We wanted to do a trip but with a bunch of expenses due to having children so we disn't plan amything. Plus it was the summer of rain. Crazy number of rainy days! The sun was out for a couple days so I said it is now or never and spur of the moment we hit the trails with our mountain bikes and had a burger afterwards. It was lovely.

I imagine small towns would be easier for the those with mental challenges rather than big cities. My brother lives in a small town north of me (only needs to put in traffic calming and lower speed limits and things would be better for walkers) well and plow sidewalks but the city to the south has some decent bike paths. The lovely thing about them is the connect from green belt to greenbelt with only short sections by the actual road. Of course, these short sections can get you killed but you have to use them to get to actual businesses etc. Most of your trip can be off road completely. The best thing is that often these trails simply go under the road through a tunnel. I realize this isn't so simple in a very dense compact city like Amsterdam. Each place has its own challenges.

Actually, they are impatient with everyone: other drivers regardless of age, car break downs, pedistrians, police, tow truck driver just doing his job, the cat in the road, the kid trying to get to school. The entitlement mentality takes over a large number of people when getting in a vehicle and they end up with a bad case of main character syndrome.

I saw this late but saying a prayer for you.

Some things are expensive or logistically hard to get right. The wise thing to do is to start with the low hanging fruit. There are expensive things and cheaper things. Start with the things that logistically make sense. Requiring drivers to actually know how to drive and take serious their responsability isn't costly comparatively. Lowering speed limits in busy areas isn't costly. Taking the license and car of people who misuse their privalage isn't costly. We spend way more to make a drivers trips quicker. We spend billions of dollars for divers convenience. Maintanence of things like side walks, stop lights for crosswalks is such a tiny fraction of that and relatively cheap compared to roads. It is about priorities.

The super sad part is, my brother doesn't need expensive public transport which I understand may not be practical everywhere. He went out of his way to pay extra to live where he could walk and he still can't because it is too much to ask drivers to drive a reasonable speed in city limits where there is a lot of pulling in and out of drives and parking lots and pedestrians because the drivers might lose 2 or 3 minutes time going from one end of the town to the other. It would cost taxpayers nothing to lower the speed limits and not build more ridiculous wide speedy roads through the town center. 😕 There is no winning, no matter how cheap and easy the solution when people only care about cars.

So Mercy said she would be interested in a thread about this. I thought I'd just start with personal experience. I tried to find a decent article but maybe I will find one later. Mobility is key to freedom. To be able to work, go to the doctor, run errands, or just do what you want to do on your own time is something a lot of us take for granted. For those without the ability to go where and when they want to, roads are often a block to everything they want to do. It isn't that we have roads, which of course have benefits, but that they are prioritized to the detriment of everyone else. My little brother with Down Syndrome is perfectly cabable of walking around his small town if drivers could choose not to drive dangerously but that is not the case. He is in constant danger from speeding drivers. Speed limits are way too high in town. He is activily being blocked by drivers from things he wants to do. My step -mom did find him an apartment directly behind his work so he just walks on a residential street to get to work but he can't go anywhere else. Three of the roads which go through town have 45 mph speed limits which means people are often driving well over 50 through this little town. His apartment is more expensive then a number of apartments across the stroad with the 45 speed limit but he has to pay the higher price on a grocery bagger's salary because of the danger drivers pose . So higher prices, sitting in his apartment waiting for rides, lack of freedom to go anywhere all so drivers can save 90 seconds getting through town. My brother is lucky. Many disabled cannot walk to work. Before that apartment he had a service for those with disabilities that picked him up. They didn't always show up though. He also sometimes couldn't get a ride if it was busy. He couldn't put in for a ride super early for work because the grocery store wouldn't give him steady hours. So he often missed work and was stuck at home instead. People who have to schedule rides ahead of time are severly limited in what they can do. Often he is dependent on friends or family to do anything. That is not freedom. We know many others with intellectual disabilities because he went to school with them etc. It is sad how many end up home all the time because it is hard to get them to work or social activities, etc. My Aunt who uses a mobility scooter and can no longer walk does have a very very expensive van (people less well off might not have this option.) with hand controls. Not only does she require special parking for her scooter to be lowered automatically but then she has to actually be able to use it. Places with their own large parking lots like box stores that have straight shots inside are ok but things that require you to park in one area and get to another area (anything downtown) requires better multi-modal infastructure. So sometimes she just doesn't get to do stuff. Blind people are especially vulnerable because they can't drive but also have to navigate dangerous roads where car drivers do not pay attention or care. Last year there was a story of a blind man wading through snow and climbing over berms with the guide dog BEHIND him because the dog was struggling with the snow. A journalist saw him and stopped to interview him. He needed to get to an appointment. He missed his stop because his bearings were messed up with the snow berms. He explained his dog wanted to follow in his footsteps when the snow was too deep. I have seen wheel chairs in the middle of 4 lane roads because that was the only placed plowed. People are angry for slowing them down. Do they not have the right to buy groceries or go to the doctor? Do they just have to sit in their apartment until they die? So car drivers won't be slowed down for 60 seconds? I have also seen them navigate sidewalks with a friend helping them push through snow and they were barely moving and they had help! I have seen them being blocked by a construction sign set in the sidewalk (because you daren't take any road space). What are they supposed to do? Take their wheelchair over the curb into traffic? The lanes are typically big enough to have something on the edge but no, we must block the narrow sidewalk instead. Sigh Anyway, people who can't get licenses are severly limited in their freedoms. Some who can drive still have limited access when we don't prioritize other infastructure as well. I am sure there are a hundred other things to say but I have typed too long already.

I'd be glad to explain how car culture destroys disabled peoples freedoms in a different thread but this is the joke thread. I shouldn't have responded in the first place.

I don't know that this is a joke though but yeah. My little brother has Down Syndrome and can't drive. Car culture people basically tell him, he shouldn't exist or be allowed any freedom whatsoever. Meanwhile, there is much anger in my town. A man ran over a retired dentist in a Crosswalk, in broad daylight, with other cars stopped and will not be prosecuted. He received a $100 ticket for failure to yield to a pedistrian. Basically 100 fine for killing someone. You can literally get away with murder. That is what pedistrian's lives are worth to driver's $100.

To be honest with you she didn't say that to me. She just said that is how she did things. Every decent teacher knows that every kid has their own story/reasons why they can't/won't do something.

I agree. But how is a high school teacher with 30+ kids each hour supposed to handle that. But that takes us back to the K-8 reform that has been mentioned all along. I also see pushing kids along fast in elementary school leads to burn out and hatred of school. You can force a 6 year old to do something hard, maybe developmentally inappropriate but forcing a 16 year old is a whole different dynamic. At the time they should be taking off and speeding up, many shut down or give up because they are mentally done.

Yes! I don't know how much is what the teachers think versus what they actually experience. Is it 10% of the class, 50%, or 90% that won't work. Makes a big difference in how you handle the class. Retired teacher I mentioned earlier is now happily teaching homeschool kids and it is a piece of cake and parents are happy with the progress students are making. The second one I saw make that switch in 2 years! That leaves the public schools out 2 more teachers though. 😕

I am not sure if we are on the same page and you realize this is a high school literature class I was talking about. Not sure how clear I was on that. Reading a novel aloud in a high school class cause kids can't read it on their own is a waste of time. Reading aloud is slower. You could give a class period now and then to catch up and definitly plays read aloud in class makes sense but I have a hard time with you have to do everything together in high school. That is a tedious waste of time for the majority of the students. Edited to add: I totally agree with you on homework in primary school though. Children should in learning to read in the class not after school.

I will be honest here. I know long time (many decades) teachers who loved teaching, had good rapport with students, who have said student's behaivor and character traits have shifted a lot in the last decade. It may have to do with feeling lost due to poor curriculum etc but home life is really chaotic for some. There have always been harder to reach kids but the percentages have changed and if difficult or reactive kids are a larger percentage of your class it takes away from you being able to help the others at all. My friend who retired last year after 30 years of teaching said that in gen ed classes she just read the book out loud in class because she couldn't make kids do homework at all. This was not the norm when she started teaching.

That is true but there is so much to learn, you can never learn it all so we will all miss out on something. The question really isn't "Is this valuable" but "is this worth the opportunity cost". I think this varies from student to student. Of course, some of it is efficiency and not just wasting a student's time. I agreed with you and others throughout this thread about revamping k-8 and how we teach math so there is that stewardship of time too. The reason I homeschooled all my kids all the way through school is I thought a lot of my schooling was just a waste of time. Life is short and precious, why waste it?

Well, locally a lot is dictated in the political arena. For example, where I live curriculum decisions at the district level are decided on by the school board. The school board is not made up of experts but rather people who can get themselves voted in by telling voters (predominatly older since they vote in greater numbers) what they want to hear. Something like "we will take schools back to the good old days" is often popular here. Throw lawsuits in the mix, stir it up, and va-la! A mess that teachers and administrators must wade through before they even start thinking about actual teaching. ETA: Yes, often teachers or administrators try to get on the school board pointing to their experience but that matters less to voters than if the candidate agrees with them on stuff.

My husband chips ice in flip flops and shorts. 😂 I don't know why. Well, I do. He is too lazy too put on real shoes. I think humidity makes heat hotter and cold colder. Dry air is nice when you need to evaporate sweat of course but once you get a chill it makes everything worse. This is why a jacket is needed when ocean fishing when the exact same temp won't bother me in my yard in shorts and tank top. This is because moisture lands on you and takes heat with it upon reevaporation. Logically it makes sense that there isn't enough moisture to make a difference in sub zero temps but I swear -10° F in coastal Anchoage, Ak feels like -40° F in the interior Of Alaska. Maybe it is psychology but it feels so different even if I move from one spot to another in the same winter. 🤷‍♀️

We do use libraries for newish shows but find old ones are often scratched but hey it is free. And they are very restrictive hours so you have to plan ahead.

The last Blockbuster in our city closed in 2018. Our local one within 2 miles of our house closed in 2017. We used it to the bitter end. We could get any movie when we wanted for 99 cents. We don't watch enough movies to pay fees for streaming services. Even if we watched enough for one then half the movies would be on a different one anyway. If we gave in and just had a bunch of streaming services we would end up paying $30 per movie because we just don't watch enough. Sucks as a model for anyone who doesn't watch a ton of movies. We do just outright buy movies from Amazon and such at times but I miss blockbuster!

I had to change my laugh to a trophy because if you read all of the WTM site, you deserve a trophy!

I was joking around. 😊

I think I have a different definition of "impairment" then some people.

Honestly, I was too busy being confused how one buys a Stanley Cup when you have to win the NHL championship to get one to be worried about sexism. I had to look up what a stanley cup might possibly be in this context. 😂

I think it is hard for ANYONE at any age to secure a job that can support a family on their own especially daycare aged children. It usually takes time to climb the ladder to a management position to do that without a lot of hardship. I think I could support myself though, that is just a whole nother ball of wax.

I had forgotten that that is a thing. 😂 But that would definitly make a difference.