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>Well, let's push it out
of the folklore bed!! I can remember, old curmudgeonette that I am, when
"folklore" had it that pregnant women couldn't be K-12 teachers when their
pregnancies "showed", that mothers of young children shouldn't work outside the
home lest their children's lives be ruined, that smoking cigarettes was good for
you, that tuberculosis was caused by having an artistic temperament, and so
on. Isn't this what we have education for? To get rid of myths like these?
Bravo, Ruth,
yes, of course. This is the responsibility of teachers, and, really, of any
professionals who know the facts and can clearly see when the "folklore" is
wrong and potentially dangerous. I believe that the current folklore is
potentially dangerous because it is causing massive resources to be spent on
trivial risks, leaving more serious risks not attended to. To not speak against
that is to shun one's responsibility as a professional. We should speak on the
list, in our newspapers, in public forums, in our public schools, to our
legislators, and so on, until it becomes abandoned like the foolish folklore
that you mention here.
Mike
Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences Vanderbilt University 1161 21st Avenue South Nashville, TN 37232-2675 Phone (615) 343-0068 Fax (615) 322-3764 e-mail michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu internet www.doseinfo-radar.com |