Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Gender Equality and Fair Pay
One reason that Home Economics (now Family and Consumer Sciences) has been called a femal ghetto is because the professionals, mostly women, who work in these fields are so underpaid. Even within universities, professors teaching in FCS units are among the lowest paid. For me, the Paycheck Fairness Act was a refreshing and welcome acknowledgement of what most women know all too well: women work more cheaply than their male counterparts. The irony is, in these troubling times, our willingness to work cheap, take on the jobs of more than one person, and our increasing majorities among recipients of bachelors and masters degrees have advantaged women in this highly competitive market place. It's a sad irony, to be sure. There are those who do not beleive that gender inequality exists anymore, if it ever existed. In fact, there are those who disagree vehemently with anything resembling civil rights legislation, and those voices seem to get increasingly louder.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
BMJ Careers - Emotional intelligence
Do doctors and other healthcare providers need emotional intelligence? How can we instill/teach/train or otherwise provide a more comprehensive (and sensitive) skill set to healthcare? BMJ Careers - Emotional intelligence
If we define health as physical, social, and emotional wellbeing, and not just the absence of infirmity, then surely we must train our healthcare practitioners in a much more interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and holistic way. We must truly bring a feminine sensibility to the masculine dominated environment of healthcare!
If we define health as physical, social, and emotional wellbeing, and not just the absence of infirmity, then surely we must train our healthcare practitioners in a much more interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and holistic way. We must truly bring a feminine sensibility to the masculine dominated environment of healthcare!
A thoughtless practice with short-term benefits and long-term pitfalls!
http://www.superkidsnutrition.com/nutrition_answers/pr_candy-as-reward.php
For those of you who believe, as I do, that there are much better ways to reward children for good behavior, please share the more positive incentives you've used. Remember: rewards can be either intrinsic or extrinsic.
For those of you who believe, as I do, that there are much better ways to reward children for good behavior, please share the more positive incentives you've used. Remember: rewards can be either intrinsic or extrinsic.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Scientists unlock how trans fats harm arteries
Scientists unlock how trans fats harm arteries: "The method by which dietary trans fats cause hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) may have been identified by a new study on mice fed a high trans fat diet."
Sugar-sweetened drink’s diabetes link ‘clear and consistent’: Meta-analysis
This is a major problem I see with school lunches and preschools: sugar sweetened beverages (including flavored milk--at least make it less available) and foods containing hydrogenated oils should not be served to children. Just because they don't keel over in front of us doesn't mean we're not doing them harm.
Sugar-sweetened drink’s diabetes link ‘clear and consistent’: Meta-analysis: "Regular consumption of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a clear and consistently greater risk of metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes, according to a meta-analysis of 11 published studies."
Sugar-sweetened drink’s diabetes link ‘clear and consistent’: Meta-analysis: "Regular consumption of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a clear and consistently greater risk of metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes, according to a meta-analysis of 11 published studies."
Monday, November 8, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Health
Human Ecology units are often combined or somehow reorganized with Education or Health. Either combination has the potential to work, depending on the cultures of the units involved and the leadership's commitment to making the new configuration work. Often it makes no practical difference at all. Different dean, same programs, life goes on.
As we talk about how we fit into health focused colleges, which I am not in principle opposed to (and which I think is consistent with the overall philosophy of our discipline), we need to be actively engaged in the process. If we are to fit into some new transdisciplinary concept of health, it helps to have a good definition of health to guide our leadership as they determine what fits with what. I suggest WHO's definition:
WHO definition of Health
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
The correct bibliographic citation for the definition is:
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
The Definition has not been amended since 1948.
http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html.
As we talk about how we fit into health focused colleges, which I am not in principle opposed to (and which I think is consistent with the overall philosophy of our discipline), we need to be actively engaged in the process. If we are to fit into some new transdisciplinary concept of health, it helps to have a good definition of health to guide our leadership as they determine what fits with what. I suggest WHO's definition:
WHO definition of Health
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
The correct bibliographic citation for the definition is:
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
The Definition has not been amended since 1948.
http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
La Vita Loca
I'm not sure how I continue to get pulled into the middle of political situations in the workplace. When a colleague seems to be taking some kind of retributive action against a student, I feel an obligation to step in. But should I? Or am I meddling? Getting involved in a situation that's none of my business? Do I have a responsibility to protect students? I think I should help to promote an atmosphere conducive to learning that's free of harassment. But it's hard when some are so good at it--they find ways to cast the student as the villain, weakling, or liar again and again. After a while, I don't know how others don't ask themselves how this individual is so unlucky as to be continually afflicted with students of such low moral calibre. These students are interviewed and scrutinized within an inch of their lives prior to admission, after all.
I feel a responsibility, but I know what I'm getting into. It'll be unpleasant, and some will think my actions have to do with the instructor in question. But I've been on the other side of this. I should help, even if it means some inconvenience for me. I just hope I can help. I have to hope that objective individuals will see reason.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
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