I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office?”

    Foreign tourists are often confused in Japan because most streets there don't have names; in Japan, people use landmarks（地标）in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”

    In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”

    People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it's about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don't know.

    It's true that a person doesn't know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don't know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don't know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!

    Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.

    Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members, but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most about. I know this from personal experience.

    E-mail makes it easy to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren't necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she'd been born before electronic mail became such a practical tool.

    The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun, see a great movie perhaps-and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may tire of telling the story.

    With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and address it to all the friends you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.

    E-mail is also an inexpensive way stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children off at college.

    We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don't take the place of any of the old ways.

    Gus Wenner runs Rollingstone.com; his father gave him the job. But Jann Wenner, the magazine's co­founder and publisher, was quick to assure critics of the appointment process that his son is terribly talented and had to prove himself before being given the post. Apparently Gus worked his way up from more junior positions with the company, and demonstrated, according to his father, the “drive and discipline and charm, and all the things that show leadership.” Gus Wenner is 22 years old.

    He is certainly not the only kid out of college, or even out of high school, working at daddy's firm. Family contacts are a common way of finding both temporary internships and longtime careers. Opportunities for the children of top 1 percent are not the same as they are for the 99 percent.

    This is hardly a shock, but it is precisely the type of inequality that reveals the hard­ to­ define promise of the “Just Do It” version of the American dream and deepens our cynicism(愤世嫉俗) about how people get ahead. As a consequence, it weakens support for public policies that could address the lack of upward mobility among children born at the bottom, who ought to be given priority. A strong tie between adult outcomes and family background annoys Americans. When an organization conducted a nationally representative survey asking about the meaning of “the American dream”， some typical answers included: “Being free to say or do what you want” and “Being free to accomplish almost anything you want with hard work.” but also “Being able to succeed regardless of the economic circumctances in which you were born.”

    This is exactly the reason that “the American dream” is not only a defining metaphor for the country, but also why Americans have long been willing to tolerate a good deal more economic inequality than citizens of many other rich countries. A belief in the possibility of upward mobility not only morally justifies inequality as the expression of talents and energies, but also extends a promise to those with lower incomes. After all, why would you be a strong advocate for reducing inequality if you believe that you, or eventually your children, were likely to climb the income ladder?

    Hard work and perseverance(毅力) will always be ingredients for success, but higher inequality has made having successful parents, if not essential, certainly a central part of the recipe.

    The belief that talent is something you are born with, and that opportunities are open to anyone with ambition and energy, also has a dangerous consequence. When the public policy is focused on the difficult situation of the poor, this belief can help the concept resurface that the poor are “undeserving” and are the authors of their own situation. Yet we actually know a good deal about why children of the poor have a higher chance of being stuck on poverty as adults.

    The recipes for breaking this intergenerational trap are clear: a nurturing(培养) environment in the early years combined with accessible and high­quality health care and education promote the capacities of young children, heighten the development of their skills as they grow older, and eventually raise their chances of upward mobility.

    Talent is nurtured and developed, and even genes are expressed differently depending upon environmental influences.

    The 1 percent are the goal for these upper­middle­class families, who after all have also experienced significant growth in their relative standing. The graduate and other higher degrees that they hold, for which they put in considerable effort, have put them on the upside of the wave of globalization and technical change that has transformed the American job market.

    An age of higher inequality gives them both more resources to promote the capacities of their children, and more encouragement to make these investments since their children now have all the more to gain.

    For them, an American dream based on effort and talent still lives, and as a result they are less likely, with their considerable cultural and political influence, to support the reshaping of American public policy to meet its most pressing need: the future of those at the bottom.

    We can take online joyful learning experiences to a new level by combining the best practices in education with inspiring hands-on lessons that parents and children can enjoy together.

    ◆◇Starting a Writer's Notebook      June 13th-June 17th

    This workshop is to inspire children to see themselves as true authors. The writing activities in this workshop are meant to help young authors develop their sense of voice and enthusiasm for writing. Participants will learn a variety of strategies and techniques for generating ideas and producing meaningful writing.

    PRICE: $27.00 ($22.00 cash payment)      AGE: 6-10

    ◆◇Backyard Science    June 20th-June 24th

    By sharing what we discover in our own backyards, our children will be able to experience firsthand how wildlife, climate, and geographic landscapes differ across the globe. Through this workshop we have the ability to create eye-opening explorations for our children.

    PRICE: $27.00       AGE: 4-10

    ◆◇Be a Peacemaker    June 27th-July 1st

    By practicing mindfulness we discover how to find that peaceful place within ourselves, even during the most difficult times. This online class offers families a way to explore beneficial techniques together in an effort to develop a shared language and common understanding of what it means to be fully present in our lives.

    PRICE: $27.00     AGE: 4-10

    ◆◇Poetry Makers    June 11th-July 15th

    When sharing poems with our children, we not only teach them how to appreciate the beauty of language but also that our words have the ability to affect others in deep and meaningful ways. In this four-week online workshop, we will strengthen our children's understanding of themselves, each other, and the world around them through the power of writing poetry.

    PRICE: $27.00      AGE: 6-10

Big Stuff

Do you know what is the tallest building in the world and where the tallest Ferris wheel is? Have you heard of the world's steepest roller coaster? Have you seen the biggest monster truck? Here are some of the most huge things on Earth.

A Towering Achievement

Burj Khalifa, a tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the world's tallest structure. The 162-story building, which opened in 2010, stands over 2,717 feet tall. Seen from above, the tower has a Y-shaped design. Its three tall, narrow wings are joined in the middle. Like the legs of a tripod （三脚架）, each wing is supported by the other two.

A Wheel Winner

About 15 miles from the world's tallest building stands the world's tallest Ferris wheel, Ain Dubai. Also called an observation wheel, Ain Dubai stands 820 feet tall. Each of the 48 cabins can carry 40 people for spectacular views of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Before construction, support columns had to be driven 115 feet down through the earth to reach bedrock.

Extreme Ups and Downs

The world's tallest roller coaster is Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure. At 456 feet, the peak of the ride towers over nearby Jackson, New Jersey. A 500-foot-tall crane was needed to place the final section at the top. Like many weight-bearing structures, the tower makes use of the most stable geometric （几何的） shape, the triangle.

A Monster of a Truck

Designed and built by business owner Bob Chandler, Bigfoot 5 has held the record for the world's biggest monster truck since 

1986. Other trucks, including Bigfoot models, have been designed to perform better in competitions. But Bigfoot 5 still stands above the crowd, thanks to its 10-foot-tall tires. The tires were originally designed for equipment that drives on Alaska's snowy tundra.

Road trips were part of my childhood, but it is hard to say they are entirely fond memories. As someone who easily got carsick, I spent most of the long drives with my head against the window or leaning awkwardly to the side. More often, however, I would have to sleep through the CDs in our beaten car.

There was one CD that we often played, one that became the symbolic Road Trip CD in my mind. It was an album in Mandarin (普通话) by my mom's favorite music artist, Leon Lai, who I understood was a major Cantopop legend in his day. We seemingly only played the unidentified Leon Lai CD during our hour-long road trips. I didn't know what it was called until I was in high school and successfully uncovered it by searching through Leon Lai's albums on Spotify until I found the one like the CD cover art.

向往，or Longing, a 1998 Mandarin release, didn't seem to be one of Leon Lai's most famous works. My mom didn't seem to remember why she had it either. The fact that it was in Mandarin, however, made my parents even more willing to play it on repeat. To make up for me and my brother's embarrassing unfamiliarity with the Chinese language, throughout our childhood they were keen on having us watch shows and listen to music in Chinese as a way for us to immerse ourselves and make up for the ground we lost. They were usually in Mandarin, because that was what our formal Chinese schooling taught us, even though Cantonese was the dialect our family actually spoke. This at least meant I could use what I learned in class to understand the lyrics in this album, though I found the singing harder to understand.

Due to the endless exposure to the songs on the road the genuinely memorable mix of upbeat and ballad-like tunes, as well as how well it shows my complicated connection to the Chinese language, this random album holds a special place in my heart.