592. No, Virginia

If you were to take a casual look at the way I live my life, you would think I needed children. I spend lots of time with children. The songs, stories, poems, and articles I write are mostly for and/or about children or adults who spend a lot of time with children. Both my former…

I volunteered to substitute for a friend at something called “The Homework Club.” It had been set up by parents who wanted to give children a chance to do their homework in an atmosphere conducive to actually doing it, with adults around whose only reason for being there was to give them appropriate support. It…

My friends gave me a new computer yesterday. The one I’d had had a little black and white screen, and after several years of having all kinds of trouble with it, I’d gotten to know it. I’d used it to type and to send e-mail. That’s just about all I’d done with it. Before I’d…

In school, thinking is usually treated as a method for solving problems, or as a means toward some other end. It’s less often considered a goal in itself. I don’t know why, but let me think about it. I’m sure I’ll come up with a reason. Maybe even more than one. Being retired, I have…

I once had a chance to see several people I’d known as children, all in the same room on the same evening: my sister, who is seven years younger than I am, my daughter, who is now a full-fledged adult, people I’d taught as children and are now teenagers, children I’ve come to think of…

There are all kinds of intermarriages, and it could be argued that every marriage is an intermarriage; when two people marry each other, they attempt to find a way to bring along their separate selves, and to some degree, hold on to the parts of themselves they consider most important. Sometimes they don’t learn what…