A+ Test Prep & Tutoring Blog

February 2010 Newsletter

In This Issue:

In The Educational Dilemma in Saudi Arabia, Talal M. Alhammad, a college junior studying at Harvard University, compares the American educational system with the system in place in his native Saudi Arabia.  Mr. Alhammad notes that where the Saudi system emphasizes conformity, and “ineffective memorization,” our American system emphasizes critical thinking.  He is particularly impressed by the emphasis, within the American model, on deep immersion into a subject area and the requirement that students think about the material from a variety of perspectives, even when that means their opinion may be at odds with that of a professor.

Mr. Alhammad’s essay gives us the opportunity to see our own system through the eyes of someone outside our culture. While it is clear that there are many things about the American system of education that need to be improved and/or repaired, it is important to remember that we also do a lot of things right. Our tradition of what Mr. Alhammad calls “the liberal education environment” teaches students to think critically about the world around them and gives them the tools to analyze information independently. Those are two skills whose value cannot be overstated in the increasingly complex world in which our children will be living as they make their own journeys into adulthood.

Sonja Kerr, Esquire

Location:  Center School, 2450 Hamilton Ave., Abington, PA

SecretBuilders is a virtual world for children 5 to 14 years old powered by a web 2.0 community of children, parents, educators, writers, artists and game developers. On SecretBuilders, children will explore virtual lands, undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact with their friends.

Check out their blog, which contains an article from our newsletter!

Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated in United States and Canada on February 2.

In weather lore, if a groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, marmot, or ground squirrel, emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If on the other hand, it is sunny and the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for 6 more weeks.^[1]

Candlemas is usually the same day, and has similar beliefs about the coming weather.

Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14. In the Americas and Europe, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of “valentines.” Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.^[1] The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.^[2]

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines cards are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.^[3]

Washington’s Birthday is a United States federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February. It is also commonly known as Presidents Day (or President’s Day). As Washington’s Birthday or Presidents Day, it is also the official name of a concurrent state holiday celebrated on the same day in a number of states.

Titled Washington’s Birthday, the federal holiday was originally implemented by the United States federal government in 1880 for government offices in the District of Columbia (20 Stat. 277) and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices (23 Stat. 516). As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday, February 22. On January 1, 1971 the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. A draft of the Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 would have renamed the holiday to Presidents’ Day to honor both Washington and Lincoln, but this proposal failed in committee and the bill as voted on and signed into law on June 28, 1968 kept the name Washington’s Birthday.

In the late 1980s, with a push from advertisers, the term “President’s Day” began its public appearance. The theme has expanded the focus of the holiday to honor another President born in February, Abraham Lincoln, and often other Presidents of the United States. Although Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have officially renamed their Washington’s Birthday observances as “Presidents Day”, “Washington and Lincoln Day”, or other such designations. However, “Presidents Day” is not always an all-inclusive term. In Massachusetts, while the state officially celebrates “Washington’s Birthday,” state law also prescribes that the governor issue an annual Presidents Day proclamation honoring the presidents that have come from Massachusetts: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Calvin Coolidge, and John F. Kennedy.^[1] (Coolidge, the only one born outside of Massachusetts, spent his entire political career before the vice presidency there. George H. W. Bush, on the other hand, was born in Massachusetts, but has spent most of his life elsewhere.) Alabama uniquely observes the day as “Washington and Jefferson Day”, even though Jefferson’s birthday was in April.^[2] In California, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois, while Presidents Day is a federal holiday, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is still a state holiday, falling on February 12 regardless of the day of the week.

In Washington’s home state of Virginia the holiday is legally known as “George Washington Day.”