deaemrose

This is an interesting take on "No Child Left Behind." Teachers will
enjoy it, parents will be informed and politicians should consider it.

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget
checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He
never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth.

When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard
about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great.

"Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness
of dentists with their young patients?" I said.
"No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"
"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities
each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a
dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average,
below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which
are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage the less effective
dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could
lose their licenses to practice."

"That's terrible," he said.
"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we
should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"
"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is
practicing good dentistry."
"Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."

"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't
all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we
can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high
percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my
colleagues work in upper middle-class neighborhoods. Many of the
parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there
is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work.
Also, many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much
candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who
understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all
off, so many of my clients have well water which is untreated and
has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference
early use of fluoride can make?"

"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. "I can't believe that
you, my dentist, would be so defensive. After all, you do a great job,
and you needn't fear a little accountability."

"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as
anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count
is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to
work where I am needed most."

"Don't' get touchy," I said.
"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he
was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to
damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up
being rated average, below average, or worse. The few educated
patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called

rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist.

They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients.
And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that,
how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists
to my practice if it is labeled below average?"

"I think you are overreacting," I said. "'Complaining, excuse-making
and stonewalling won't improve dental health'... I am quoting from a
leading member of the DOC," I noted.

"What's the DOC?" he asked.

"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of
mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved"
"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't
buy it," he said hopefully.
The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would
you measure good dentistry?"

"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."

"That's too complicated, expensive and time- consuming," I said.
"Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom
line. It's an absolute measure."
"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will
think . This can't be happening," he said despairingly.

"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."

"How?" he asked.
"If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist who is rated
excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.
"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele
to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with
which I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"
"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."
"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools
and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's progress
with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community
served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to
dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."

I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to
write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school
analogy. Surely they will see the point."
He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed
anger that I, a teacher, see in the mirror so often lately.

If you don't understand why educators resent the recent federal
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT, this may help. If you do understand,
you'll enjoy this analogy, which was forwarded by John S. Taylor,
Superintendent of Schools for the Lancaster County, PA, School
District. Be a friend to a teacher and pass this on.

I am so excited. I just got off the phone with the doc and Kevins "boys" are healthy and a plenty. We were both so worried that wouldn't be the case when we got the results back due to the fact he doesn't have any kids.
I was diagnosed as anovulatory. I don't have endometriosis or cysts. I think that being on BC after Emmie was born screwed up my system (somehow) So I have been on Progesterone for 5 days and I start my 5 day cycle of Clomid tonight. We are going to be very busy within the next two weeks. (I want to be sure to hit the day of my O)


Maybe by this time next month I will have even better news...

As with everyone else in college, I am preparing for finals. Unfortunately, they mostly consist of at home essays - try 8 at home essays that I have to turn in tomorrow and Saturday. I am completely freaking out. My goal was to finish the essays by yesterday and I just started them today. Procrastination married with family responsibility and you have me up the creek desperately paddling with one paddle. Essays alone are not so much the problem as the scientific inquiry essays. I have no idea what this professor wants as I haven't done well on any of his tests. I shouldn't be frustrated cuz this class has nothing to do with my chosen program of study but I am trying to come out of it with at least a C. I am going to beg Kevin to play me in Halo 3 when he comes in. I have got to get rid of this anxiety!

This is interesting so I thought I would post it:


copied it from stilllove


http://www.acme.com/jef/religion_sex/

I got this from herartistheart and I loved it. And these are the reasons why:


Pei Pei


Bocephus


Grady

To pacify you, my dear pets, I have posted the following message on our front door:

To All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit & Like to Complain About Our Pets:

1. They live here. You don't.
2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.
(That's why they call it "fur"niture.)
3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.

Remember: In many ways, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:
1. Eat less
2. Don't ask for money all the time
3 Are easier to train
4. Normally come when called
5. Never ask to drive the car
6. Don't hang out with drug-using friends
7. Don't smoke or drink
8. Don't have to buy the latest fashions
9. Don't want to wear your clothes
10. Don't need a "gazillion" dollars for college.

And finally,

11. If they get pregnant, you can sell their children !

The is the first cake I made. I wanted to use the icing to paint one Bratz girl but ran out of time. I used a picture.

I am still going to add more foliage and gauges but we are really happy with it. Any comments are welcome.

UPDATE: I just put in a themometer and humidity guage and we are at 78 deg and 38%. I have sprayed water into the habitat, now I think we will need to put plastic over it to increase the humidity. Unsure...

I have been cleaning the house and checking off my list of things to do. We may be buying some furniture soon that will help with organization and storage. I am currently refinishing a cabinet I want to put in my bathroom.

I am thinking of painting it a light green and decopauging(sp?) pictures of frogs which is the theme. This cabinet sat in a barn for a long time but I have cleaned and scraped the grime off. Now I am going to sand it down.

How did you spend summers when you were a kid?

This is actually a topic I can write on. We went to either Panama City, FLA or Brunswick, GA. I still go to Brunswick, in fact we are going this weekend. The water on the GA coast is muddy but I know the area well since family lives there. Emmie doesn't care as long as it's the beach. I care nothing about Panama City but I really want to go to Destin or Mexico Beach - anywhere with crystal blue water and white beaches. Maybe my wish will come true this summer;)