I said last time I still had a few things to rant about in regard to public schools, so here we go. First, I recently had the parent of a 5 year old kindergartner come to me because the child was having behavior problems in school. These had, believe it or not, led to his suspension on more than one occasion. After some discussion and we agreed that there were some underlying issues which warranted evaluation by a specialist, but the bottom line to his "acting out" was boredom and frustration. His first teacher had brought him extra work that was on his level since he was ahead of the other kids. When she was moved up to first grade, the new teacher, new to both the profession and the class, did not do the same and he got upset when he had to do things he's known how to do for a long time. A few days after the visit, I had a message from her to please write a note to school confirming our plans for him, as they were now threatening expulsion. I was dumbfounded. I truly couldn't imagine that people supposedly trained in education could even consider that expulsion of a 5 year old made any sense. I told them so when I wrote the note mom asked for adding that I couldn't believe they weren't trying to formulate a plan to help the mother and child by trying to get to the root of his behavior rather than expelling him. What next, tech school for toddlers?

My next beef may not really hit home unless you're the parent of a child sent home my a school nurse for some terrible, deadly illness like .... pinkeye or ringworm, not. I'll grant you, these are a nuisance and can be contagious, but sometimes you'd think they had the plague or leprosy the way the schools treat it. The problem is they have state health department guidelines for these things, but they overreact and don't follow them. Pink or red eyes that are not accompanied by yellow mucous, pus, etc. and no fever, can stay in school, but one mention of a little pink color and out the door they usually are sent. Similarly, if kids have ringworm lesions that can be covered up by bandages or clothing, they can stay in school, but not if the wrong person sees it. They'll come up with all sorts of reasons to send them home, "it's too big", "it's been there too long". Recently a parent had to bring their healthy child in for a strep test because there had been many cases recurring in their class. This might sound reasonable, but the information they were basing this request on, that was based on a "medical opinion", was almost completely erroneous. All these things lead to missed work days for many parents, increased medical spending for parents, and yes, getting me fired up. I usually find it necessary to add my 2 cents to the notes the schools ask the parent to have me write. Another thing that bugs me about all this is how picky they want to be about having all the right forms filled out and doctors notes for return, yet they can send kids home based on emotional responses, like the dreaded fear of pinkeye, while completely ignoring the guidelines. I'll admit, there are a lot of good school nurses out there who really know how to handle tough situations, like seizures and asthma attacks, but I just wish they wouldn't get so excited about the minor things.

Every day it seems that we doctors are asked to fill out more and more forms, so it's really frustrating to have to spend more time writing notes about the things I mentioned above.

Alright, I'm done for now and I feel better to have expressed that to a larger audience.

The photos tonight are 1. bald eagle at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, 2. my son "riding" a canon at Yorktown, 3. Sunset over Chesapeake Bay

Good night.

Ranting about .....

As usual, it's been another couple months since my last entry, so there are oh so many things I can talk about, some of which are reasons for not allotting my time to this blog. The first is a nice one, vacation. We went to Williamsburg, VA for the week starting with Holy Saturday. It was a really good trip. Normally I would prefer to south, but there aren't many options for exchanging a time share last minute over Easter break, so to VA we went. The resort was nice. We've gotten a bit spoiled staying apt. style, but for a weeklong stay, it sure beats a hotel room, and the extra space keeps the kids from getting on each others nerves too much. The weather was fab, cool early in the week, and warmer as it went along. By the end of the trip we were in shorts. We wandered thru Colonial Williamsburg, had two great days at Busch Gardens, a day playing golf in Va. Beach, a day at the Jamestown settlement and museum, and an hour at Yorktown. The first day at Busch Gardens was a little drizzly and overcast, so the park was wide open. It was great, hardly any waiting even at the big coasters. T and I could easily take turns going on the bigger rides together with one of the older two kids without taking forever, and while waiting, we could get onto one of smaller rides with our youngest. It was also the first time at a big amusement park with kids and no stroller, in part because our youngest is 7, and the park isn't nearly as spread out as Disney, though there seemed to be as many rides. It was very liberating! I was really impressed with the museum at Jamestown settlement. I would highly recommend it if you are in that area. The golf was at the course run by a pro, Dean, who was the assistant pro at the course where I grew up playing. I haven't actually seen him in probably 30 years, but my brothers have, and it is really amazing how you can instantly feel the same connection you had so long ago. Back then I spent a lot of time hanging aroung the pro shop when I didn't want to practice and thus goofed around with the staff and had a few nicknames. When I called Dean and gave my nickname, he knew who it was almost immediately and after that, it was like no time had passed. He most gracioustly let my husband and I play his course and gave us an extra cart so the kids could ride along. I must add that this was a very nice course in Virginia Beach. All in all, the trip went pretty much without a hitch. All vacations must end, and as usual the return to reality often gives more work than seems fair, and this was no exception.
On the second day back at work after working late, I stopped at the grocery to get one item and apparently left my wallet sitting at the checkout or dropped it, leading to my first rant. Unfortunately some not very scrupulous person picked it up and decided to use a couple credit cards. I was not even aware the wallet was missing until T called with a message that a credit card was asking about some purchases that morning. I told him "not me" so tell them to cancel, then discovered the missing wallet. As any of you who've had similar misfortune know, it really isn't the money unless you were really carrying a wad of cash. The card companies take care of the fraudulent charges. It's the sense of violation, followed by the hours on the phone and computer cancelling cards and having items replaced. I ordered my credit reports and found an incorrect previous address (from before the theft) and had to go thru the added steps of desputing that on each report. Thank goodness I think I've done most of what needs to be done on that front. Of course, tax info needed to be gathered and taken to the accountant at the same time. The icing on the cake, we had to pay some federal back for the first time ever. Yuck. After that, we did get to have some fun at a costume party with the theme "so you want to be a rock star". T was a rhinestone cowboy and I was an old Tine Turner with the long straight hair, at least that was what I was supposed to be even if I didn't look much like it. The following day, I came down with a case of laryngitis and had to nearly whisper my was thru a week of patient care.
This past weekend I took P, my 10 year old to a national chess tournament in Atlanta. It was a HS event, but open to all grades K-12. Most of his opponents were a lot older, but he still managed to ge a few points.
Well, it's gotten really late and I haven't even gotten to my ranting, but the preview is that it has to do with schools and their inability to exercise common sense in bothe the educational and health/medical arenas in regard to students and their families. I'll try to get back to this in a day or two.
good night