A Cure for What Ails You

I’ve stumbled across a quite ingenious cure that, in theory, should fix everything from warts to cancer. Now, people have been using this cure for centuries, some with more success than others, but work or not there it seems there is always someone willing (or possibly desperate enough) to give it a try.

Here’s how it works:

Let’s suppose that a person believes he may have a fever. (I decided to start off with something fairly non-life threatening, but rest assured, this works for anything) What this person does to combat this unwanted condition is simply not take his temperature. Call it ignorance…call it denial…call it whatever you want, but the fact remains that if this person doesn’t know that he has a fever, then “POOF” like magic, he does NOT have a fever.

I know just what your thinking. “Sure, this may work for things like a simple fever, or the common cold, but how does it stand up to more serious illnesses?”

Well, I’m glad you asked that question! You see, up until recently I wouldn’t have put much stock in the “If you don’t know you have it – then you DON’T have it,” theory of medicine, but things have happened that have made a believer out of me.

I see it every day, parents who, for one reason or another, refuse to have a child tested for an ailment or condition of some kind that would be hard to deal with, if in fact the child was suffering from this ailment or condition. And mind you, these aren’t bad parents. These are usually intelligent, loving parents who want nothing less than the best for their child, but they can’t get past the fear of having a child who is labeled.

I don’t have a child with special needs, so I can’t say how I would react if I were put in this situation. Even as I’m writing this, I can see how attractive an option like "what you don't know can't hurt you," would be. I only know that you cannot look the other way forever, sooner or later something has to give.

So next time you start getting sick, just look the other way and you’ll be just fine.

Or will you?

Spacing Really Does Matter

As children learn to read and write you teach them that for words to make sense to the reader, it’s important to put spaces between the words. However, when you teach anything above first grade, you don’t really think much about the spaces between the words.

I was walking down the hall when I saw a comical reminder that spacing really does matter.

Halloween is a big deal at my school. We have a costume parade complete with teachers in costume and parents lining the halls taking pictures and videos of the big event. It really is big deal. We also have a hallway decoration contest between the classrooms, and while there isn’t any actual prize, winning is a big deal to the students.

The winning Intermediate class had an elaborate wall decorated with bats and spiders hanging from a spooky looking tree and floating ghosts that had scary messages written on them.

I walked by this board 10 times or more a day for a full week, but after my initial inspection of the work they had done, I really never paid much attention to it.

As I walked by yesterday, I was casually reading and rereading some of the ghosts’ messages when one message grabbed my attention. See if you can fix the spacing errors and decipher this ghost’s message.

"Go shits a ghost!"

Yep, spacing really does matter!