Finally, the medical community is admitting that the dangers of mammograms might outweigh the benefits!

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13801800

BUT then we read on...it is actually a government task force which is recommending this.

Now that's interesting, isn't it?  Just as we get to the eve of a government-run health care plan, suddenly it becomes not so important to get tested.  Much as I hate mammograms, I have to wonder if the whole point of this is not to get us used to limiting our care, because of course, that's what's going to happen if the government runs health care.  You'll get less and less care for all the dollars you invest.  Watch for more government taks forces declaring that various medical tests are not worth the money we spend on them...   The telling sentence:  " the incidence of breast cancer among women between 40 and 50 is so low that you have to screen so many women to save one life."  Well, we wouldn't want that, now would we?

Editing again:  The last line of this article really confused me.  It says that "mammography remains the only test that offers some screening value"  Why then, the last two times I had a mammogram, did they order an ultrasound because they couldn't read the mammogram?  It seems to me that maybe ultrasound might be a better way to screen in the first place!  It's certainly a great deal less painful and invasive.  But then, it may also be more expensive, and you know the government won't like that... 

The comments on the article are interesting--many people howling that without a routine mammo someone they love would be dead.  But no one raises the question that I have wondered about:  do routine mammos actually traumatize breast tissue (with all the compression and radiation) so much that they actually cause cancer?  That's what *I* would like to see a study on!

I just finished reading an article that is absolutely incredibly mind-boggling.  This article (Click here  to read it) states that a rather large experiment was performed in schools, back around 1930, which showed that children who had no formal math training before sixth grade actually caught up with their peers in math by the end of the sixth grade year, showing that when the brain is developmentally ready, math is learned very quickly.  The children were able to learn in one school year what their colleagues had spent six years on.  The even more surprising things is that the children who were part of the experiment FAR surpassed their peers in language.  These children developed more interest in reading, a better vocabulary, and greater fluency in expression than their peers who had spent so much time trying to learn math in the earlier years.  Not only had math study been largely unproductive, but it had cheated them out of time for other activities which would have benefited them more.

I have long suspected that math is shoved onto kids too soon, and this article made me sort of angry.  If it has been known for all these years that this system works very well, and the children enjoy school a great deal more, then WHY for crying out loud, have we all been forced to struggle with teaching/learning math in the early grades?  Just think, thousands of American children have been taught that math is hard and hateful, when the real problem was that their brains simply weren't ready to assimilate it.  All that time...wasted!  And when I think of all the wonderful learning they have sacrificed because they had to spend a great deal of time on math, it's just terribly frustrating! 

Makes me wish that I could start all over, and have the courage to go against the status quo, trying this method of teaching.  And it makes me very angry that this method was not adopted nationwide after its success.  It is just WRONG that young children are pressured to so that learning becomes a drag.  And I suspect that children who struggle with math in the early years often give up, feeling that they will never understand it, so when they actually reach the age where they are developmentally ready for it, they no longer have any desire to try.

I have lamented many times the fact that my children generally want to just "get done with" school, rather than enjoying the process.  It is a sad thing that many people see the learning process as a necessary evil, and completely unrelated to their lives.  I have enjoyed so much all the things I have learned by homeschooling my children, and now I can't help lamenting the fact that we could have made it infinitely more enjoyable for them.  But, having been brought up in the traditional school system, I simply didn't know any better.  I can only pray that God will be able to bless my efforts anyway.

And I can't help thinking that this is a good example of how our government works, too:  If something has been proven not to benefit the people, go ahead and keep doing it anyway...

Yeah, call me cynical.

This evening I was in the kitchen when I heard tires squealing frantically and the sound of a crash.  I thought, "Oh, no," and headed toward the front of the house to see what had happened.

Turned out that the boys were in the front bedroom playing some kind of racing game.  Where they got it, I'm not sure--I think they have some sort of barter system with their friends--but apparently it's a LOT more fun if you hook it up to speakers so that you can hear all the sound effects really LOUD.

You can also give your mother a scare, and that's pretty fun, too... 

"Now that we've rescued the economy..."

~Barack Obama, during an interview by Jake Tapper

The full interview is here 

Gifts that make my life worth living,
gifts that make my moments holy.
Not gifts that I wish for,
but gifts that I have received.
Gifts that bring me back
into Joy and Gratitude.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
white birches, leafless against a deep blue sky
my sons creating hurricanes of leaves with the new leaf blower
tangy apple cider
golden asparagus fields rippling in waves like the ocean
gooey pumpkin cake
geese honking as they organize themselves into a V
the crunch of leaves as you walk through the woods
wispy windswept clouds
smooth creamy chocolate-y fudge
red and yellow mums, boldly standing where other flowers have faded
turkeys ambling off the road, taking their own sweet time
and gossiping together as they walk
the smell of freshly cut wood
that tired but oh-so-good feeling of muscles that have worked hard
a field of perfect little Christmas trees
a bear carved from a tree stump
Amy chatting and waving to her own picture on the computer screen
chili and cornbread eaten outdoors on a warm November day