Children like structure and boundaries because the world is a scary, unpredictable place. I've taught sixth grade for several years and have found that when children enter puberty their boundaries need to be both expanded to develop the growth of the individual and strengthened to keep them feeling secure and cared for in the face of a tidal wave of new information about the world. My students all live in poverty and gang-stricken neighborhood, which means their lives are very unpredictable. They actually remind me to give them their homework if I forget to pass it out. Any change in routine and structure seriously stresses them out.

Adults like boundaries too. We call them laws and the social order. These are to be reexamined, debated and updated by the societies that agree to live by them (this is why parenting philosophies get so heated), but living in a community requires we live within certain boundaries. A huge part of setting boundaries is teaching children how to live in the world.

When my husband was unemployed he contacted IBR to lower his monthly student loan payments. After they calculated everything his new monthly payment actually went UP and they said it was impossible to return it to the previous lower rate. So yeh, IBR is not the godsend everyone keeps saying it is.

I also love Hot House, mostly because it's cheap and it's six blocks from my apartment. However, whenever I go I usually just wish I would have driven up to Lynnwood for the Korean Spa.

Auto shop, along with most vocational tech classes have been cut from high schools because of our federal government's insistence that every high school student be college bound. The one and only measure for this is state-wide assessments. Schools are cutting "extraneous" classes for remedial math and reading for kids who don't pass the state assessments in those two subjects. This is called neoliberal education reform.

Straight rhubarb pie is Queen. Strawberry comes in for a close second, but is frequently too sweet (unless I make it).

PERFECT !!

I also vastly prefer a stick- I love how the human gets to do all the decision making instead of the machine. Country and suburbs are definitely preferable (I just taught a friend to drive on a gravel road off the Palouse highway outside of Colfax) but I would prefer a Seattle option!

I love stories of learning to drive a stick! My dad taught me when I was 16; he had recently hurt his back so he refused to sit in the car with me. He just walked alongside the car and shouted directions through the window. Even still, I also felt super safe and try to remember that when I'm teaching.

I was married last summer on a very tight budget with a very large guest list. I don't read Miss Manners every day but DEAR GOD. You NEVER ask for cash as a wedding gift; on top of that to demand over $100?! This is a wedding faux paux on the same level as not writing Thank You cards or not inviting your future mother-in-law. In some cultures people exclusively give cash, but in those cases already everyone knows it. This is tacky beyond all levels; do not indulge this woman anymore then you already have.