According to the U.S. Census, the most common reason people give for not voting is that they were too busy or had conflicting work or school schedules.
Even in high school, I went through a lot of relationship issues, and that's at the center of my music.
My activities were centered around school and football and church and senior high fellowship, and I got together with a couple bands and started playing parties, proms, stuff like that. It was the music that really worked for me.
It wasn't until sixth grade, at P.S. 168, when my teacher took us on a field trip to her house that I realized we were poor. I have no idea what my teacher's intentions were - whether she was trying to inspire us or if she actually thought visiting her Manhattan brownstone with her view of Central Park qualified as a school trip.
My parents weren't around much, but I assumed everybody's family was the same. I didn't know people had mummies and daddies who would give them milk and cookies after school. I just thought everybody lived on Central Park West and they had a nanny to take care of them.
Growing up poor, I didn't even have a lunch to take to school. Lunch was 26 cents, and we didn't even know what 26 cents looked like. I didn't love school because I wanted to disguise that I was poorer than everybody else.
America thrived in the 20th century because we made high school free. We sent a generation to college. We cultivated the most educated workforce in the world.
But with the steady disintegration of the family in modern society over the last century, the role of the school in bridging the gap has become vital!
I think every school needs a protection plan with a either police officer or certified armed security.
'Don Quijote' by Cervantes. I read the original Spanish version when I was in high school. Such a classic!
Going through the Chagrin Falls school system, I always thought I was going off to art school.
After high school, I worked as a messenger boy at a local bank. I was miserable. I felt like Robin Hood chained in the Sheriff of Nottingham's dungeon. As a would-be writer, I thought it was a catastrophe. As a bank employee, I could barely add or subtract and had to count on my fingers.
I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city's Students Federation.
At school, I'd sing in groups in the locker room or in the bathroom, which was like an echo chamber. The problem is I didn't know how to get started singing professionally. The pool hall was my Facebook. I'd hang out there to keep up with what was going on and to let people know where I could be reached if singing jobs came up.
I wanted to entertain and make people laugh. I think it really hit in third grade, but once I was in high school, I joined chamber choir. I wanted to do musical theater, too, but they had rehearsals at the same time. That was a bit of 'Sophie's Choice.'
Look at how many North Carolina kids have played for me or tried out for me or coached with me. I've had Dennis Wuycik, Steve Previs, Billy Chamberlain, Donald Washington, Darrell Elston, Tommy LaGarde, Bobby Jones. You name it, I've had them. Whatever Coach has ever asked me to do, I've done. Because I love the school, and I worship him.
My dad had a soccer school that he used to run, the Mark Chamberlain Soccer Academy, I used to go to that for two years until the age of seven.
As a sophomore, I wanted to play varsity in three sports. And I accomplished that. It was a great feat that year, and something I held special. I wanted to bring a championship team to Oceanside High School, and it happened. It was a great year that I will never forget.
I was missing out on public school and going to the football games, prom or homecomings. But I've been to three World Championships... so I think it's like a win-win.
The concern was that if a woman was doing gender equality, her chances of making it to tenure in the law school were diminished. It was considered frivolous.
