Mentoring
I’ve started spending one hour a week with a 7th grader at the Beaumont Middle School in Portland. We sit down together and work on whatever he’s got up. One week it was vocabulary, and this week it was math. He also shares a little about his life with me, and I with him. We also talk about nutrition and relationships a little, but mostly it’s help with schoolwork. I’m finding it a fascinating chance to see what it’s like to be in 6th grade these days from the perspective of a 48-year old. I look forward to continuing to get to know him and help him along. And, I also look forward to my increasing awareness of what young peoples’ lives are like in the public school system. If you want to get involved in the mentoring program, get in touch with your school and they’ll set you up.
I have been thinking about this for years: to quiet arterial streets (and especially the homes that stand beside them, why don’t we install earthen (possibly planted) berms? I believe that this would be a great way to lessen the impact of car traffic in our City and beyond. So, I started a new site, 
