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KayBrewington's comments:
on Rebroadcast: Math Appeal
Something that is almost always left out of these math conversations is Dyscalculia. Schools, parents, and students need information on this. http://www.dyscalculia.org/
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Rebroadcast: Math Appeal
I totally agree!
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on The Reality of Guns
And how many people have been killed or seriously injured with a baseball bat? We should probably have background checks for those too...
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Guns
Chainsaws kill trees. Kitchen knives SEVER food or meat (an animal). Yes they do kill things. Gun kill THINGS, and they can kill people. A 2x4 can kill someone. You can kill someone with many things if the conditions are right.
It comes down to a decision, a choice! Everytime.
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Guns
Who is this lady guest? She is so automatically defensive!
Guns are NOT MADE to kill people any more than kitchen knives or a chainsaw is made to kill people. It's a tool that you can hurt or kill someone with. There's a huge difference.
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Guns
While I don't currently own a gun, I will in the future. I grew up with firearms being a totally normal thing not unlike any other tool, drill, hammer, or etc. It's a tool that enables people to do things. My father was in law enforcement and is a long time hunter. We were taught how serious a tool it was, to respect what it can do, and that they were NOT for play. They were not hidden away from us kids. I think that's a terrible idea. Hiding things we fear from children only serves to keep them in the dark, or worse, forbidden fruit territory. Educate instead.
Why not include some clips about the instances where guns have been valuable, saved the day, and otherwise got the right job done? Those stories exist. But do they shape the conversation the right way? Most people don't want to hear those stories. (It's like how we only hear about pit bulls attacking people and not golden retreivers or poodles.)
A gun never caused a single injury or murder. People do that. People have decisions to make. They can make those decisions with a hammer or a saw too.
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on Homeless in the Suburbs
How timely is this topic? ;)
My partner and I are currently experiencing homelessness. We both lost our homes in ugly divorces, and when you comine that with unemployment due to chronic illness and poor economy you have a perfect storm.
I had stayed home to raise and home educate children for 16 yrs prior to my divorce and illness. He worked in construction before a serious injury. Disability process is a very long one, often years before you can get to a steady income. What are these people... people like us to do? My 19 yr old was able to get a part time job and a roomate. My daughter is 17 and a new college student... she has bounced between her brother's apt, a boyfriend's apt, and her grandparents house.
We managed to get an old RV to stay in and we have family that took pity by letting us "visit" their "yard". The situation will wear out eventually though. Then what?
What really irks me about homelessness and how rampant it is, is that we have tons of tools available to us to fix it. I know this to be true because alternative building and housing have become one of my passions (err obsessions). GREED is the reason we have been "unable" to fix the homeless crisis. What stands in the way of fixing it is city and state building codes, permit requirements that take forever and are expensive, not allowing alternative/micro building to take place, people with funds not donating to finance buildings, altvillages,or programs to treat mental illness that runs so freely in homeless populations.
The options exist, but alt buildings don't fit our in the box idea of what housing or cities should look like. Greed and narrow mindedness are a huge part of this issue.
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on The Rise in Domestic Violence
One of the very best ways to prevent or at least reduce domestic violence is to change how we raise children. Children learn and become what they live with. When kids see angry abusive behaviors, words, and violence as the norm they internalize that and it becomes normal. When violence and the inevitable cycle of cover up or rationalization afterward is the standard or allowed in the home the children soak it up like a sponge. It does unbelievable damage that can take years or a lifetime to repair, and then the relationships that those kids grow up to have are also affected.
Kindness, respect, non violence, coping techniques that don't involve scaring people. This is what kids need.
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Gadgets, Gizmos & Grey Matter
Excellent point! My own children were "unschooled", and that approach to home education is all about the learner being in the driver's seat.
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Gadgets, Gizmos & Grey Matter
People are always so alarmist when it comes to kids using technology in the classroom. The things we are sounding the alarm about are mostly unrealistic. The idea that children using iPods or Kindles or whatever increasingly tiny electronic computer widget will somehow become a poor substitute for teaching/teachers, or that children will be less physically active seems a very narrow minded, short sighted view to me. Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised...we are still hearing arguments about calculators. ;)
The point is that good, involved teachers will understand how to use these items to their, and most importantly, to the students' advantage. If a teacher isn't involved and mindful to begin with it won't matter if they have tech in the classroom or not. It takes mindful parents, teachers, administration, and kids to get the most out of these tools. And that is really what they are! Amazing tools we should use for all the good things and all the big doors they can open to a child.
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on The Slow Path to Adulthood
I think that young adult children being seen as "needing" to get out of the house at 18 or 19 is a bit antiquated, and in some ways a very American "problem". Many cultures have several generations of family living together for a lifetime (think Mexican cultures, tribal lives)I think that it's entirely possible to do so in a healthy and happy way.
Obviously there will be some shift in way of life as parents and child move to a new kind of relationsip where the parents will need to recognize that the kids aren't 15 anymore. That can be the challenge I think.
My 19 year old son just recently moved into his own apartment after we lost our house in rather messy divorce. He is happy. but he could have stayed with me as long as he wanted. :)
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Second Chances
I am not sure that I buy the "second chances" thing. I think we just get chances, period. Chances to do it over, do it better, do it more authentically, do it with more information, do it with more heart. In any given life we have many different phases.
In my own life I can almost see different "mini life times". I can see where they start, stop, and flow into the next one. Childhood to teen to teen mom to way fast forward into my mid 30's and a new mini lifetime is starting all over again. I get the chance to make new decisions that will shape how my life is going to go for awhile. I am getting the chance again to decide what I want to do with myself.
I don't see it as a second chance. I see it as the way life is... continously cycling forward and around. As a Buddhist it's important to me that I see the now first and foremost, and that I allow the past and future to assist decisions but not take them over.
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Staff Pick: Quarter-Life Crisis
I totally agree that the earlier we can really examine what we really value and want to do, and the earlier we feel empowered enough to figure out how to do it, the better! It's been my goal to raise my children to do just that; to re-evaluate all along the way.
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Staff Pick: Quarter-Life Crisis
I am glad that your guest brought up that the "crisis" can be a good thing. It can cause us to rethink what we really want, and perhaps more importantly, why we want it. Do we want things because we've been told (directly or indirectly) that we are supposed to, or because they have real value and meaning to us? I am not convinced we'd ever really be motivated to dig that deep without a couple of at least minor crises along the way.
Many people are finding out that the old model of long school career leading to traditional degrees, striving to earn big money, the goal of purchasing the Mcmansion house, 2 cars, and more more more isn't fulfilling. Often times something has to happen to bump us into seeing that we might need something different.
At the age of almost 35 I realize that many of the things I thought I wanted, that I was led to believe were normal, aren't valid or meaningful for me at all. Much like that gentleman who called in to say he has simplified and is going to live on a sailboat with his wife, I am redefining. Not all who wander (or freak out!) are lost! :)
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Islam in the Northwest
Head scarves are a very personal piece of many religions that signify a multitude of things. Are there persecuted women in head scarves? Sure there are, and that is unfortunate. Are all scarved or covered women, Muslim or otherwise, oppressed? Absolutely not. Education about these traditions, reasons, and beliefs would benefit everyone.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Islam in the Northwest
I come from a mixed religious tradition of Paganism and Buddhism. I don't think the issue is really that hard to see: people are so afraid of what they don't understand and what they have misinformation about.
The mistaken belief that all Muslims are waging violent war on every American or non-Muslim, or that they are all violent or in support of those who are is incredibly ignorant. It falls into the same line of thinking of saying that just because a handful of Christians have attacked gay people or organizations that ALL Christians will, or that because some Pagans (my own religious group) have been associated with Satanic rituals that we are all linked to them.
People need to understand that religions are made up of PEOPLE who are always interpreting and REinterpreting the tenants, and that people are subject to bias, politics, and corruption. It isnt religion's fault, Islam or otherwise, it's HUMAN FOLLY on both sides.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Compromise
I couldn't disagree more with Earl. The only way unemployed people can survive and continue to look for work is by recieving unemployment benefits. Looking for a job takes gas, clean clothes, bus passes, etc. It also helps if you know you can continue to eat food and sleep in a bed while you do it.
The idea that people won't look for work if you're supposedly "paying them not to" is likely to only be held by someone who has either never been jobless or made a whole lot more on unemployment than anyone Ive ever known! The amounts I am familar with aren't likely to have anyone resting on their benefits.
Kristina Brewington
Albany Oregon
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Bagby Hot Springs
That's wonderful Francois! Congrats.
And to the poster below, Myusername, excema is not contagious or "dirty".
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Bagby Hot Springs
I have been to Bagby, though it's been several years now, and it's a truly beautiful place. Magical even. Unfortunately, I have to echo previous posters in the deterioration the place has suffered at the hands of irresponsible people. The drunken, violent, partiers really do ruin it for everyone because they bring about all these changes.
I am not sure about the "for profit" change. On the one hand when we have to pay for something we may treat it and our time there more seriously, and the folks interested in being rude may choose to go elsewhere. On the other hand, it kind of steals the charm away from the area. I think on site management or relaxed security presence is a good idea so long as they lay as low as possible. I think inviting the public's ideas is important as well.
In any case, something does have to change. I wouldn't have felt safe there any time in recent years, and I surely wouldn't have taken my children. And that is very sad.
Kristina Brewington
Albany, OR
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on All About Gratitude
My religious tradtions (Pagan and Buddhist) defenitely teach and help me in the gratitude department. We are taught to enjoy and be thankful for the good in the moment, because the moment is always impermanent. We see beauty and fullfilment wherever we can and in outside the box places.
I am thankful for my children, that I was able to unschool. I am thankful for food banks, willing hands and hearts. Medicine. The seasons. :)
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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