My husband tutored the son of a co-worker for a couple of years, helping him out with his math and English. The boy is about to graduate high school, and will be entering collage this fall as a Liberal Arts major. We would like to give him something that would inspire him, or at least be educational.
Hubby suggested a leather-bound Sun Tsu or other philosopher, but I think such a gift will just end up on a dusty bookshelf. The boy is not fond of reading, and I fear philosophy might be a bit lost on him. (He’s not dumb by any means-- he’s just a nineteen year old boy with a sports scholarship, not what you’d call the intellectual type.)
Can any of you think of a gift which would fit? Hopefully, it would be entertaining enough to interest him, but educational and/or useful in his persuit of his degree.
The new traditional gift if a copy of Dr. Suess’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go, which is, indeed, an excellent book. He may get it from any number of other people, however. I highly recommend both The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed and The Deluxe Transitive Vampire; The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed by KarenElizabethGordon, the two best and most user-friendly grammar books I have ever seen. A good college dictionary is another standard gift, although so much is online now, an actual “book” may be an artifact for this generation!
Another excellent book is An Incomplete Education, a book that teaches you all the basics about the things a liberal arts major ought to know, but rarely does know. The entries are short and well written, but it’s not really a reference book, it’s more of a “flip it open and just learn something” book, maybe not the best choice for a non-reader.
I’d suggest a good fountain pen, but I bet he won’t even have to take notes on paper–he’ll have a laptop. Wow, that shuts down some respectable gifts! I suppose a DVD of Goodbye, Mr. Chips or the Corn Is Green or any of the other extolling the wonders of education would be pushing it.
I have a really nice paperweight that says “what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” Perhaps something like that, or something else engraved with an insperational message.
I think that Sun Tzu is a fine gift, though there’s no guarantee that the boy will read it. It depends on how it’s presented and what translation you get. I’ve seen some translations that were unreadable, while others were so simplified that the meaning was lost.
I’m not sure how educational or inspirational my idea is, but I’ve had very favorable results with giving a Leatherman multitool, specifically the Wave. If he’s going to be living away from home, this might be a massively useful thing to get him. Well, that and a towel.
How about finding out which graphing calculator he’ll be "encouraged to buy for his calculus courses at college, then get him one of those? And a couple of pounds of quarters for the laundromat.
How about a fancy-shmany flashlight, like a Maglite? (I also second the idea of a Leatherman multitool). Or an Amazon gift certificate? You can pretend he’ll buy a book on philosophy and he can really buy a video game.
All I can register reading the original post is “boy” and “college.” Quarters for the laundromat are good–as is air freshener, dish soap, Swiffer cloths, etc. That dorm room will be an education in itself.
I went a bit more mundane for a recent guy grad in my family.
Okay, a lot more mundane.
I got him a large canvas laundry bag, stuffed with towels, waschlothes, small packets of laundry soap and dryer sheets and a portable shower thingy for his toiletries. Oh, and a small change purse with $20 worth of quarters. Most of them will probably be used in snack machines but at least the whole package might help settle him comfortably into dorm life.
I am remembering the time I heard all the kids at school saying what they were getting for passing their high school exams; $10 per subject, a new used car etc (this was some years ago). I had no idea that gifts were even a possibility, so rushed home all excited and asked Mum what I could have. She looked at me and said: “A nice big kiss!”. This wasn’t quite what I was looking for.
Now I look back and see that Mum had the old intrinsic/extrinsic motivation thing worked out. My sisters and I all went on to get masters degrees, one a phd, but we never received gifts for achievement, what we did tend to do was go out for a lovely celebration meal. Would this be appropriate?
…I got one of them for my Uni graduation, and it’s great for signing all those big cheques and important documents. Or it will be, someday. Seriously, I’d say a fountain pen was a good idea. Another one is a classy pair of cufflinks - again, I got some for my 18th birthday, and I’ve worn them for just about every important event since.
