A good economics course should focus on the "economic way of thinking" not on one particular type of market system. Unfortunately, most of what I have seen written for younger students tends to be free market propaganda rather than economic thinking; but, a good, mainstream college textbook should cover externalities, public goods, market failures, etc. Econedlink has a number of exercises and lessons in all areas of economics. You can search for "externalities", :"public goods", and "market failures" to get some materials. http://www.econedlink.org/ If you are wanting to branch a bit further, you can check out the International Association for Feminist Economists to get some ideas for materials: http://www.feministeconomics.org

I think the idea that a job should automatically be able to support four people is relatively recent. A few months back I was visiting my mom's hometown, and there was an article in the paper about former school teachers in the small town. It listed the teachers 60 years ago and discussed the families they lived with. Most of the new school teachers were boarders--with one bedroom in a local family's house, usually sharing a bathroom with those non-relatives and eating meals in the house. College educated school teachers weren't living on their own--much less supporting three other people.

I think the red is what is leading to some confusion. In later posts it sounds as if the problem isn't that you don't know them well--the problem is that you know them well enough that you don't want your children there. Also, it sounds as if you have let your son go inside in the past, so there is no a change in the rule. If that is the case, I think it is reasonable for a child to wonder why the rule has changed. If your son was allowed to watch movies that you do not want him seeing, it seems that he would be aware of that. Therefore, I don't see any problem with saying that you don't want him going inside because there are movies that you do not want him to see being watched. He doesn't have to understand the details of why. It doesn't have to be said in a judgmental way--it is simply our family has these rules about what we watch; other families have other rules. I don't see that this would be a problem if he repeats it to the other boys.

I don't know why, but it is the drive through the Temple area that is my least favorite part of the trip between San Antonio and Dallas.

kimchi, soup, and rice--but that was when we were in Korea

From what you describe, it isn't clear if the kids are interrupting Auntie. Even if she isn't in the middle of a sentence, I can see how she might feel that the conversation is being interrupted. Another thing to consider is that I have an older relative that just starts talking when my children are talking; we finally realized that she has a hearing problem and doesn't know that she is doing this.

is the flight into Dallas flying into DFW or into Love Field? Other than the traffic in Dallas, I prefer the interstate drive from Dallas to Waco than the drive from Austin to Waco.

If your son doesn't have a strong interest in particular schools at this point and he is interested and intrigued by gathering information, I would encourage him to collect and sort through as much as he wants. My DD got repeated mailings from a few schools that she would have have never been interested in and did not seem to be good matches for her; so, just because he is receiving mail from a school, it doesn't mean that the school matches any of his criteria. Schools will vary in their marketing budgets and their strategies from year-to-year. For example, they may be wanting to increase their male, out-of-state applicant pool and will market strongly to that group one year without too much discretion.

My child was never able to drink that much at one time. We would continue trying to get the Miralax in, even if it took a longer period than what was recommended. Thus, even if it was best to get 64 oz in 4 hours--64 oz in 24 hours was better than not doing it at all; and we found that putting the Miralax in a variety of liquids helped more than in just one flavor of Gatorade; eg. some in apple juice in the morning, Gatorade at lunch time, etc. We found that while there may be a medically recommended dosage and method of delivery, getting cooperation and lowering the stress on the child was more important than strictly following the standard protocol.

The lactulose works by fermenting sugars and producing gas (similar to what apple juice does). It works differently than Miralax in that Miralax causes water to be held in the stool. Miralax is often preferred because it has "no taste" and doesn't produce gas. But, I haven't seen any health concerns regarding the use of lactulose. Was it the quantity of the gatorade/miralax, the gatorade taste, or the miralax that your daughter had trouble with. The Miralax is not supposed to have a taste--but my child could always tell if I put a drop of it in any drink. Is there something else that it could be mixed with that she would tolerate better?

I was advocating for some exposure to college campuses. Taking college classes as a high schooler would provide this exposure (unless the courses are all online). We have a number of college campuses in our city, none of which my children are interested in attending, but they have learned from simply being on those campuses--it has given them an idea of whether they are more comfortable on a small campus or a big campus, etc. Since they were small, we would often visit college campuses in other cities when we were visiting relatives or vacationing. So, I am surprised at how many high school students have never set foot on a college campus.

If your location allows, I would take him to visit several college campuses, even if they are colleges he is adamant he doesn't want to attend (or you would prefer that he not attend). While looking at websites and other online materials can be an efficient way to gain a lot of information, I think it easily remains abstract to a high school student. Visiting campuses allows students to get a feel for college life. Even if they don't like a school a lot is learned. They can start to process why they don't like that school and know to be on the lookout for those same things when perusing online materials. It also helps them start thinking of the types of questions to ask and what they do want in a school.

One thing to remember is that for a young child who has experienced chronic constipation, the feeling of being constipated may be "normal." If that is what they have experienced most of their life, they don't know what it is like to experience anything else. The way a chronically constipated child reports feeling may be different from that of how a child who experiences constipation for the first time.

If her bowels are stretched due to prolonged constipation, in some ways she may need a "band aid" to allow for healing (which does not occur quickly). The initial constipation could have been a one-time deal due to illness, diet, lack of quick access to the bathroom, or a number of other reasons. Or, there could be an underlying problem causing constipation. But, if the bowels are stretched, more can be retained and it is easier to become constipated again. In addition, feeling is lost in the nerves making the child unaware that she needs to go to the bathroom. Although Miralax helped my child some, it was not a miracle drug in our situation (I know that it has been for many). But, it must be used long term to allow for healing. A common rule of thumb is that the healing takes twice as long as the child has had the problem. So, if this has been a problem for 4 months, an 8 month Miralax treatment may be necessary, etc.

As a parent of a child who has suffered from constipation since birth, I know how frustrating this can be for parent and child. The best source of information that I have found on this topic is from the clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio: http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/constipation (After years of specialists, alternative therapies, special diets, etc. we took our child across the country to the clinic there.) Do not use Fleet phospho-soda enemas with a child with this problem--regular enemas are fine. However, with my child, we never had success with enemas. My child would vomit every time after having an enema--much like what you are describing. The Nationwide site gives a list of different therapies along with their advantages and disadvantages.

This is an interesting paper on the educational background of S&P500 CEO's. CEO's are fairly equally spread among Science/Engineering, Liberal Arts, and Business. Many non-business majors go on to get an MBA. Some of the best MBA programs are less likely to admit an undergraduate business major than non-business major--so people with history degrees may be initially hired for their writing/thinking skills and then later get an MBA to get the business background before moving on to CEO http://cahnrs-cms.wsu.edu/ses/undergrad/Documents/FlynnQuinn2006.pdf

I have heard of professors doing a lot of odd things, but this is one of the oddest. Was there some point the professor was trying to make?

Some business majors (such as finance) require more math. Other business majors (such as marketing) tend to require less math. Accounting doesn't really require that much math--it is mostly arithmetic. Yes, accounting is about numbers, but it is recording, adding, and subtracting the numbers. It is often, however, the business majors who were in the more "mathy" areas that go on to be CEO.

Term life insurance is generally cheaper. Some things to consider are: Why are you wanting life insurance and how long will you have that need? (e.g. to fund the kids' education if both of us should die--and I expect that need to end within 15 years) and What are the other sources of financing that need should death occur? (e.g. sell home that is owned; retirement savings, etc.)

Personally, I think that the freedom of speech our founding fathers wanted to protect was speech that individuals were willing to stand up for and take accountability for--not "anonymous speech." This issue impacts more than just businesses. As a college professor at a public university, many of the anonymous comments that students make about me are available for public viewing. Students can make anonymous, untrue comments without any consequences. These comments can be used by tenure and promotion committees without the faculty being able to reasonably address them. I had one colleague who had a student make comments that would definitely be considered sexual harassment; the university had to post these comments for the world to see, even though they were in no way related to her work. I have also seen these issues come up with authors on Amazon. I had a colleague who was in the process of publishing a book. The advertisement for the book was on Amazon, but the book was not actually in print yet. An extremely negative review was written by a "reader" on Amazon. It would have been impossible for the "reader" to have even had a copy of the book yet.

To see what the faculty of the university is really interested in (and where their strengths are), you can look at their journal publications. Most schools will publish brief bios about the faculty. Or, you can peruse some of the academic journals in the field and see what names and schools tend to keep popping up. I find that most faculty members (not necessarily administrators) will be quite open and honest about their school's strengths and weaknesses; asking questions about the strength of the department will usually result in direct answers. At the undergraduate level, however, I usually discourage people from focusing too heavily on a particular major or department when choosing a school. First, most high school students do not know what their ultimate major will be. Second, I have known students who have chosen a particular school based on studying under a faculty member, and then that professor has left the university. Or, professors take a leave-of-absence or sabbatical and the student never gets to study under the professor. I encourage my own children to pick a school that appears strong in the general areas in which they think they want to major. I encourage them to consider how to get a great education so that they can keep as many options available as possible, whether they ultimately decide to enter the work force after graduation or go to graduate or professional school.

Determining a list of the best colleges for a particular major is tricky--much more tricky than it sounds like it would be. A number of methodologies are used by the suppliers of such lists. Two common ways are (1) the rankings of the publications of the faculty and (2) voting by deans. In my opinion, neither of these is necessarily meaningful for a particular undergraduate student. I think it is best to start by asking what is important to a particular student and then carefully checking the methodology used by the list suppliers to see if they are important to you. Certain areas within a major may be stronger than others. For example, Texas A&M has a top-ranked economics program. Its strength however, is in microeconomics, not macroeconomics. An undergraduate will have the opportunity to get a first-class economics education (but could also drift around in large classes and not be exposed to the top-notch teachers if not careful). Also, some top-notch researchers (who help boost ratings) are not necessarily the best teachers. I would not recommend the school for someone wanting a masters in economics--because very few resources are put into masters level classes. For someone seeking a PhD with a specialization in microeconomics--it is one of the best. A top student wanted to focus on macroeconomics would probably do better going somewhere else. You must also consider that most majors are not islands into themselves. Many of a student's classes will occur outside of the major; the quality of any supporting coursework is also important.

I took DS when he was younger than that to see Wicked. (DD was about that age.) I haven't read the book, so I can't compare the content. There is a scene in which Elphaba is born which 10 year old boys might think EWWWW! I can't remember how much is spelled out in detail, but the mother has an affair with "the man with the green potion" while her husband is away--and that is why Elpheba is green. I don't think it is "inappropriate" but I have exposed my children to a lot of live theater with little censoring.

My parents tipped the "newspaper boy" when I was growing up. They knew his name, his address, and his phone number. If the paper got delivered without a bag and it rained, they could call him up and ask for another paper. He came by every month to collect payment. Now, I would have no idea how to tip our newspaper delivery person. I don't know their name, address, phone number, etc. The paper sometime comes at 3:00am, sometimes 6:00am, etc. If there is any problem, I have to call the newspaper company, not the deliver person. My mom always baked cookies, or provided other treats, for the garbage collectors and mail carrier. DH and I had a great mail carrier for a while. We knew his name, he knew our name, he got mail delivered to the correct house, watched for deliveries when he knew we were away, etc. (We live in one of those rare places where the mail carrier still walks door-to-door to deliver the mail.) We would give him something for Christmas. He retired and now we seem to have a different mail carrier every few days. We have had at least five times in the past month we have gotten the wrong people's mail--totally different names, different street names, and different house numbers. Last week DD received a college acceptance and there was another packet from the same university addressed to a high school senior DD knows a few blocks away in our mailbox.

I do not think I can say that I would not allow my kids to believe something. I can perhaps, especially when they are young, influence their beliefs by what information I expose them to, but I I don't think I can (or should) control their beliefs. When our kids were small, we only talked about "the spirit of Santa Claus" or "the tradition of Santa Claus." We had several books about the real Saint Nicholas. My children traveled to other countries where Kris Kringle, St. Nick, or whatever the name is in that country visited children on the saint's feast day rather than on Christmas. My children heard of the Christkind visiting children on Christmas day in other countries. We never told them that a man dressed in red flew around the world on a sleigh led by reindeer and came down chimneys on Christmas day. We did do stockings and gifts from Santa, but always talking about it being a "tradition." Somehow, my kids DID believe in the US version of Santa Claus--especially DD who has a vivid imagination. It was not until DD was about 8 or 9 that she finally started asking about was there really a Santa, long after DS (who is younger) stopped believing.