Janie, you never fail when you give what you can.

Sometime, I too, feel like beating my head against the wall. We work in outdated, underfunded institutions run by bureaucrats who have no idea what its like on the front lines.

melf said it well. Give what you can and remember to do it with respect.

Mary - I thought I was the only one with parents that seemed to discourage every available opportunity I had. I was offerred a scholarship to a private school when I was 14. My parents came up with all kinds of excuses. I wasn't allowed to go. In the end, it was because they were afraid they'd lose me. They thought that they might not be good enough for me if I associated with the upper classes.

I didn't go to universitsy until I was nearly forty.

I look back and remember the people who encouraged me - the public librarian, the dentist, the mother of the grocer, the 'outsider' who married my uncle, my grade 3 teacher and last but not least, the step-father of my children.