I feel that way about "Why don't you teach college?"

Yet another parallel between the two professions.

The best response to that I ever heard was "Doctors treat diseases. Nurses treat people."

Heh. Usually I say, "I don't care about research and publishing or diagnosing exotic diseases or performing delicate microsurgeries. I want to make people feel better when they feel crappy. That's what nurses do. "

AmyLiz, I'm so glad you had such a good experience with your L&D nurse. One of the reasons I want to be an L&D nurse is because of the connection I can make with my patients that way. Women remember their L&D nurses. It's a really humbling responsibility to be that person.

Hee. Maybe some day someone will call me goddess.

It explains KBug's fascination with Nawty Worm.

Ok Empress, I died laughing when I found this. K-Bug is indeed a PS kid.

She is also taking two AP classes and a few other advanced classes...her quarter GPA is 3.143.

Oh and she wanted me to remind you that YOUR daughter has both nawty worm and kinky banana.

Women remember their L&D nurses. It's a really humbling responsibility to be that person.

Three kids, and all three times, the nurses were what got me through. With Sara especially, because I arrived at the hospital in transition and it was too late for much by way of pain reduction. They rocked.

I think it must also be true that nurses don't get a lot of respect from patients -- every time I've been in the hospital and treated them with what I consider common courtesy, they've been so grateful and pleasant and willing to fetch me ice chips or whatever. Which makes me wonder how others are treating them. Being sick is horrible, but you don't bite the hand that cares for you, you know?

I always get frustrated when I hear the "my school sucked 20 or 30 years ago; therefore, public schools still suck" argument.

I never said that. I never implied it. What I was saying was that my school sucked 15 years ago, and I'm going to make damn sure that Annabel's education does not suck. Luckily in Seattle Schools we have school choice... provided there's room for the kid in the school in question.

Yes, in many states teachers are still overworked and underpaid and therefore may burn out or become negligent

Uh, hi. When I was in school, Oklahoma was 49th in per capita school funding, 49th in entry-level teacher's salary, 49th in average teacher salary. Things only changed at the tail end of my senior year in high school when Mississippi passed Oklahoma.

Vacations? Lots of take-home work or continuing education or professional development.

Or in the case of my friend the geography teacher, trips to Europe... wedged between multiple summer education workshops.

The morals police freakout over the waltz was a little less than 200 years ago, at least in England. I want to say it was introduced right around 1814 or 1815.

I'm amazed you didn't go after my use of "blunderbuss."

Or you guys find a perfect house just north of 145th, and wind up in Shoreline Schools.

We are just down the road from Broadview-Thompson, though.

Happy birthday, Jilli! So glad you're home and doing well!

Ahh...teaching. Having just gotten home from spending all day doing observations as a high school, teaching 10th grade American Lit, and then spending 3 hours at the library working on a unit plan and another hour looking for books to use in a lesson on Tuesday? It's a lot of hard work. And, I'm a part-time student, not yet a a teacher. AND, I used a vacation day from my full-time job to do it.

I wonder. For a long time weren't now-super-compeditive colleges mostly populated by who you were and not what you'd done?

Um. And what I meant to say about this was, yes. That was my point -- that pulling strings (and being somebody's kid) was a big part of what college you went to in years past.

Oh, I think I walked past a class about to go in for a test on maternal nursing. The teacher was talking about finding a place for people to put their bags and things. I chuckled.

Hey, question that's been bugging me since the Real Genius discussion: Can you skate on dry ice? Reason I ask, as I understand it, when ice skating you're sliding on a film of melted ice created by the pressure of the skates. If there's no liquid state, can you stil skate on it?

I would guess definitely not. It's not slippery at all. More likely your skates would stick to it.

Being sick is horrible, but you don't bite the hand that cares for you, you know?

Well, I think the vast majority of people who aren't polite are just sick and scared; it's hard to take it personally when you know it couldn't possibly be less about you.

But, of course, there are some people who are just asshats no matter how good you're being to them.

I don't think so, billytea. But then I can't think much at all right now. Snot monster got an invite from either allergies or a cold and it's dulled my brain and convinced it that a sinus headache would be nifty. So I could be wrong.

I want to make people feel better when they feel crappy.