOOOOOOOO Continue reading

2 How to deal with someone else getting everyone’s attention and interest

Arjai101 asks: This guy at school just really gets on my nerves because everyone acts like the world revolves around him. Example: I compose my own classical piece on the guitar and it took me weeks nobody gives a care, he repeats the exact same punch line/ joke for the millionth time EVERYONE CARES. It’s like everyone cares about him at school and nobody notices anything that I do even if it took me forever whether its writing, basketball, chess, music I feel like no one at school gives a care. My friends are slowly drifting away and I feel like I have nothing to hold on to. He is ruining my life! He just dominates everything, so everyone cares. And it really hurts a lot. What should I do? I feel like I’m just drowning and there’s nobody here to save me.

Hi Arjai101 –

It sounds to me like you’re dealing with a very odd concept called Charisma.  Some people have tons of it, and others have little or none.  Charisma is that quality that makes someone exciting, attractive, and super-relevant to others.  All successful politicians have it; most movie and singing stars have it; and super-popular kids in school definitely have it.

What causes Charisma?  Well, good looks help, but some charismatic people aren’t wildly beautiful.  Intelligence, strength, and accomplishment help as well, but also aren’t absolutely necessary.  It really seems to be a mixture of a number of qualities.

But I do think there’s one quality that Charismatic people always have, which is a healthy (or unhealthy) level of something called Continue reading

1 Should you change schools if you’re not making friends in yours?

Hachiko asks: I want to change my school. Not because of it being an all-girls school, but because I can’t make any good friends here. Studying quality is good but I want to go to this other school (combined), because I have many other friends there. My mom thinks I shouldn’t go and my dad says I can go if I want. What should I do? I read in combined schools earlier, and I also read in this school when I was small, but because of my dad being in the army I had to change schools. I’m going through depression because of my school (I think), and my parents don’t actually care (they say they got problems of their own). I know they love me, but feeling alone is sad. And the studying pressure is also a bit more in the school which makes me go through mental depression as I get no time for myself 🙁 no time for hangouts and the studying pressure in that school is less. And also let me say that I don’t know why, but combined schools are also a lot of PRESSURE because of the boys if you know what I mean!

Hi Hachiko –

When Handsome first took me to a dog park, I was six months old, and as playful and hyper as any puppy ever, and was overjoyed to run up to all the dogs there and make friends… and not one wanted to play with me.

Why?  Well, partly because some of them had special friends they wanted to play with, and didn’t need a new pal.  Also because some of them simply didn’t like to play with anyone, or were older and found puppies annoying!  But also, in some cases, they saw that I didn’t really know how to play the way they liked, and wanted me to stay back and observe them, and learn their rituals and rules.

Now today, I understand all that.  But on the day itself, I was devastated.  My veterinarian had told Handsome to keep me out of parks like that till I was this old, for disease prevention, and I had just hated not being able to play with lots of dogs.  So my hopes for this day were gigantic, and being spurned by the other pooches made me feel worthless and Continue reading