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When I was in high school I wrote a very memorable book report. It was about the book Of Mice and Men, a book I hadnt bothered to read before writing the report. I’m not sure what I was thinking, writing a book report on a book I hadn’t read, and since I didn’t know what the story was about I had to get creative.

The book report was to be three pages long, but what I knew about the story, gleamed from the book’s synopsis, would only fill half a page–and that was including a lot of the fluff I’d included to bulk up the report. My grand solution to this dilemma was to include sketches in my book report. I’ll make a disclaimer for you before continuing: I did not do drugs in high school. So I drew my sketches (which I thought were very appropriate, considering the topic. I drew some mice and a few men and then I drew mice and men together) and handed in my report. My English teacher was not amused. In fact, she was so not amused by my outright mockery of her assignment that she asked to see me after class.

I don’t know what came over me to hand in a report so obnoxious. I could’ve spit in my teacher’s face and she would not have been angrier with me. I got yelled at for fifteen minutes after class, and then assigned to detention every day after school for a week. She flunked me on the book report and would not let me make up the grade. She said I had an attitude problem and she was probably right. I never messed around with a book report like that again, and if I ever found myself unprepared to write an essay or report, I just didn’t hand one in rather than mocking the assignment.

A proper book report should have a summary of the book, a discussion about the characters and themes, and then an opinion at the end for the reader’s thoughts. There are ways to get around writing your own genuine report but I wouldn’t advise doing any of them. A decade or two ago, students would use Cliff’s Notes as an alternative to reading the whole book before writing about it. Now there are places online where you can buy a book report and you don’t even have to bother reading the Cliff’s Notes. Either way, it’s a risky game and it’s probably just easier to read the book and then write the report. After all, the book report is probably the easiest written assignment outside of the creative nonfiction essay in any English class.

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Can we fix it? Yes we can! I drove to work this morning with the Bob the Builder theme song in my head. That’s how you know you are officially a parent, when cartoon theme songs take control of the invisible radio in your head. Out of all of the cartoons though, I have to admit that I actually enjoy Bob the Builder. He’s cute and humorous, and his sidekicks are pretty entertaining as well. It amazes me how he can build something so quickly and always manage to solve some other issue as well. Whether Spud the Scarecrow manages to break something or Dizzy lets the sheep out of their pen, he fixes it all, doesn’t he? Yep, there aren’t too many things that the amazing Bob the Builder can’t fix. I wonder if he can fix my broken screen door…

My preschooler wants to know why Bob and Wendy aren’t married. I don’t have an answer for that, but maybe they should be. They certainly have plenty in common. They certainly could build their dream house in no time at all. Bob the Builder’s show isn’t just entertaining for children, but it has also proven to be educational. There isn’t always an obvious lesson that pops out at you, but the characters are always being courteous to one another, admitting their mistakes and accepting of one another. No matter who makes a mistake or needs help, the characters are always willing to help. The creator of the cartoon was a clever individual.

We have Comcast cable in my household and subscribe to the In Demand feature. I wouldn’t say that we are subscribers for own our purposes but mainly for the fact that there are unlimited kids’ cartoons and shows on at any time. Bob the Builder is one of the most popular requests in our household. I never have a problem allowing my daughter to watch that show on a daily basis. I won’t say that I’m fond of watching it as often as she wants to because eventually I can recite the entire episode completely on my own. She sits there on the couch and giggles, says hello to the characters and sometimes will pretend that Bob the Builder is joining us for dinner. Once, I had the lovely grocery store adventure when she pretended that he was shopping with us. Not only did I have to lift her in and out of the grocery cart, but she insisted that he needed help too. I suppose he didn’t have any tools that would allow him to hoist himself up into the cart since I had to put his invisible self next to her. I’m sure my fellow shoppers got a kick out of watching that scene. Of course, I pushed my embarrassment aside and simply smiled. Bob the Builder has stolen her heart and in essence, scored quite a few points with me as well.

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If you take a moment to look over the list of national best colleges from the U.S. News, you’ll notice a trend. The majority of the top best colleges listed there are Ivy League and cost more than an arm and leg to attend. Even if I would’ve had scholarship after scholarship to attend an Ivy League college I would not have been able to afford to attend one of the best colleges in the country. My dream college was Dartmouth. Not only is it located in a beautiful area but it’s listed as #9 on the Best Colleges list. However, $40,000 a year tuition is just not even remotely a possibility. Sadly enough, most of the students that attend those Ivy League schools come from a wealthier family or have been fortunate enough to work their tails off to make it into such a competitive school. Hypothetically speaking, had I been able to afford to attend an Ivy League college, after four years I would have more debt than my house is worth. I’m willing to bet that even though you won’t find my alma mater on the list of best colleges, my education is pretty close in comparison. The closest I will ever come to attending an Ivy League is owning a sweatshirt with their school name on it.

My husband and I have already started to save money for my daughter’s future college costs. As much as I would love to see her attend one of the best colleges, I’m quite sure our savings may not buy her more than one year of tuition. That may even be pushing it. Some people want nothing more than to send their children to only the most elite of colleges simply because of the prestige that comes along with it. If I’m interviewing someone for a job, sure I will be impressed if I see that they graduated from Harvard. Will it make me think that their abilities and intelligence is better than the next candidate who graduated from a state college? Probably not. It is simply the prestige that impresses people the most. Granted, the best colleges were determined from many factors. There is a reason that the students are paying such high tuition costs. The academics are well structured and the professors are highly qualified. The students are usually there by choice and actually dedicated to their studies more than a state college may find. Not as many students are dropping out of classes or not attending. There are many advantages to attending one of the most prestigious and best colleges. Just make sure that you’re checking the college out for all the right reasons, not just because it’ll look more impressive on your resume.

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