Episode 126
Notes
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Voice]
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Banter:
Hello and welcome to the Pre-Valentines Day, post-anniversary, post-apocalyptic
daddycast!
Episode 126 for
And my
beautiful bride and I just celebrated our 11th year of wedded bliss
on Saturday. Can you guess how we spent
the day? That strange sound that intro’d this episode was a clue. That horrid noise you heard was the sound of
a Maytag gas dryer, made in 1987, breathing its last breath – and you were
there to hear it. So
sad. I feel like I’ve lost an old
friend. He was my first gas dryer, I bought it when I was still a free spirit, on a
Sears charge with lots of credit available.
But those days are gone, gone.
And so is that dryer now. We spent our anniversary shopping for
appliances – ahh, how romantic! Makes my heart go
pitter-patter. Now you KNOW that
maybe the romance is gone when your anniversary is spent in a showroom choosing
between top or front load, almond or white, energy-efficient or space-saving,
gas or electric.
But the
simple fact of the matter is my son managed to kill the dryer. No not directly, but indirectly. You see, the poor kid just finished with one
virus that ruptured his left eardrum, and moved right into another virus that
made it impossible to keep food down. No
matter what we tried to feed the lil’ guy, it’d come
right back up again. Sometimes in a few
minutes, sometimes in a few hours, but always the same, “Daddy, I’m gonna blaaaah”. The true test of a parents love is getting a
barf bath from your kid and still being more worried about how sick your kid
is, than about how you’ll ever get the stains out of your new sheepskin
slippers you just got for Christmas.
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Headlines:
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News Intro]
News:
Girls Try Drugs, Alcohol at Higher
Rates
By KAREN
MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
In a
reversal of past trends, teenage girls are trying marijuana, alcohol and
cigarettes at higher rates than boys, the White House drug czar said Thursday.
The
findings from a new government analysis come even as teen drug use is declining
overall.
The
National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released by John Walters, the national
drug policy director, indicates 1.5 million girls ages 12 to 17 started
drinking alcohol in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available.
That compares with 1.28 million boys.
Among the
same age group, 730,000 girls started smoking cigarettes in 2004, compared with
565,000 boys, and 675,000 girls starting using marijuana, compared with 577,000
boys, the survey found.
The
nationwide survey, based on interviews with 70,000 families, also found that
girls surpassed boys in abusing prescription drugs. Of the youths surveyed in 2004,
14.4 percent of girls and 12.5 percent of boys reported misusing prescription
drugs.
'This is
the first time that we've recorded this kind of relationship between boys' and
girls' drug use,' said Walters. 'In the past, boys have had higher rates of use
- and significantly higher rates of use at certain times in the past.'
Overall
illicit drug use among youths 12 to 17 has declined 19 percent since 2001,
according to the survey.
'In order
to drive it down further, we have to deal with today's substance abuse reality,
and today's reality is, girls have been using at higher rates than boys in
critical areas,' Walters said.
Experts who
joined Walters at a news conference in a
'Boys and
girls react to drugs differently,' said Dr. Warren Seigel,
past president of the
Seigel
said research has shown that girls may become addicted to nicotine faster than
boys and even moderate drinking can disrupt their growth and the development of
their reproductive systems.
'It's
imperative that parents understand that these differences exist, and understand
the differences between girls and boys, because it requires some different
parenting skills,' he said.
Dr. Ralph
Lopez, an associate professor at Cornell University's Weill
Medical College and the author of 'The Teen Health Book: A Parents' Guide to
Adolescent Health and Well-Being,' said teenage girls are at risk for drug and
alcohol use because they feel pressure to succeed academically and also to look
perfect.
'They have
to be skinny and gorgeous,' he said. 'We don't do that to the boys.'
Lopez said
many parents are afraid to confront their children about drugs.
'I'm afraid
that our parents have dropped the ball in many cases,' he said. 'I have a line
in my practice that if you are popular with your kids, you're doing something
wrong.'
…So we have
good news and bad news. Good News: Abuse
overall is down. Bad News: Girls abuse
more than boys.
Does this
mean girls give in to peer pressure more? I don’t think so. Although there is a double standard for
girls, like the doctor said in the article, they’re expected to be ‘skinny and
perfect’. But who is doing that to the
girls? Is it the parents? Do we have a Jon Benet
Ramsey thing going on where dads expect their daughters to be fashion models
and rocket scientists all before age 9?
Where is this pressure for girls to be skinny and perfect coming
from? I’m asking this question
semi-rhetorically. Its
coming from the garbage they see in these so-called TEEN magazines, and their
friends. AND THEIR PARENTS! I counseled someone who heard so much junk
from her dad, he’d say things like “you’re so fat,
you’ll never get married”. It still
hurts her to this day. Think what you
say doesn’t affect your kids? Think
again…and maybe get this book from Dr. Lopez if you’re dealing with these
issues with your kids. Or, seek
professional help.
Poll Shows Divide Among
Parents, Teachers
By BEN
FELLER
AP Education Writer
Considering
they share responsibility for 50 million children, parents and teachers sure
have some different views about what goes on in school.
From discipline
to standardized tests to the quality of high schools, parents and teachers
disagree on basic aspects of education, an AP-AOL Learning Services Poll finds.
They come
together, though, on the need to hire and keep good teachers.
Parents and
teachers literally see children differently. The setting at home is often not
at all like the one at school, where kids hang out in groups and social
pressures climb.
In the
poll, for example, less than half of parents say student discipline is a
serious concern at school.
Teachers
scoff at that. Two in three of them call children's misbehavior a major
problem.
Over 14
years of teaching, Carol-Sue Nix has watched discipline problems trickle down
from the fifth grade to pre-kindergarten. A parent-teacher conference usually
follows.
'Some
parents will work with us. If you talk to them, you see a change in the child,'
said Nix, who teaches second grade in
Jeff
Gillette, a retired respiratory therapist with two children in school, wouldn't
mind if teachers had more power to take charge of unruly students.
'When I
went to school, they could actually paddle you or put you in detention,'
recalled Gillette, 50, of
The survey
also found:
_73 percent
of teachers say they know more than their students about learning tools
available on the Internet. On this topic, 57 of parents say they know more than
their kids.
_71 percent
of teachers say class work and homework is the best way to measure academic
success; 63 percent of parents say the same. A minority of both groups favored
test scores.
_79 percent
of teachers say high schools do a good job, if not better, in preparing
students for college. A smaller but still strong majority of parents, 67
percent, agree.
On testing,
the poll found teachers are much more likely than parents to say standardized
exams get too much emphasis. Yet most parents and teachers agree testing has
weakened the ability of educators to give individual attention to students.
Dottie
Hungerford is one of those parents.
'I don't
see where the testing is going to come in handy for 90 percent of students down
the line,' said Hungerford, a truck loader from
Speaking of
English, teachers cite it as the one subject students should study more in
school. Parents disagree, but not by much. They put English second, behind
math.
What
troubles Jason Cleveland, a 34-year-old teacher in
This is
where things can get sticky, as parenting and teaching overlap.
In the
poll, 43 percent of parents say low expectations of students is a serious
problem; 54 percent of teachers say the same, including almost two in three
teachers in high school.
So who sets
the expectations?
Parents
look to teachers to challenge and reward their kids. Teachers look to parents
to instill manners, respect and motivation. Sounds like a natural partnership.
Not always.
…It’s a
partnership, not servitude. Teachers can
only do so much for your kids. It IS up
to us as parents to engrain the “politeness factor”. My wife and I work very hard to make sure my
son says please, thanks you, you’re welcome, excuse me, etc. It takes lots of reinforcement, and since
he’s only 5 he doesn’t really understand WHY we’re making him do this…but his
teacher finds it much easier to teach him without the added overhead of
teaching manners at the same time. Teachers are seriously outnumbered in the
classroom. Lets
try and help ‘em out – for our own kid’s sake.
…In another
story, written from the same polling data…
Poll: Adults Scoff at Homework
Gripes
By BEN
FELLER, AP Education Writer
Too much homework? Sorry, kids, the adults aren't buying it. Most parents say
their children get the right amount of homework, and most teachers agree,
according to an AP-AOL Learning Services Poll.
Even among
the parents and teachers who say the load assigned these days is out of whack,
more of them say it's too light - not too heavy.
Parents
seem rather content, though, with the demands that homework places on their own
time.
In the
poll, 64 percent of parents said they have little trouble finding time to help
with homework, and 57 percent said they spend the right amount of time helping
out.
And for
those parents who haven't dipped into an algebra or chemistry book in a while?
No worries - 70 percent say the homework they see is not too difficult for them
to help with.
Teachers,
however, are skeptical about the support children get at home. Almost nine in
10 said parents don't set aside enough time to help.
By subject,
math is the one that kids need the most help with, parents and teachers agree.
When Cindy Gilpin's two children bring home math in
As homework
aids go, the Internet gets high marks, parents and teachers said in the AP-AOL
Poll. More than 80 percent of both groups rated Internet resources as good or
better.
The survey
also found:
_ Less educated parents spend more time helping kids with
take-home assignments.
_ The most affluent parents spend the least time helping their
kids with homework.
_ Women
spend an average 46 minutes a day helping with homework. Men spend 35 minutes.
_ Black
parents spend more time than Hispanics or whites on homework help.
_ Public
school students spend less time on homework than kids in other schools.
So how much
homework is too much? That's the question that elicits emotion, the one that
sends parents to their school board asking why weary kids must lug home huge
book bags.
In the
poll, only 19 percent of parents said their kids get too much homework.
Parents
polled said their children spend an average of 90 minutes a night on homework.
The workload grows as the students do - 78 minutes of homework a night in
elementary school, 99 minutes in middle school and 105 in high school.
Even those
numbers might be lofty. Could be that parents don't really know how much time
kids spend on homework when the bedroom door shuts. Consider what the students
say.
Most
children aged 9, 13 and 17 years say they spend less than an hour a night on
homework, according to a long-term federal study. That load has held steady, if
not dropped, over the past 20 years. Plenty of students say they are not
assigned any homework at all.
And the
…My son
gets homework – and he’s in Kindergarten!
He gets an hour or so every couple days.
Its obviously easy stuff, but it takes time, because I’m not a
professional teacher. And if the pro
can’t get it into his head, I’m already at a disadvantage. So set aside PLENTY of time to help your
kids…they come first, before those re-runs of Lost. Next story…
Study Shows Media Coverage on Flu
Influences Parents to Vaccinate Their Children
Newswise
- Media coverage about influenza and the importance of flu shots influenced
parents to vaccinate their children against the influenza virus, according to a
study done by researchers and information officers at
The study's
findings, published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, looked at
the 2003-2004 flu season and whether media attention
affected pediatric flu vaccination rates nationwide.
Lead author
Katherine Poehling, M.D., assistant professor of
Pediatrics, was surprised to find how strong an effect
media coverage really did have on parents, an impression shared by John Howser, media director, VUMC News and public Affairs.
"This
study validates what we've long suspected, that news coverage of a serious
public health issue really does raise public awareness and can have a positive
impact on peoples' health."
Poehling
predicted it would be a factor, "but I didn't realize how strongly the
media coverage would influence the number of people who came to get their
children vaccinated. The impact of media attention on influenza illness and
deaths in children was very impressive."
Poehling
and the other researchers wondered why some parents brought their children in
for a flu vaccine, and why some did not.
Parents
said there were many other factors that influenced them to seek a flu
vaccination, including physician recommendation, other family members receiving
a vaccination and media coverage, among others.
When asked
what influenced the decision to get their child vaccinated, 26 percent of
parents cited media influence, second to the 60 percent who said it was because
of doctors recommendations.
…Misleading
headline. Yes, media coverage does
influence a parent’s decision.
Sure. But other factors influence
our decisions. Like the AVAILABILITY of
vaccine. That didn’t get a mention in
this article…at all.
My son’s
pediatrician had no opinion one way or another.
I’ve had a lot of time to talk with him lately, and he said that it
would not have helped my son. His ear
infection probably wasn’t caused by the flu.
But, if your kids are at risk for complications from the flu, like
pneumonia or bronchitis, then you betcha get your flu
shots. I get one myself…pneumonia is
absolutely no fun…and my son has brought home the flu and shared it with me.
Brain Images Show Individual
Dyslexic Children Respond to Spelling Treatment
Newswise
- Brain images of children with dyslexia taken before they received spelling
instruction show that they have different patterns of neural activity than do
good spellers when doing language tasks related to spelling. But after
specialized treatment emphasizing the letters in words, they showed similar
patterns of brain activity. These findings are important because they show the
human brain can change and normalize in response to spelling instruction, even
in dyslexia, the most common learning disability.
The
research is unique in that it looks at images of individual brains rather than
the composite group images, or maps, that are
typically produced to show which areas of the brain are activated when people
are engaged in specific tasks. Being able to study how individual brains differ
between good and poor spellers and how they normalize after receiving one of
two treatments is an important advance, according to
The new
findings were published in the January issue of the journal Neurolinguistics.
"Most
people think dyslexia is a reading disorder, but it is also a spelling and
writing problem," said Berninger, who directs
the UW's Learning Disabilities Center. "Our results show that all
dyslexics in the 9- to 12-year-old range have spelling problems and children
who cannot spell cannot express their ideas in writing."
Earlier
research by the UW team and others has shown that dyslexic children exhibit a
different pattern of brain activity while reading compared to youngsters who
are good readers, but that the brain is malleable and this pattern can
normalize with specialized instruction. However, even after receiving reading
instruction, many dyslexic children still have persistent spelling problems,
according to Berninger. Even so, she said, parents
report that their children with dyslexia are typically dismissed from special
education once they learn to read but before their spelling and writing
problems are adequately treated.
Researchers
have found that humans code words in three forms while learning how to read and
spell. These codes draw on common and unique brain circuits. The brain codes
words by their sound (or phonology), by the parts of words that signal meaning
and grammar (morphology), and by their visual or written form (orthography).
In the new
study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to examine the brain activity of 18 dyslexic children
(5 girls and 13 boys) who had problems with spelling and 21 children (8 girls
and 13 boys) who were good readers and spellers. All of the children were of
normal intelligence and were in the fourth through sixth grades.
Both groups
of children had their brains scanned twice while doing a series of language
tasks. The good spellers were scanned to provide a picture of normal brain
activity while doing the tasks. The brains of the dyslexic children were imaged
both before and after receiving 14 hours of one of two kinds of specialized
spelling instruction over a three-week period. The dyslexic children were randomly
assigned to either of two spelling treatments. One emphasized the letters in
the written forms of words while the other focused on the parts of words that
signal meaning and grammar.
Earlier
research has shown that spelling development progresses through three stages -
phonological, orthographic and morphological. The treatment that was
developmentally appropriate for children in grades four through six -
orthographic - was the one associated with normalization of brain activation.
After receiving the orthographic instruction that emphasized strategies for
focusing on and remembering the letters in written words, the brain activity of
the dyslexic children changed to more closely resemble that of the good
spellers. The children's spelling on a standardized test also improved.
Dyslexic children who received the other treatment, a morphological one that
was more developmentally advanced, did not show normalized brain activation.
"Our
research is telling us good spellers are taught, not born, as is often assumed,"
she said. "Unfortunately, what happens in most schools is dyslexic
children learn how to read and then get dismissed from special education
classes even though they still need specialized instruction until they learn to
spell. Moreover, spelling is not systematically and explicitly taught in many
classrooms in the
…Here is
yet another opportunity for us to be parents and help our kids to learn. Spellers are taught – not born. So if your kid is having trouble spelling,
run some drills and teach ‘em. My parents did that for me…
Little Lips Drinking Liquid Decay
Newswise
- American children are drinking too much... sugar, that is. "And since
the CDC says 41 percent of U.S. children between ages 2 and 11 have decayed
baby teeth, it should give parents pause, too," said UAB pediatric dentist
Stephen Mitchell, "Many things cause tooth decay, but most dentists
probably agree that the biggest cause of decay in children is what they drink.
Dentists have gotten the message out to avoid frequent candy eating; but sodas,
juices and sports drinks are basically liquid candy. And excess calories can
contribute to obesity and impact juvenile diabetes." Mitchell recommends
parents monitor their children's diets, limiting sweet drinks to 8 ounces-a-day
during a set meal or snack time; help children brush and floss regularly; and
visit a dentist regularly. February is national children's dental health month.
…My son was
prescribed ‘gatorade’ to combat dehydration due to
his stomach virus thing. Now I gotta worry about the dentists getting mad at me for giving
it to him? OK, I think the message
should be ‘moderation’. Milk can be just
as bad on teeth if it stays in their mouths, like when babies fall asleep with
a bottle in their mouths.
Get the kiddies
in the habit of brushing their teeth – as early as possible. I give my son a 5-minute extension on going
to bed if he brushes his teeth beforehand…works really
well for us…
Nintendo DS Download Stations Coming
to the
Michael Hoffman -
The
download stations have proven to be a great success in Japan -- now Americans
will have the chance to use them
During the D.I.C.E Summit in Las Vegas, Nintendo announced something that
Nintendo DS users have been waiting for a while now: download kiosks,
which allow gamers to download trailers, demos, and other files to the DS, will
be coming to the United States within the next month. Stores like GameStop and Best Buy will get the kiosks, with more stores
getting the wireless download centers in the next several months.
The newly downloaded material will be purged after a user turns off power to
the DS. Basically users will only be able to play the demos and downloads at a
retail location as if they were there to try out any other demo. Anytime users wants something new, they would have to go to a kiosk
location again.
The first game demos that DS owners will get a crack at include Mario Kart DS, Pokemon Troizi, Brain Age, True
Swing Golf, and Meteos.
…This
sounds very cool. It’ll let you try out
the games before breaking the seal. At
least its cool so long as they don’t push ads at you
or figure out some way to put spyware in your
Nintendo! Oh, sorry…that was Sony…I
forgot…
[Cue Song 1 Garen
Gueyikian, aka Granian, “Uncovered” from the 2004 album, “On My Own Two
Feet”]
[Cue Mailtime]
Questions,
comments, survival tips, please send ‘em to SUBMIT AT
101 USES FOR BABY WIPES DOT COM. I read
every one of ‘em, and I share.
Sharing is caring…sorry.
From P.D.
Love over at ‘Love house Radio’…about my son’s eardrum:
can
imagine how scary the bloody ear thing must have been- kudos to you for not
freaking out to much :)
Here's to
keeping it sane!!
…thanks
much, P.D. I’m not sure I kept it
‘sane’…it was scary to be sure…looking back I think I was just to darn sleepy to panic.
His ear is much better now, according to his doctor. We have other issues now, more about that in
a minute. Please check out the great P.D.
Love’s podcast over at lovehouseradio
dot com.
From
Nikolai in
hi dennis and evan. this is nikolai. i
figured out song number 1 was the tick. i
like your podcast, but i
like the tune test better. best wishes, nikolai.
Thanks,
Nikolai. I’m glad you like the ToonTest. You can
get the toon test segments by themselves. Just go to thetoontest
dot com and download ‘em. Thanks for listening, and for writing in, Nik!