1089 Children and Self-Esteem

There was a USAToday Forum article by Christina Hoff Sommers today, titled "Children can handle failure." She and two other authors have a new book titled, "One Nation Under Therapy; How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance."

She is interviewed at American Enterprise Online:

"Our schools of education promote the idea that high self-esteem is essential to academic achievement. But the concept is too poorly understood to be an appropriate classroom objective. High-school dropouts, burglars, car thieves, shoplifters, even murderers, are just as likely to have high self-esteem as the winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor or Rhodes Scholars.

In May 2003, four prominent academic psychologists published the first comprehensive review of the supposed benefits of self-esteem. They concluded that there was no significant connection between feelings of self worth and achievement, success in personal relationships, or healthy lifestyles.

The self-esteem movement has turned many classrooms into therapy centers rather than places of learning. Learning history, for instance, especially American history, has been radically transformed by the requirement that schools provide students with textbooks that enhance their self image. California subjects prospective textbooks to a social content review with the goal of determining whether the books "promote individual development and self-esteem." California is the largest textbook market in the country, so publishers selling their books in other states still tailor them to California's specifications. What happens is that students are sedated by what one critic called "textbook happy talk," and shortchanged academically."

The self-esteem mantra was going strong even when my children were little--even the Christian authors like Dobson got on the band wagon. So today's parents have not only their own upbringing to deal with, but apparently it is getting piled deeper and higher by the experts.

1088 Freedom to enjoy nature

Do you think today's children have the same freedom to play outdoors (riding bikes, hiking, playing in creeks, digging in dirt, etc.) that you had?

I suppose the answer would depend on your age and where you grew up. I grew up in two small, rural towns in northern Illinois where I was free to ride my bike anywhere, even to the next village, crawl through fences to pet the horses and cattle, poke at wasp nests, capture tadpoles in streams, wander over to neighbors and play with the new kittens under the porch, and walk my paper route. Our towns also had organized recreation for summers that included outdoor sports and swimming. No transportation from Mom required--just walk down the street. There was work too--but nothing awful--pushing a mower, pulling weeds from the garden, and later as a teen-ager, working in the fields detasseling corn. Now that I look back I can see a lot of benefits to the time I spent outdoors, wandering free and making up my own games.

I heard an interesting interview on NPR Monday driving home from the lake with Richard Louv discussing his new book (May 2005) "Last child in the woods; saving our children from nature-deficit disorder." He said that children who have outdoor recess regardless of the weather have fewer colds and viruses than those kept indoors. There are adult studies on stress reduction and nature, but not on children. The author believes that exposure to the outdoors decreases ADHD, and that as recess has been shortened or eliminated, the problem has increased.

An art teacher called the program and said she sees a positive difference in the hyperactive children when they've been outside (her school had a regulated wetlands next to the school grounds where the children were allowed to go). Interacting with nature and spending time outdoors could be a lot cheaper than medicating and counseling children, if Mr. Louv is correct.

1087 Jordanian Queen Reads to Children

Jordan's Queen Rania read to children at CentroNia, a bilingual and multicultural learning center in Washington D.C. I haven't seen reports of U.S. librarians or movie stars demanding that she solve the cultural and religious problems in the Middle East or the AIDS crisis in Africa. In her own country her critics are unhappy that she wears pants, high heels, and drives her own car, nothing that would raise an eyebrow here.

1086 Where is Marion Ross when we need her?

She was the ultimate 1950s mother in the parody of the 50s that played for 11 years in the 1970s and 1980s--Happy Days. She was cute, perky, kind, funny, loving Mrs. C., and she wore dresses and looked smashing.

So what is the image of the suburban TV housewife/mother today? We've got Desperate Housewives, hotty plastic imitations of that noble profession of yesteryear, and this summer we'll get Weeds with a suburban Mom who sells marijuana to support her family. Paris Hilton's mom will get a reality show. The Growing up Gotti's got just your average working mom. Then there is the Meet Mister Mom show where the mothers disappear all together. Maybe that is just as well--they should all get outta town.

1085 Blake's story

Glory Be tells a wonderful story about a young man whose friends give him a prom night to remember and the rest of us renewed hope in young people.

1084 Laura the wonder wonk

Can a mild mannered former librarian save the world? Of course, if she'd just stop talking about books and literacy and get down to being a female Jesse Jackson (unelected do-gooder) and run around the world telling people of other cultures how to run things.

The latest hoot was Christine Lahti opining on AIDS in Africa and how the First Lady really needed to be addressing this (at Huffington blog). I think she is a great actress, but when the Hollywood types try foreign policy they can get pretty silly.

And Annie Applebaum of WaPo says Mrs. Bush "failed to put the issue of women's rights in the middle of the democracy debate going on in the Muslem world." She thinks Mrs. Bush should change the entire structure of Moslem culture--the Shariah religious laws, the religious courts, the power of the local clerics and how the Quran is interpreted. Tall order, but she'll whip into a ladies room and put on her Wonder Woman costume and change thousand years of tradition.

Over at LISNews someone was calling her a hypocrite for NOT speaking out on a topic other than literacy and reading. Go figure. Librarians 223:1 liberal, which is worse than Hollywood but with better shoes and faster computers.

1083 No Grandma Left Behind

The Plain Dealer reported yesterday that Medicaid In Ohio will be reined in by tying money to quality of care. The better the care, the more money a nursing home gets. And this saves money because. . .?

I tried Googling this story for another source, but kept finding plans to save Medicaid and improve health dated 2000, 2002, etc.

The joys of librarianship--Green Tuna News

Life on Hold suggested I check out Green Tuna, a librarian blog, so I did and found it quite amusing. Here's a typical job description:

"Let me tell you how it is. Library work is part detective, part computer hacker, part Name-That-Tune expert (Music side), part Antiques Roadshow appraiser, (Art side), part HazMat employee (the removal of a plastic bag containing beer and underpants hidden in the folio stacks comes to mind) and part social worker, to name just a few.

But more often than not, the job is a blast. Be nice (treats help), and the librarian will go the extra mile for you. Case in point: A few weeks back a doctoral student came in looking for organ music he was requested to play at a wedding reception. Not the regulars. Not Bach, Mendelssohn or Wagner. Not Pachelbel or Purcell.

He needed Circus Music.

Specifically, he needed "you know -- that circus song they always play." And he sang it for me. And of course, I knew exactly what he was talking about, but had no idea what it was called.

I asked Google. I asked Amazon. But it's hard to know what to ask for when all you can do is doot-doot-doot the tune.

But because the question was so awesome (Circus music for weddings. Love IT!) and I didn't know the answer, I was determined not to give up. So, I did what any answer-obsessed, wedding music hating, computer-savvy music library type person would do. I consulted the ultimate reference source.

I emailed a clown.

As I am writing this email, trying to explain a musical tune in words..."

For the answer, and more fun, see Green Tuna News

Don't laugh

More bad news on the medical front.

"More than half of patients with asthma can have an attack triggered by laughter, New York researchers reported here at the 2005 American Thoracic Society International Conference.

Fifty-eight percent of patients reported that laughter was a trigger for an asthma attack, making it a common trigger, said Stuart Garay, MD, clinical professor of medicine, New York University Medical Center in New York. "This occurs more commonly than most physicians appreciate." " Seen at Medscape.com.

1080 Friday Feast, a day late

Here are the questions posted at the May 27 Friday Feast, and my answers.

Appetizer What job would you definitely not want to have?

If the job required math or measuring, I would be miserable and in tears most of the time. So that would be engineer, architect, carpenter, seamstress, landscape designer, etc.

Soup Oprah calls and wants you to appear on her show. What would that day's show be about?

Defintely about why using coupons and loyalty plans and other gimmicks cost the consumer money and time. This would really get her audience excited because Americans like to think there is a free lunch out there waiting for them.

Salad Name 3 vegetables that you eat on a regular basis.

Raw carrots definitely--usually for breakfast, but I enjoy them in a dessert like carrot cake too, shredded in a green salad, or mixed with pineapple and raisins in its own salad. I like broccoli in soups and salads. Squash of all kinds in casseroles, or grilled in a little butter with cinnamon, or in a pie. Yum.

Main Course If you were commissioned to rename your hometown, what would you call it?

Although I've lived in Columbus, Ohio, for almost 40 years, I still call Mount Morris, Illinois my hometown. It's not a bad name--there are towns named this in a number of states, but it is a bit boring. And the "mount" is the high place on the prairie. I've traveled back more times than I'd want to count, so I'd name it "Destination, Illinois."

Dessert If you had a personal assistant, what kind of tasks would you have her do?

I'd have her put freshly washed and ironed sheets on my bed everyday; I'd have her clean out the auto interior and see that my van goes through the carwash once a week; I'd have her keep me up to date on all the techie things I don't know about and of course, she'd have to know the best prices and downloads; she'd be paid handsomely to make all the phone calls and wait for service people to come to the house; she'd be a good seamstress and let the seams out on my slacks and skirts; she would drive if the trip meant going outside our suburb; she'd nag me to do my walks and then go with me and set the pace.

Thank you Friday Feast for these good questions.

1079 Finding Belmont Club

Belmont Club is one of my favorites, but my blog link doesn't work, nor did it work at any other site I checked. Finally I found someone who reported Belmont Club can be found here. I have no idea what is going on, since the fall back is still on blogger as was the original.

1078 Get the rest of the story from Iraq

Michael Yon is a freelance journalist in Iraq. Ever wonder about some of those stories you're reading? Michael explains how it is done, and what sort of a business he is in. This story has some great photos that are not MSM newsworthy--a medic helping a little girl, a soldier holding a puppy, ducks crossing the road with the military.

1077 New Game in Town--a Real Coffee Shop

Coffee and Cream is a new coffee shop at Second and Walnut in Lakeside. It opened yesterday and I was there about 6:30 this morning sitting on the pleasant sun porch facing the street. When I left about an hour later, there was a big crowd enjoying the good Cup of Joe coffee and their breakfast pastries provided by the bakery at Bassett's. You can bring your laptop; there is free wi-fi.

I talked to the owner, who like me, used to leave the grounds for a decent cup of coffee. 7 or 8 a.m. is just too late for a lot of us early birds. His teen-age children are helping and his dad did the remodeling. Also, this corner spot is prime real estate with a handsome cottage, so it is a good investment for the family. I also talked to Sue, the morning staff and like us, she is a cottage owner here.

Coffee and Cream has a warm, inviting color scheme--the walls are a warm gold with white bead board 3/4 up, natural wicker furniture with burgundy cushions on the porch, and nice small tables with black seating, on the light wood floors. The brick patio has metal furniture with beige umbrellas and plenty of seating for people watching. In the warm weather, there will also be an outside grill for brats and hot dogs for hungry people returning from an afternoon of sailing or swimming off the dock.

This is a wonderful addition to Lakeside's main business district (about 2 blocks square).

1076 Fever Pitch

Lakeside has the only movie house in the county, so last night we went to see Fever Pitch with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. I'd seen them talking about it a few weeks ago on Regis and Kelly. It was really pretty good, and I'd recommend it for Anvilcloud and his lovely Cuppa when they park their bikes. It's a romantic comedy about a couple who fall in love during the off-season, so she doesn't learn of his obsession with the Boston Red Sox until she sees him making an idiot of himself on TV at the Florida spring training.

The down side was we sat in front of two couples also out for a lively night at the lake, only they wouldn't stop talking. Two must have been hard of hearing (I'm guessing they were in their 70s--old enough to know better) so if one would miss a line, or what one of them said, they'd be retelling the scene: "What'd she say?" "I'm late," the other woman said. "Late for what?" "Her period's late," the lady's husband said loudly.

So I did what you can only do if it isn't crowded, we moved up two rows and enjoyed the rest of the movie.

1075 A Peep of Librarians

Somewhere I've seen a collective noun for a group of librarians congregating. Everything the librarian tells you has previously been worked out in a meeting--even the pauses and punctuation. What would be your vote? I'm not giving a right/wrong answer, because I can't remember, but here are some of my favorites:

a peep (chicken)
a troop (fox, giraffe)
a kindle (kitten)
a gaggle (geese)
a mob (kangaroo)
a pride (lion)
a sleuth (bear)
a school(fish)
a tittering (magpie)
a convocation (eagle)
a chatter (budgerigars)
a trip (reindeer)
a gam (whale)
a brace (duck)
a descent (woodpeckers)

One time when MLA met in Chicago, a tittering mob of us veterinary librarians (out of school) with kindled appetites trooped to a white limo and chattered all during the trip to the Cheesecake Factory where we showed a little gam as we mobbed the restaurant line and braced for a long wait.

1074 Queen for a Day

Forreston, IL celebrated its German roots with Sauerkraut Day in September for about 50 years. The last event was in 1960. But when my family lived there (when I was a little girl) the odor would permeate the whole town. 30,000 hungry people would come to our tiny town (about 1,000) and stand in line for two tons of free sauerkraut and a ton of hot dogs. As little ones we looked up to and admired the "Sauerkraut Queen" one of the glamorous high school girls. But I've often wondered if later in life, while living maybe in San Diego or Houston, a woman would admit to a past of being Sauerkraut Queen or maybe the Ogle County Pork Queen (another biggie in our farming county)?

This morning's paper reported that the Port Clinton Walleye Festival will not have a queen this year because it is under new management, and the committee didn't know how to run a queen pageant, so it was dropped. Some lucky young lady will not be able to tell her grandchildren, "I was first runner-up to Miss Walleye in 2005."

1073 We posed for this cartoon

Check out today's Non Sequitur by Wiley (May 26, 2005). I swear, that could be us. I'm always reading some strange article to my husband or quoting off-the-wall statistics. In the cartoon, the wife is in a double bed reading the newspaper. Lamps on either side of the bed. Check. Cat on the bed asleep. Check. The husband in his underwear is admiring his reflection in the mirror wearing a beret. The caption says "Bob maintains his majority status," while the wife is reading aloud, "Only a small percentage of the population actually looks good in a beret."

I showed it to my husband, laughing so hard tears were streaming down my cheeks. His only comment: "We're not getting any younger, are we?"

Have a nice Memorial Day Holiday. We'll be gone for awhile. Don't know if I'll find a computer. Catch ya' later.

1072 Let my people know

The National Coalition to End Judicial Filibuster. Where do I join? In fact, let's not stop with the judiciary, let's dump the filibuster altogether. Can you think of another organization that uses this? And it is misused by both parties--I'm not pointing fingers at the Democrats, at least not in this paragraph.

There may have been a time when the minority party needed to stall while members waited to hear from their constituencies about an issue or point of law or bill or appointment. But in this day of e-mail, fax and instant messaging? What congressperson doesn't hear immediately from his supporters if s/he is heading in the right direction? What congressperson doesn't have a huge staff, polling and franking privilege.

Whatever the original purpose, it is gone. Now it is just used to wear down the other party. Pictures of cots for Senators is just bizarre. This is a time honored tradition? Ohio's Mike DeWine has joined Voinovich in being a turn coat Republicans. I hope both are defeated in their next attempt at office, whether it's for dog catcher or Senator.

The battle over judgeships during the Bush years demonstrates how desperate the Democrats are to keep the blacks and Hispanics down on the plantation. They can see that they are making a break for it, and find nothing to hold them in their "proper place" (inside the Democratic Party) except talking the other side to death.

1071 What's wrong with this sentence?

Yes, it's a play on words, but read it anyway.

"Lionel Tate, 18, who was freed from prison after being the youngest person in recent history to receive a LIFE SENTENCE [for beating a 6 year old girl to death when he was 12] was arrested after allegedly pulling a gun on a pizza delivery man at a 12 year old friend's apartment and beating up the friend. . . " USAToday May 25, 2005

Mama and those who lobbied for an early release, of course, don't believe he'd do that; and apparently neither did the court system that put him under house arrest and on parole for 10 years after serving very few years of that "life" term (sentenced in 2001).

1070 It's broken zipper season

Last fall I wrote a story/blog, sort of about my life in 1982, based on the events and travels of a pair of khaki slacks that I wore for over 20 years. Then the zipper broke as I was getting ready for a yard sale. It was sort of a strange starting point for a memory, but apparently there are a lot of people like me who have a favorite item of clothing with a broken zipper, because this week, that blog has had 7 or 8 hits after being quiet all winter. People must be unpacking their summer clothes and breaking the zippers with the extra pounds put on during the winter. I feel badly that I'm drawing them in with fantasy and hope of finding a method to get those little teeth back on the track, but as far as I know, slack zippers that are 22 years old, widely traveled and part nylon and part metal are not fixable.