I had a weird thought cross my mind when I was updating the Northshore schools’ list for our Residents’ Guide:
Our great Northshore schools are under extreme pressure. Pressure to educate our children to our higher standards. Pressure to meet and exceed WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) scores. Pressure to attract and retain the highest quality staff — all within the constraints of an inadequate state funding system.
Eating chocolate in bed would not usually be OK with me. Crumbs, especially in bed, are upsetting. But on this particular occasion, what used to be a reasonably sized bar of dark chocolate has by now been completely decimated; what remains is lying on top of the wrapper, next to me beneath my purple comforter. I’ve been under here for about two hours now, time I would usually regret not spending more productively — I could have gone running, taken a shower and dried my hair in that amount of time; I could have baked two full batches of cookies; I could have cracked out a few integral calculus problems.
I’m old enough to remember days when a ride in the family car was a big deal. Especially when the old buggy was about to turn a milestone number on the speedometer.
