5 Topics to Discuss before Marriage

How many couples do you know take the time to discuss money, children and other important issues before they get married? Maybe you jumped right into marriage without seriously considering some of these life-impacting issues. If you or someone you know is considering tying the knot, here are five topics that you should discuss before walking down the aisle. It could save a lot of conflict in the future. The first is children. Do you both want children? Nothing is more devastating than a couple getting married and one expecting to have children but the other one dead set against … Continue reading

Gay Marriage Debate Rages

I moved from North Carolina almost a year and a half ago, but I still have many good friends there. Two days ago, North Carolina said “No thanks” to same-sex marriage by passing Amendment One. In case you’ve been in a coma the few weeks, Amendment One reads “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized.” The amendment was passed by a vote of 61 percent for and 39 percent against. Before we go bashing North Carolina, let me say that it is just one of many states that … Continue reading

How Premarital Counseling Might Help Marriages

What comes next? The other week one of the local radio station’s morning talk program held a discussion on marriage. A young engaged woman called in. She said that she signed herself and her fiance up for premarital counseling. She did so, she claimed, because her husband-to-be doesn’t know anything about what a modern marriage ought to be like. Her beloved was raised by his socially conservative grandmother. Now that they’re approaching their married life it came out that he believes she will do all of the work around the house and take care of the kids. We’ve looked at … Continue reading

The Three R’s of Marriage

You are probably familiar with the “Three R’s” of education: Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. Well I have come up with the “Three R’s” of marriage: Respond, React and Retreat. The only difference is that with my three R’s, there is just one that works well in a marriage. Can you guess which one? I don’t know if anyone else can relate but I tend to be a reactor. I have been working on this for several years and while I have gotten a lot better, it can still be an issue that creeps up. Sometimes when people react it is … Continue reading

Marriage and the New Year

I don’t know what makes me so popular today, but here it is, only nine thirty in the morning, and I’ve already received e-mails from two young people who are getting married, one next week and the other in March. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, my conversation with each had to do with goal setting and how to incorporate their new spouse in to their goals. I remember when I was contemplating marriage—how hard it was for me to get used to the idea that I wasn’t going to be an individual anymore, but part of a team—and how I had … Continue reading

Marriage Rights and the Developmentally Disabled

In a world where everyone is fighting for equal rights under the law, people with developmental disabilities are right there in the thick of it. Having finally received the rights to an equal education and able to enjoy inclusive recreation and even job opportunities, many adults with developmental disabilities are still very much like children when it comes to having complete independence. Their parents have a difficult time letting go and society has a difficult time accepting them as capable. One particular area of life that most people with developmental disabilities have been unable to participate in is the institution … Continue reading

10 Ways Parents Can Help Their Child’s Education

What can you do as a parent to help your child with their education? Here are ten suggestions. 1. The first and one of the most important is to read to them from the time they are born. Don’t stop once they can read for themselves. There’s still something great about being read to. It’s also a great bonding time. Some of my best conversations with my kids have come during that special time after a story. 2. Play counting games and rhymes with them as they get a little older. 3. Teach them basic things like colors, shapes and … Continue reading

A Furor Over Education

In Australia there’s a bit of a furor going on at present because of a new website the government has instituted. The website has teachers outraged, as it aims to give a picture of the school and a rating of its performance when compared with other schools. Parents on the other hand, have been logging on trying to find out how their child’s school rates. The problem that concerns some people, and I admit to having some feelings about this too, is that if the school is rated below average it tends to cast a blight on that school, the … Continue reading

Does Abstinence Only Education Equal More Teen Pregnancies?

According the Guttmacher Institute, a research facility tied to Planned Parenthood, pregnancy among girls aged 15 to 19 rose 3% in 2005 and 2006. This is the first increase since 1990 as pregnancy rates among teen girls dropped 35% between 1991 and 2005. There is a claim that abstinence education is to blame. “Heather Boonstra, a policy analyst with the Guttmacher Institute, was quick to politicize the findings, calling the upward trend “deeply troubling” and claiming that the results coincided “with an increase in rigid abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which received major funding boosts under the Bush administration.” As far as my … Continue reading

Attitudes and Responses in Education

A teacher’s attitude towards their students can have a serious affect on students and not always for the good. Recently I was talking to a friend and she was telling me how at the opening of a rural high school, the school library had no books. Why? Because the teachers at that school had decided there wasn’t a lot of point. Their view was the students of that area wouldn’t use them. The teachers had already made up their mind about what the students were capable of and what they weren’t. They’d dismissed them as being young people who’d end … Continue reading