Recess! Media

With the children back in school, and the assignments already piling up, one of the web sites that your youngsters might really want to log onto is B.J. Pinchbeck’s homework page. Here today is Dr. Lauren Bradway, a speech and language pathologist, and a learning styles consultant from Neptune Beach, Florida, with her interview of the teenage internet phenomenon called “Beege.”

B.J. Pinchbeck, know to his friends as “Beege” is a typical 14-year old whose hobbies include rollerblading, playing laser tag with his dad, and surfing the net. However, unlike most 14-year olds, B.J. has been seen on Good Morning America and Oprah, interviewed by the New York Times and the Boston Globe and has been webmaster of his own site, called “B.J. Pinchbeck’s Homework Helper,” since he was the age of ten.

Responding to a calling to “help kids get their homework done easier” in April, 1996, B.J. enlisted the help of his dad, Bruce, to develop a webpage. Beege wanted kids to be able to meet their homework needs in one place and not “have to surf all over the web to find real good educational links.” His site contains 580 links to educational sites which cover such topics as English, History, Math, and Current Events, and every one has been thoroughly checked by B.J.

The outcome of his vision has been phenomenal. www.bjpincheck.com gets 5,000 to 6,000 hits every day and 20 to 40 email messages to which Beege and his dad respond personally.

In an interview with B.J. and his dad, “Recess!” asked Bruce how parents can encourage their children to become entrepreneurs. He told us he believes that his secret is that he never really treated his son and daughter as kids. By that he says he means he “made them feel they could do anything they wanted to.” He also did his best to “catch them when they were receptive and recognized the times when it seemed best to back off.”

B.J. is still dreaming. As a grown-up he’d like to run a hotel where every room has a computer so that guests can stay in personal touch with the concierge. That way, their every need can be met.

B.J. shared with me some carefully researched insider information. What are his favorite search engines? Metacrawler, Savvy Search, and DogPile.