(목요모임) [21 July. 2016]Thursday meeting topic

[Scarlet]

Howdy ! 

It's me Scarlett !   

This week we have 3 topics. 

◈ Life : 10 Signs You’re Not Ready To Get Married, According To Experts

◈ Education : 9 ways to make education fit for the 21st century

◈ Living style : 5 Reasons Why Minimalism is a Better Way of Life

Hope you enjoy the topics. 

With luv 

Scarlett

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10 Signs You’re Not Ready To Get Married, According To Experts

It’s important to listen to your gut on this one.

05/02/2016 07:09 pm ET/ Carolin Lehmann/ Editorial Fellow, The Huffington Post

Marriage is one of the biggest commitments made in a lifetime.

It’s natural to feel nervous — even a bit apprehensive — about spending the rest of your life with one person, but at what point are those feelings indicative of something more? Here are the signs you’re not quite ready to tie the knot, according to experts.

1. You’re dreading the wedding.

“If the thought of spending the rest of your life, or at least the next 10 to 20 years, with the same person fills you with a sense of dread, you’re not ready to get married.” — Marcia Sirota, a psychiatrist and founder of the Ruthless Compassion Institute

2. You love your partner, but you’re not in love with him or her.

“If you are marrying someone because you think they will be a good mate to you and a good parent, but you are not in love with them, you should seriously consider whether you are ready to be married, or married to this person specifically.” — Nikki Martinez, a counselor and adjunct professor 

 3. You’re keeping secrets from each other.

“One sign that you may not be ready to get married is if you are keeping significant secrets from your partner. These can include the way and with whom you spend your time, information about your finances or your frequent use of a substance.” — Elisabeth LaMotte, a clinical social worker, psychotherapist and founder of the DC Counseling and Psychotherapy Center

4. You think of divorce as no big deal.

“If you are entering the marriage with the attitude of, ‘If things don’t work out, we’ll just get divorced,’ this is probably a good indicator that you aren’t ready for the commitment.” — Leslie Petruk, the director of The Stone Center for Counseling & Leadership in Charlotte, North Carolina

5. Your morals and beliefs just don’t line up.

“If you have fundamental differences in your morals, beliefs, and ideas, that will cause continued issues in the relationship that may not be able to be overcome. An example of this is not being able to agree what faith your children will be raised in.” — Nikki Martinez

6. You’ve only been with your partner for a short amount of time.

“If you’ve been dating for less than two years, you’re not ready to get married. I don’t care how old you are: this applies. I’ve done a high percentage of divorces for people of all ages who married before the two-year mark. It takes a full year to get beyond the infatuation stage and then another year to clearly see each other’s warts and know if you can live with them.” — Alison Patton, licensed attorney and mediator

7. You keep having the same argument over and over again.

“If you are unable to work through conflict such that both parties feel heard, understood and resolved, you likely aren’t ready to make the leap yet. Particularly if the same argument or issue resurfaces over and over without resolution. This is an opportunity to seek outside help to learn how to work through conflict and determine if you are able to. This is an essential skill in a marital relationship.” — Leslie Petruk

8. You’re getting married out of guilt, fear or because you’re trying to please someone else.

“You may choose to marry someone out of guilt because you don’t want to hurt their feelings, upset them or go back on a promise you previously made. Sometimes men and women get married because they mistakenly think that this is their one and only chance at love, or the love they have at the moment is as good as it gets. Getting married to try to please anyone except yourself happens because of the ‘shoulds.’ For example, your parents or family say you should marry someone who went to a certain school, is in a certain income bracket or has certain religious or spiritual beliefs, and you take what they say to be more important than following your own inner guidance.” — Otto Collins, life and relationship coach and co-creator of Passionate Heart

9. You love the potential of who your partner could become, not who they are are right now.

“If you are hoping that being married will change something about your significant other, you may not be ready to marry this person. Are you hoping that marriage will help your fiancé decide that he does want children, even though he insists he does not? Do you imagine that she will drink less once you marry, or that he will become more ambitious once there’s a ring on his finger?  People rarely change, and fantasies that marriage will transform your beloved are usually a sign that you are not ready to marry.” — Elisabeth LaMotte

10. You’re interested in an open marriage, but haven’t told your partner yet.

“Wait, you haven’t even gotten married yet. If you want a marriage with no rules, then why are you getting married? If you are truly interested in an open marriage, you should have been practicing polyamory or swinging long before you headed up the aisle. Don’t start the open marriage dialogue after the conversation about the seating arrangements for the reception. If you are nervous about monogamy, then maybe you need to slow the whole things down and forego the walk down the aisle until you have visited your monogamy conversation in more detail. Learn to open your communication before you open your marriage and then when you do decide to commit to your partner, your marriage will be better for it.” — Tammy Nelson, Board Certified Sexologist, Certified Sex Therapist and the author of The New Monogamy

Article source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/10-signs-youre-not-ready-to-get-married-according-to-experts_us_5717d32be4b024dae4f0d644

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<Questions>

Q1. Why do you want to get married? If you already got married, why did you decide to marry him/ her?

Q2. Who is your ideal type? What is the most attractive traits of him/ her? 

Q3. Do you think you are ready to get married? Do you find any sings from yourself which shows that you are not ready to get married?

1. You’re dreading the wedding.

2. You love your partner, but you’re not in love with him or her.

3. You’re keeping secrets from each other.

4. You think of divorce as no big deal.

5. Your morals and beliefs just don’t line up.

6. You’ve only been with your partner for a short amount of time.

7. You keep having the same argument over and over again.

8. You’re getting married out of guilt, fear or because you’re trying to please someone else.

9. You love the potential of who your partner could become, not who they are are right now.

10. You’re interested in an open marriage, but haven’t told your partner yet.

Q4. How do you think about 'Open marriage' or 'polygamy'? What are the merits and demerits of these system?

Q5. Could you tell us the best couple and the worst couple around you?

Q6. If you are immortal or have longer lifespan, which marriage system is better for you between monogamy, polygamy or being single? 

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9 ways to make education fit for the 21st century

Written by Paul Kruchoski Policy adviser, US Department of State

Published Wednesday 20 July 2016

By 2040, many of the children born this year will be joining the workforce. The world they find will be very different from ours today. How we work and live will be shaped by artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, synthetic biology and many other emerging technologies.

Education is key if we are to prepare students for the world of work, but are our education systems ready?

In this time of fast-paced digital change, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, we need innovative places of learning that can provide the next generation with the skills of the future.

This chart shows which countries are performing the best when it comes to pairing education with jobs in real life.

Here at the World Economic Forum, the Global Agenda Council on Education has spent two years exploring how to build more innovative education systems. This has generated nine simple, effective principles that education leaders can use to spur positive change. While each education system is unique, the challenges they face are not, and these approaches can be applied flexibly in many different contexts.

Play 1: Provide a compelling vision of the future

Leaders need to provide an alternate vision of the future and stimulate demand for a better education system. Consider the UK government’s 2003 vision for London’s schools, which sought to change a chronically underperforming system to one which would “match any system in the world”. That vision substantially improved the school system, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, while challenging the preconception that change was impossible.

Play 2: Set ambitious goals that force innovation

Setting ambitious goals – particularly nearly impossible ones – forces the entire system to innovate in order to move towards them. Ambitious goals should be paired with enough flexibility to create room for new innovation. Just look at Chile: by focusing on a small number of priorities and making substantial investments, the country has improved learning quality, including boosting student reading assessments by more than 20 points between 2000 and 2009.

Play 3: Create choice and competition

Offering choices and creating competition can pressure schools to perform better, offering alternatives to what exists now. Choice can be created at many levels: students and parents can choose schools, or educators can have greater choice in where to work. In 1991 Colombia established a school voucher programme, which has helped to drive up graduation rates among the more than 125,000 students served.

Play 4: Pick many winners

Supporting multiple ideas or approaches at once spurs all providers to continue to improve and compete, whether you are testing new technology tools or new school models. Systems that reward a single “winner” discourage further improvement and learning. The US Department of Education’s Race to the Top, which offered $4 billion to states that commit to reforming their education systems, is just one example.

Play 5: Benchmark and track progress

Education systems need data on school performance. This allows everyone to see and follow progress. It can also be used by leaders to identify problems, as shown by the Link School Performance Review in Uganda. The programme allows schools and districts to measure their performance against national standards and performance indicators. Teams then work with schools to develop improvement plans to address identified areas of need.

Play 6: Eval‎uate and share the performance of new innovations

Innovations need to actually work, and we need to know how well they work. New York City tested a new short-cycle eval‎uation programme for education technology through its iZone Gap App Challenge. All new innovations are measured against efficacy standards within a three-month window – allowing schools to rapidly test and eval‎uate the effectiveness of new approaches. This is a model of how education systems can test performance and eval‎uate the impact of new innovations.

Play 7: Pair greater accountability with autonomy

Innovators need freedom to experiment while remaining accountable for their results. Granting autonomy to schools can remove barriers to innovation and allow school leaders to explore new approaches. In 2009, the OECD found a correlation between increased school-level autonomy and the performance of the entire school system. It also found that, in systems with existing accountability measures, schools with greater autonomy over resource allocation performed better than those with less autonomy.

Play 8: Invest in and empower agents of change

Agents of change need support to develop and refine their work. System leaders need to provide leadership development, coaching and mentorship, and other support systems that enable innovators to succeed. Since 2007, New Leaders for New Schools has trained more than 70 school principals in Greater New Orleans. More than 60% of their schools have outperformed the district. After two years, 100% are on track to closing the achievement gaps in the next five years.

Play 9: Reward successes and productive failure

Public recognition makes it easier for innovators to take risks, even when they don’t work out. They also help highlight work that others can emulate, as shown by both the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize and the WISE Prize for Education.

Article source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/9-ways-to-make-education-fit-for-the-21st-century?utm_content=buffere8835&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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<Questions>

Q1. What kinds of education is required for the society or for the each individual? 

Q2. According to an article, Korea's education system is well prepared for changes. Do you agree with it? 

Q3. When you are studying what is your priority? 

Q4. Do you have your own vision for your future? Why did you choose your goals? 

Q5. What is the deterring factors for student not to proceed for their future dreams?

Q6. Do you think you have enough freedom to visualize your dreams into action? 

Q7. While you are using computer, are you safe from surveillance from certain entity? If your every single steps are proctored by someone, do you think you have freedom? Can you make innovation under this circumstances? 

Q8. Do you think following rule 'Reward successes and productive failure' is kept in our society? Do we have productive failure concept in our society? 

Q9. Have you ever thought about that your ideas are continuously stealing from someone? When you found it, how did u react to it?

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5 Reasons Why Minimalism is a Better Way of Life

by BRIAN GARDNER / DECEMBER 28, 2015

The word minimalism has a negative connotation to many. They believe being a minimalist means you are sacrificing things. It means you are not taking advantage of all that is available in the modern world today. While that may be the perception some have, if they took the time to learn about what minimalism really is, they may find out it can improve their life.

Being a minimalist is a state of mind, and not a set of rules. It can actually mean you have more of what you need, are able to enjoy everything you have and are not worried about what you don’t have. All of that can help make living life a lot less stressful and can make it more fulfilling.

What is Minimalism?

The image some people have of a minimalist lifestyle is giving up all of the modern conveniences of the world. They imagine living in a cabin in the woods without electricity, a wood burning stove and a bathroom you have to go outside to use.

There may be some people who are living like this, but not everyone who is embracing minimalism has to take it this far. There are other ways minimalism can be utilized that do not require any real sacrifices.

Being a minimalist means you value yourself more than material things. It means making decisions based on what you need instead of getting everything you want. It does not mean the things you buy are cheap. It means they are something you need, regardless of how much they cost.

A person can decide how much of a minimalist lifestyle they want to lead. They can do it in stages as well. Most people begin by going through their home and getting rid of things they no longer need. Over time, they are able to pare their life down to a much more minimalist style.

The Benefits of a Minimalist Life

If you told a person they had to give up everything and only get by with the bare necessities of life they would probably ask why. They would wonder why not take advantage of the inventions and the luxuries that are available.

They will say they have earned the right to live their life the way they want to. They are right about this. What they do not know is living a minimalist life will benefit them in many ways they may not be aware of.

1. Decluttering helps people breathe.

When you start to get rid of things from the drawers, closets and attics, you are going to be opening up more space in your home. There will be more room to move around. More importantly, you will be letting go of things you were holding onto. This will give freedom and will make it easier for you to breathe without the burdens of the past weighing you down.

2. Minimalism allows for refocusing.

When you have a lot of material things, your focus can be all over the place. You worry about working enough to pay for all of the stuff and you spend your time trying to look for or put away all of the stuff in your home. When the stuff is gone and the bills of the home are lessened, it becomes possible to focus time and energy on the important things such as the people around you and the things you are doing.

3. Less stuff equals more money.

As you get rid of stuff and luxuries in the home, other things are opened up. The money spent buying stuff, maintaining stuff and making sure you have the best stuff will end up in the pocket instead of in the store. When you have fewer things you can use your money to pay off debt and that will eventually free up even more money. The dependency on money in a minimalist lifestyle is much lower.

4. You have more time.

When you need less money, you do not have to work as much. That frees up time. You are also not going to spend as much time dealing with all of the extra things in your life. You can focus your time on the things you need and use the extra time that is created on the things you enjoy.

5. You have more energy.

Without all of the clutter, all of the energy that is spent dealing with it will be available for other activities. People without the burden of a materialistic lifestyle are healthier and stronger as a result.

The great thing about minimalism is that it is a choice. People can choose whether they want to live this lifestyle or not. They can choose how far they want to go. There are no right or wrong ways to downsize a life.

Everyone is different. What most people will find is once they begin a journey towards minimalism, the experience will grow and the benefits will get larger and they will want more — and that is one thing a minimalist can want more of.

Article source : http://nosidebar.com/why-minimalism/

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Flirting with Minimalism or Downsizing? 

These TED Talks May Just Talk You Into It

Carrie McBride/ Jul 19, 2016

It remains to be seen whether downsizing and minimalism are going to be a cultural shift or just a cultural fad, but these ideas are certainly in the air and on a lot of minds. If you're feeling a tug toward simplicity and paring down, here are some excellent TED Talks to watch on these topics from people who are already "walking the walk."

With one exception, these TED Talks come from Tedx events - TED-sanctioned but independently run events. If you're not familiar with TED Talks, they are short (under 18 minutes) talks to present and share big ideas.

And if you don't have time to watch, I've pulled out a few sentences from each that gives you a sense of the talk:

A Rich Life with Less Stuff / The Minimalists at TEDxWhitefish

I was living paycheck-to-paycheck. Living for a paycheck. Living for stuff. Living for a career that I didn't love. But I wasn't really living at all...All those things that were supposed to make me happy — they weren't doing their job. So I decided to donate and sell all of it. And you know what, I started to feel rich for the first time. I started to feel rich once I got everything out of the way and made room for everything that remains.

Less Stuff, More Happiness / Graham Hill TED Talk

First of all, you have to edit ruthlessly. We've got to clear the arteries of our lives. And that shirt that I hadn't worn in years? It's time for me to let it go. We've got to cut the extraneous out of our lives, and we've got to learn to stem the inflow. We need to think before we buy. Ask ourselves, "Is that really going to make me happier? Truly?" By all means, we should buy and own some great stuff. But we want stuff that we're going to love for years, not just stuff.

Sell your crap. Pay your debt. Do what you love. / Adam Baker at TEDxAsheville

You need to define what freedom looks like in your life. You need to take steps starting today to realize that. Where does it start for most people? It starts right here, with your crap...What happens when this person loses their job? What happens when they're offered a better job in a different city? What happens when they need to adapt either physically, emotionally, financially to any situation that comes up in life? The answer is—at best—that they're restricted. They're held back. They're clogged. They're congested from adapting to any sort of change because of the amount of crap they brought into their life.

The ten-item wardrobe / Jennifer L. Scott atTEDxStGeorge

One of the strange side effects of having too many clothes is we still have nothing to wear...We're operating under the misconception that the more clothes we have the easier it is to get ready in the morning. When actually the opposite is true. The less clothes you have, the less choice you have, the more thought and organization you put behind your wardrobe, the easier it is to get ready in the morning.

Adventures with Minimalism and Happiness / Marty Stano at TEDxUMDearborn

I began retracing my journey to happiness and I found a pattern. A pattern by which I'd been living most of my life whether I was conscious of it or not. Minimalism. By its simplest definition minimalism means "less is more". One purpose of minimalism is to get rid of the things in life, the distractions, that we don't truly need to find more of the things that bring us happiness. We can apply this idea "less is more" to all aspects of our life: material possessions, health and diet, our work, and non-material things like thoughts. When we practice minimalism we can benefit with more time, more energy, more money, more freedom, and ultimately, more happiness.

The Less You Own, the More You Have / Angela Horn at TEDxCapeTown

You see, living a debt-free or close to debt-free life is more than possible and it brings with it a whole lot of extra cash. Cash that can be put to far better use doing those things that you love, but just never seem to be able to afford. Traveling, weekends away, whatever blows your hair back....You see, stuff, it turns out, is a very demanding mistress. And as soon as we gave her the boot, our weekends and, in fact, our whole lives, went from being jam-packed with chores to wide open.

Tiny House Movement / Andrew Morrison at TEDxColoradoSprings

What I am suggesting is that we have to readdress how we look at housing and stop looking at these giant McMansions and start living in what I call "human scale." Human scale is about having all of our housing needs met, but not strapping ourselves to the work wagon. Somewhere we were told that a bigger house with lots of square footage that's going to make us happy and I would suggest that it's actually the exact opposite of that. I think with less square footage we have more time to find our freedom and create happiness for ourselves.

Less: the lifestyle / David Friedlander at TEDxDumbo

The way I think about it, from a literary standpoint, is the world in a certain way is like this big, rambling rough draft. There's a lot of really great elements in it and there's a lot of amazing things going on right now, but a lot of times it's really just obscured by all the superfluous shit...What we're talking about here is really reducing things down to its essence. Editing. And that's why we say editing is the skill of this century. Really getting down to what's important whether that's an architectural conceit, whether that's product design, whether that's relationships or your job. Just getting down to the essence of things.

Tiny home, big life — an experiment in simple living / Erin & Dondi Harner at TEDxFrontRange

[In designing our tiny house] we used the 80/20 rule: we took the 20% of our house that we use 80% of the time and we designed the house to include just that...we didn't just take a regular house and shrink it down to be tiny either. We cut out everything we possibly could that wasn't used daily or at least a couple times a week.

Minimalism - For a More Full Life / Grant Blakeman at TEDxBoulder

So we live in this world full of abundant choice and it's really awesome. I mean, I can get on a plane and fly anywhere tomorrow. But that choice comes with a cost...we're finding that consumers when faced with too much choice , are actually choosing not to choose. It's just easier to not make a choice and have those choices be made for you...We want to live really full lives and that's the way we should do it. But part of living a full life is finding negative space.

Article source: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ted-talks-focused-on-minimalism-tiny-houses-downsizing-220917

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Tiny houses are trendy, minimalist and often illegal

BY REBECCA BEITSCH, STATELINE  July 6, 2016 at 9:58 AM EDT

Sarah Hastings’ 190-square-foot home was on 3 acres of farmland next to a small garden in Hadley, Massachusetts. Now it’s in storage. The 23-year-old recent college graduate built the house last year while she was a student at Mount Holyoke College. But like many who want to live in a “tiny house,” generally defined as a home smaller than 500 square feet, she has struggled to find a place to put it.

Living micro: Single residents embrace tiny apartments

After somebody reported her for violating Hadley’s zoning ordinances, Hastings proposed changing the town’s laws to allow for backyard apartments, but the measure was voted down in a town meeting.

Some local governments around the country are welcoming tiny houses, attracted by their potential to ease an affordable housing crunch or even house the homeless. Cities such as Washington, D.C., and Fresno, California, have eased zoning and building rules to allow them, and in May California’s housing department issued guidance to help builders and code enforcers know which standards they need to meet. They are even the subject of the HGTV shows “Tiny House, Big Living” and “Tiny House Hunters.”

But lost in the enthusiasm is the fact that in many places, it is hard to live in them legally.

Many residents and local officials fear they will drive down property values. Some state and local governments, perplexed about whether to classify tiny houses as RVs, mobile homes or backyard cottages, still refuse to allow them.

And as for tiny houses being a solution to the affordable housing crunch, some housing experts caution they aren’t right for everyone. “People using affordable housing are a diverse group. You’ve got retired people, disabled people, families,” said Robert Silverman, a professor with the University of Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning. “A 300-square-foot trailer with a loft up top may not be suited for all those groups.”

Hastings said Hadley rejected her tiny house proposal because some residents were afraid the town would be overrun with them. “There was kind of a backlash. It only takes a few people saying ‘Oh, there’ll be 500 of them,’” she said.

The ‘Wild West’ of Construction

In 2015, the median new family home in the U.S. was 2,500 square feet, 61 percent larger than homes from 1975.

Tiny houses have gained traction with people who want to live a simpler life with fewer possessions and financial obligations, and who want to have a smaller environmental footprint. Some nonprofits are eyeing them as a possible solution for people priced out of overheated housing markets.

The difficulty has been where to place them. Those built on foundations must meet local building and zoning regulations. But many tiny houses are built off-site, sometimes without knowing where they will ultimately rest. That makes it difficult to know which building codes to meet, especially if owners plan to move them from place to place.

Bill Rockhill, the founding president of the American Tiny House Association and a New York-based builder who primarily builds tiny houses, said he and other builders try to follow uniform building codes for houses or a similar set of standards for RVs. Still, not all requirements can be met — the ladders in a tiny house may not meet requirements set forth for stairs, and lofts may not have high enough ceilings.

During construction, Rockhill takes photos of everything inside the walls so that customers can talk with building inspectors about construction. He said code enforcers can be flexible on some safety requirements, such as allowing a loft as long as it has a large enough escape window. “It’s kind of the Wild West of building,” said Tony Gilchriest, a builder based in Washington, D.C. But Gilchriest notes that the lack of clear standards makes some builders more cautious. That is especially true when the owners of a tiny house plan to move it frequently, and it must be sturdy enough to be driven down the highway at 60 mph.

“I think people overbuild because they’re afraid,” he said.

But Dan Buuck, a specialist on codes and standards for the National Association of Home Builders, insists that some tiny houses are filled with dangers. Smoke can accumulate more quickly in low-ceiling and loft areas, and ladders and small windows make it harder for help to get in and out.

Those concerns have spawned a cottage industry of firms willing to certify that a tiny house is safe. Chuck Ballard with Pacific West Associates Inc. said his company reviews architectural plans and photos of construction before issuing the certification, which costs around $2,000.

On the Ground

As of now, few cities allow stand-alone tiny houses. Most communities have minimum square footage requirements for single-family homes mandating that smaller dwellings be an “accessory” to a larger, traditional house. Many also have rules requiring that dwellings be hooked up to utilities, which is a problem for tiny-house enthusiasts who want to live off the grid by using alternative energy sources such as solar panels and rainwater catchment systems.

That’s the case for Brian Levy, whose 210-square-foot tiny house in a peaceful back alley alongside a cemetery in Washington, D.C., isn’t considered fit to be occupied full-time because it is on its own piece of land and it is not connected to city utilities.

Many cities are more accommodating to tiny houses on foundations, which are considered guest cottages — as opposed to those on wheels. Starting in the fall, D.C.’s new zoning regulations will permit tiny houses in some neighborhoods, as long as they are on a foundation and are connected to utilities.

When cities require the same permitting for tiny houses on foundations as they do for traditional houses, it often doesn’t make financial sense to build tiny. “At that point it’s really more of a lifestyle choice than an economic choice,” said Nick Krautter, a real estate agent in Portland, Oregon, who abandoned plans for a tiny house development.

Just a few cities allow tiny houses that rest on wheels, including Fresno, where they are now considered backyard cottages.

Tiny Towns, Tiny Houses

Alexis Stephens, a tiny house dweller who has been traveling the country making a documentary on how people are living in tiny houses legally, said small towns have been more open to tiny houses than their larger counterparts.

One example is Spur, Texas — population 1,318 — where people hope tiny houses will help revitalize the shrinking community. In 2014, Spur declared itself the nation’s first tiny-house-friendly town.

John Schmidt, the city’s home inspector and code enforcement officer, said the process began by selling lots in town for as little as $250. The town has already sold 60 lots, and though they’re a little less than a quarter of an acre, that’s plenty of room for a tiny house, a driveway and a garden.

There are three tiny houses now, and five more are expected to be finished by the end of the summer. Because the key is to get these new residents to stay, they must put their house on a foundation and connect to city utilities. If the tiny house was originally constructed on wheels, the owner needs to remove the wheels and axles and put a skirt around the base to keep out critters. “We’ve got people paying taxes, going to schools, buying groceries. It’s a boon to the town because of the income,” Schmidt said.

Stephens said Rockledge, Florida, is taking a different approach. The town recently approved zoning regulations that would allow for a “pocket neighborhood,” or cluster, of tiny houses.

Tiny houses there can keep the wheels on, but they must build both a front and a back porch.

“It’s enough to discourage frequent travel but it doesn’t prevent it if needed or desired,” Stephens said.

A Home of Their Own

Many advocates of tiny houses see them not just as part of a trendy minimalist movement, but as a way to offer affordable housing to millennials, retirees, low-income people and even the homeless.

There are a handful of tiny house communities for the homeless in places like Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. More are on the way in Detroit and Kansas City.

Panza in Olympia, Washington, and Mobile Loaves & Fishes in Austin, Texas, are nonprofits that rent tiny houses to the homeless for a small sum. Panza’s Quixote Village started as a tent camp. Now it includes 30 tiny houses which people can rent for 30 percent of their income, or at least $50 a month. And a Mobile Loaves & Fishes program called Community First Village just finished building over 100 tiny houses in a mix of architectural styles, which will rent for $225 to $375 a month.

In both Olympia and Austin, the tiny houses lack bathrooms and kitchens. Instead, residents must share common bathrooms and kitchens — an arrangement designed to foster a sense of community and keep the cost of the houses low.

Some of the tiny house communities in development around the country will take a different approach.

Cass Community Social Services, a nonprofit in Detroit, is building 25 tiny houses. The rent-to-own structures will have both bathrooms and kitchens. The Rev. Faith Fowler, the group’s director, said the homes will be available to those transitioning from homeless shelters, students who are aging out of the foster care system and low-income seniors.

Fowler said her main goal isn’t just to house this population, but to address asset inequality — to give people something so they can borrow money, leave property to their kids, or even sell. People will rent the tiny house for the first three years and be added to a lien for the last four. After seven years, the house will be theirs.

Fowler said the project will be different from other affordable housing because it will provide a path to ownership for tenants. It also offers GED classes, and a gym and small store within walking distance. All will employ residents.

But Cate Mingoya, who oversees public housing and rental assistance for Massachusetts, cautioned that not all tiny houses are a good solution for the homeless.

When Mingoya toured several tiny house homeless communities she found that some homes were well constructed but others weren’t properly built, leaving them vulnerable to the elements. “How much choice do they really have to live in that house?” she said. “When you’re segregating people based on income and tell them you get 120 square feet, there’s a social cost.”

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/tiny-houses-are-trendy-minimalist-and-often-illegal/

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<Questions> 

Q1. What is the minimalism? and What is the definition of minimalist? 

Q2. Do you think you have priority in your life? If yes, please share it with us ! 

Q3. Can you abandon all your life styles to find more valuable experience or meaningful life? 

Q4. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of being a minimalist? 

Q5. If you are allowed to keep only 5 items with you, what would these items be? 

Q6. How about human relationship? If you have to terminate all your human relationships except relationships with 5 people, who would you choose to remain on your contact list?

Q7. When you feel that things are very complex around you, how do you deal with it? 

Q8. If you have a chance to live in a cabin in the wood, would you take that chance?