“Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a kid?!” My 7-year-old once asked me. My initial reaction to her complaint (抱怨) was eye-rolling, along with thinking, “Being a kid is hard? Are you kidding me?” as I mentally counted all the hard things that her grown-up mama did.

    However, as I thought about it a bit more, I realized how silly my reaction had been. Yes, as we adults look back on our childhood, being a kid seems carefree and easy and full of fun. Coloring at school! Playing games! Riding bikes! How could that be hard? So I asked my daughter why being a kid was so hard.

    “Well, because you don't have your own phone, and you can't eat in the living room,” she said.

     I asked if anything else was hard about being a kid. “Someone else is the boss of you,” she replied.

    I thought some more. What else is hard about being a kid? Well, sometimes, we don't really take kids seriously.

    There are times when I've responded to my children's tears with “It's not bad,” or “You don't need to be upset about that.” Because I believe that a cancelled playdate or a lost toy is no big deal. But for my little ones, it is.

    We don't intentionally ignore these opportunities for connection, but sometimes, in busy moments of parenting, we respond unskillfully. We don't put ourselves in our children's shoes, and we miss an opportunity to practice compassion.

    Compassion means “to feel with” or “to suffer with” another person. It means seeing something the way they do, and experiencing it with them.

    Here's what I've learned about being a more compassionate parent, and I hope other parents can do the same thing.

    Newspapers in Great Britain vary greatly in their ways of carrying the news. There are serious papers for those who want to know about important happenings everywhere, both at home and abroad. There are popular newspapers for those who prefer entertainment to information.

    The London newspaper that is best known outside Great Britain is probably the Times. It began in 1785, and has a high reputation for believable news and serious opinions on the news. It calls itself an independent paper, which means that it does not give its support to a particular political party. Its leading articles give the opinions of the editors, not those of the owners of the paper.

    Letters to the editor are printed in the newspaper. These parts of the Times are always interesting. Most of the letters are serious subjects. But from time to time there will be long letters on the subject which is not at all serious, perhaps on a new fashion of dress, or the bad manners of the young people, compared with manners of thirty years ago.

    Agatha Christie used to go out at night. She will never forget the night when she met a robber(盗贼) many years ago.

    That evening, she was invited to a birthday party which lasted till 2 o'clock in the morning. Without company, Agatha walked home along the quiet street. Suddenly from the shadow of a dark building, a tall man with a sharp knife in his right hand ran out at her. "Good morning, lady," the man said in a low voice, "I don't think you wish to die here!" "What do you want?" Agatha asked.

    "Your earrings (耳环). Take them off!" Agatha suddenly had a bright idea. She tried to cover her necklace with the collar (衣领) of her overcoat while she used the other hand to take off both of her earrings, and then she quickly threw them on the ground.

    "Take them and let me go." she said. The robber was uncertain. He saw that the girl didn't care for the earrings at all, only trying to protect the necklace. He realized the necklace would cost more, so he said, "Give me your necklace."

    "Oh, sir. It's not worth much. Please let me keep it."

    "Stop talking rubbish. Quick!"

    With shaky hands, Agatha took off her necklace. As soon as the robber disappeared, she picked up her earrings and ran as fast as she could to her home.

    The earrings cost 480 pounds and the necklace the robber had taken away cost only six pounds ten shillings (先令).

    You may find yourself wondering: do blind people dream? Dream sleep is generated deep within the brain. As it is a function of the brain, and not the eyes, blind people dream as much as a sighted person would. It is interesting that the timing of the blindness in life may in fact influence the content of the dreams, however.

    Research has evaluated the sensory experiences of blind people while dreaming for decades. These findings have been interpreted (解释) within the context of sighted people's experience of dreams. It is useful to consider the content of all dreams to better understand where it differs among the blind.

    Most dreams contain features that are both visual and kinesthetic (related to movement, such as falling). More than half of dreams contain a sound. It is rare for people to describe other sensory experiences, such as those related to smell, taste, and pain. It is estimated that these latter three elements occur in less than 1 percent of dream reports. Interestingly, women more often experience smell and taste in their dreams while men more often report sound and pain.

    Blind people are more likely to report feelings of touch, taste, and smell in their dreams compared to sighted people. This likely corresponds to their waking experience which relies more on these senses. They do not have dramatic differences in dream content, except that they seem to have less aggression in their dreams.

    Despite these subtle differences in dream content, can blind people see when they dream? Some blind people actually can see in dreams, but it depends on when they lost their vision. Individuals who are born blind or those who become blind at a young age (typically by the age of 4 or 5 years) do not have visual imagery in their dreams. On the other hand, those who become blind after 5 or 6 years of age are able to see in their dreams. Therefore, there seems to be a window in the development of the brain in which the capacity to have visual dreams is established.

    Over the years Lisa urged her sister Helen to prepare for her old age. Now they passed sixty. Lisa had a big house, Helen had the clothes on her back.

    Lisa had hated being a child and couldn't wait to grow up and buy herself everything. What Helen wanted was to go outside and play.

    When anyone would hire her, Lisa put herself to work. She never touched a penny of her money though her young mouth watered for ice cream and candy. When the dimes (一角硬币) added up to dollars， she lost her taste for sweets. And her bankbook became her most precious possession.

    Helen had a boyfriend Harry whose only ambition was to play a horn. That Helen married Harry straight out of high school was not surprising. Two or three times Lisa was halfway persuaded, but to give up a job that paid well for a homemaking job that paid nothing was a risk she was unable to take.

    Helen's married life was nothing for Lisa to envy. She and Harry played in second-rate bands. But Lisa had a big house because her boss offered her his first house at a price so low that it would be like losing money to refuse.

    Harry died abroad, in a third-rate hotel, with Helen crying as hard as if he had left her a fortune. He had left her nothing but his horn. Lisa knew she would have to bring her home.

    At dinner, Helen began to tell stories. They were rich with places and people, most of them lowly, all of them magnificent. Her face showed the joys and sorrows.

    Then Lisa knew why Helen didn't mention the shining room. Tonight Helen saw only what she had come seeking, a place in her sister's home and heart.

    She said, “That's enough about me. How have the years used you?” “I didn't use them,” said Lisa regretfully. “I saved for them but forgot to enjoy them. Now it's too near the end to try. ”Helen said, “Don't count the years that are left to us. At our time of life it's the days that count. You've too much catching up to do to waste a minute of a waking hour feeling sorry for yourself.” Lisa smiled.

    There have been many problems with our schools today, the biggest of which is closely related to our culture. In general, our culture, as represented in the media, gets excited by famous stars, and constantly stresses that it's what you have, not what you are, that counts. Parents are encouraged to be away from even very small children for most of the day. Too many voters go for politicians who would rather cut school funding than to get rid of tax cuts for the wealthy. All contribute greatly to the problems of educating our children.

    Today's teachers have to deal with a culture that is vastly different than in the past. They report that there is, among more children than ever, a lack of motivation, no drive to succeed or even try. The role models that boys view in the media mostly consist of men in comedies and other shows who are rude and often extremely immature; self-centered overpaid athletes; men in movies, television dramas, video games, etc. who are preoccupied with violence and power. As Leonard Sax wrote in "Boys Adrift", "Teenage boys are looking for models of mature adulthood, but we no longer make any collective effort to provide such models." Girls are attacked not only with such annoying images of males, but also with women who are preoccupied with appearance and are extremely materialistic.

    In such a cultural environment, it is more important than ever to have responsible, loving and caring parents who have enough time and motivation to devote to their children and see to it as their duty to model for them and raise them with high standards of honesty and responsibility along with tending to their physical needs. They need to care enough to see that their children are not attacked with the garbage that comes from movie, television and computer screens. In today's culture, they are basically alone in this effort since, unfortunately, so much is working against them.

    Until we, as a culture, face the truth about ourselves — that we are not providing adequately for a great many of our children — the storm will continue to rage over our education system.