Putting 7-year-old on a diet: Responsible, or reprehensible?

Putting 7-year-old on a diet: Responsible, or reprehensible?


I am sure that the mother means well, specially because the pediatrician said that the child is obese, however... withholding food is not the correct way to go about this. 
There are healthier and better ways to insure that your child is healthy!!!  Exercise anyone!!!  Fruits!!! 

We have a very big issue in our culture:  Obesity! 
We have become obsessed with the way we look, "do those pants make my butt look big?"
The pressure to be skinny is very high, and sometimes people will take drastic measures to get there.  Therefore it is not surprising that eating disorders are so prevalent in our society,.... specially if you are a female.

Even when we try to promote healthy behavior, such as joining a gym to get regular physical activity, we still manage to send the wrong message.
"join the gym to lose weight!"   "join now to get a beach body!"   "to lose pregnancy weight!"   "to wear size 6!"  "to feel sexy!"

Instead we should be saying:
"join the gym to live longer!"  "to breathe better!"   "to not have a heart attack!"   "to have lower cholesterol!"   "to help with your blood pressure!"    "to be able to go up the stairs!"     "join the gym to be HEALTHIER!!!!"

What Matters!!!

The other day in my human sexuality class, we ended the class with the statement "spread love, not hatred!"

I know that I can be "cheesy" sometimes, but I really mean what I say to my students.  :)

As a society we need to learn to be accepting of others!  We have learned through our culture and our social norms that, if you don't fit in the paradigm that society has "invented," than you are wrong, or a sinner, or abnormal, or weird.  With this as part of our background we almost instinctively try to conform to the norms of society, whatever they may be. 

But what happens to those that do not, or cannot conform?  Those that society sees as outcasts? 
Well.... that is when discrimination, prejudice and hatred may come into place.  
We have become entitled to judge others and to believe that everyone must agree with us on everything. However, by thinking this way, we may have lost the perspective that the beauty of the world is in its diversity.  We don’t all have to share the same beliefs, and my conception of what morals and values are, may be very different from someone else or from a different society……. And guess what!!!  That is OK!  It is OK to be different; it is OK to be yourself!

It should not matter if you are white, black, green, yellow, or if you are gay, straight, bi, or Catholic, Muslim, Baptist, all that should matter is, that fundamental characteristic, that one that society seems to forget the most.  Are you a GOOD human being???  This is what should matter!!!!

Somehow we have forgotten what is really important.....

I love teaching!!!

I love my job, I really do!  I enjoy coming to work and teaching to my students everyday.  You never know what might happen in my classes, and the "that's what she said," never gets old, at least to me it doesn't!

This is how I see teaching:  
1. You can learn and have fun at the same time. 
2. You can get to know your students.  (Students are people too!)
3. You can learn from them.
4. You can join them or fight them.  (It is OK to text in my classes)
5. You can inspire them.
6. You can teach them more than what the book says.
7. You can open their mind to new things.
8. You can see them change
9. You can see them grow.
10. You can influence who they are going to be

I care about my students, I care if they are learning, I care if they are OK and I care to make a difference.  One by one, some may learn just psychology but hopefully many will learn much more. I teach more than just psychology!

Sexual Orientation is not so simple!

"the heterosexuality or homosexuality of many individuals is not an all-or-none proposition." Alfred Kinsey

Back from Spring Break

Back from Spring Break, however I really didn't have much of a break.  But here I am today, looking at the faces of my students, and excited to see them again.  Some are happy to be back, but some could use a little bit more time.......  who couldn't use more time?