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Here is a little piece that I wrote for a local newspaper--the Blue Stone Press (May 15, 2015)--in response to an article on parents opting out of testing for their children. It was published as a Guest Analyst Opinion. It’s sad that so many parents are opting out of the current testing, as Jillian Nadiak noted in BSP (May 1, 2015). It’s also a big mistake. The Mistakes Perhaps the major mistake is to assume that parents—simply by virtue of the fact that they are parents—are the best equipped to make educational decisions for children, even their own. In fact, the very reason we have schools and teachers and teacher education programs is because parents cannot effectively educate their children. Parents don’t assume they can diagnose and cure childhood illness and so we expect them to seek competent medical treatment from doctors and nurses. And there are laws that will penalize parents for not seeking competent medical care. But, with education everyone seems to see themselves as expe...

Here's an interesting article that offers interesting suggestions for  Responding to Rudeness  which should work well in a class in the discussion of conversation or a variety of other interpersonal topics. Among the suggestions offered are how to respond to catcalls, unwanted and negative comments on your appearance, or friends who reveal personal information.  It would be interesting to see how students would deal with each of these several issues and if there's a gender or age difference in the responses.

I want to bring to your attention a new book by a friend of mine; we went to graduate school together at the U of I.  The book— Lydia Pinkham: The Face that Launched a Thousand Ads by Sammy R. Danna (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)--is about Lydia Pinkham, her vegetable compound (which is still being sold), and the revolution in marketing and advertising of which she was a major part.  Congratulations Sam; you did a wonderful job!

According to some research published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior (DOI 10.1007/s10508-014-0422-z; http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-014-0422-z#page-1)-- summarized briefly in Psychology Today (April 2015)--a woman wearing high heels is perceived as more attractive than a women with low heels. In a series of studies by Nicolas Gueguen, it was found that:  (1)  Men were more apt to help a woman if she was wearing high heels than low heels. For example, when a women dropped a glove, a man behind her was more likely to pick it up if she was wearing high heels. Sixty-two percent of men picked up the glove of the woman with no heels but 93 percent picked up the glove of the woman in 3 ½ inch heels. Heel height, however, made no difference in terms of another woman’s helping behavior.  ( 2)    Men were also more likely to approach a woman if she was wearing high heels. With no heels, it took 13 ½ minutes for a man to approach her. But, with 3 ½ i...

Here’s an interesting article in the current issue of Psychology Today (April, 2015): Gay Love, Straight Sense: 5 Lessons Everyone Can Learn from Same-Sex Couples. The lessons are these: 1.       “Create fluid roles.” Because same-sex couples don’t have to divide roles by gender, they are free to discuss roles and to more effectively share roles. The roles are negotiated, rather than set down by society. 2.       “Sexual experimentation is good.” Same-sex couples are more likely to talk about sexual preferences and desires and are not bound by “rules” often found in opposite-sex relationships. 3.       “Keep calm amid conflict.” Apparently, same-sex couples engage in conflict in a “less accusatory, less belligerent, less domineering” manner. 4.       “We’re all surrounded by attractive others; deal with it.” Unlike same-sex couples, gay men and lesbians have same-sex friends and regularly...

In searching for communication issues we don’t normally talk about in our introductory textbooks, that of talking to cancer patients about their cancer is one of the most important and the most difficult. Here are a few suggestions for making communication with a person diagnosed with cancer—what you might say and what you should NOT say--a bit easier—not easy, just a bit easier. http://www.today.com/health/what-say-not-say-cancer-patient-2D80213767 https://www.caring.com/articles/never-say-to-someone-with-cancer http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20851340,00.html http://lisabadams.com/2013/02/27/the-stupid-things-people-say-to-people-with-cancertheir-families/

In looking over the literature on dealing with pubic speaking apprehension, I searched for less likely sources than NCA journals. Here are some of the things I found, not surprisingly, not that different from what we have in our textbooks: From an article in Forbes: 1.       Begin small, with baby steps. 2.       Organize what you want to say. 3.       Slow down. From Psychology Today : 1.       Don’t expect perfection. 2.       Don’t think of public speaking as a measure of your self-worth. 3.       Avoid getting nervous over nervousness—a wonderful lesson I learned from General Semantics 4.       Don’t memorize. 5.       Don’t read. From WebMD : 1.       Visualize yourself speaking successfully. 2.       Practice. 3.       ...