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Professionally Speaking welcomes letters and articles on topics of interest to teachers. We reserve the right to edit letters for length. To be considered for publication, all letters must be signed and provide the writer’s daytime phone number. Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Professionally Speaking, 121 Bloor Street East, 6th Floor, Toronto ON M4W 3M5; e-mail: ps@oct.ca |
Managing Risk
You are right in stating that a peanut- free school cannot be guaranteed, but many steps can be taken to bring the risk of exposure to an acceptable level. Letters to parents explaining the nature of the allergy and requesting that foods containing the allergen not be sent to school are important, as is providing information to staff and students at the school and showing staff how to use an Epi-Pen.
On the other side of the issue, I know it can be a challenge to reassure the parents of the anaphylactic child, especially when you have to make them understand that elimination of risk is not possible and that all a school can do is work with them to manage the level of risk. My thanks to my child’s teachers who have shown compassion and understanding in dealing with her peanut allergy.
P. Lorraine Doyle
Lorraine Doyle teaches at Ross Doan School in Richmond Hill.
Segregation Makes No Sense
Speaking as both a teacher and a parent of a peanut-allergic child, I commend you on your detailed and accurate examination of life-threatening allergies. However, suggesting that food bans never be implemented and that allergic children just be segregated during lunch makes no sense in the face of what we know about peanut allergies in particular. A segregated child will still return to a classroom and school that has many undetectable peanut traces, not to mention a schoolyard where children freely eat their snacks.
Although in the past some doctors and organizations have been hesitant to recommend "peanut free" elementary schools, this is changing. As we learn more about the nature of these allergies, it is more and more apparent that as a community we must take a stand to protect the increasing numbers of seriously allergic children and to allow teachers to teach without the added stress of knowing they have an unsafe classroom.
Arlene Adamo
Arlene Adamo is a Junior-Intermendiate teacher of English who is currently at home raising
her children.
Language Puzzle
I am puzzled why, at a time when our students’ communication skills are being constantly decried, Minister Janet Ecker is forcing the College to implement a standard of teacher language proficiency which it deems to be inadequate. The political benefits of such a decision completely escape me.
What does seem apparent, even to me, is the Minister is willing to accede to the wishes of the College only in such matters as suit her and her Queen’s Park advisers.
Frank H. Sweet
Frank Sweet is a retired math teacher. He lives in Lion’s Head.
Allergy Clarification
"An Abnormal Response to Normal Things" published in the September issue, garnered many compliments, requests for reprints and permission to distribute the article more widely.
It also generated debate about the side-effects of some asthma treatments, such as theophylline and corticosteroids, that may negatively affect a child’s capacity to learn.
Professionally Speaking asked Dr. Tom Kovesi to clarify the situation. He is a specialist in paediatric lung disease and medical director of the Ottawa-Carleton Lung Association Asthma Education Centre, who follows the reactions of about 1,000 children with severe asthma in the eastern Ontario/western Quebec region.
Theophylline, says Dr. Kovesi, does increase activity levels and old studies show it can impede learning in children with underlying attention problems, but it is an old treatment that is rarely used any more.
Corticosteroids are used both as an inhalant and orally. Each method serves a different purpose and has different side-effects. Inhaled steroids are used to prevent asthma attacks; oral steroids are used to treat severe asthma attacks.
Dr. Kovesi confirms that inhaled steroids are highly effective and safe, and "virtually never affect behaviour, and I’m not aware of any evidence that they impair learning." Although there are a few cases, says Dr. Kovesi, where children have had reactions to inhaled steroids that caused behavioural problems "this is exceedingly rare."
Dr. Kovesi says that oral steroids such as Prednisone can cause temporary behavioural problems such as excessive activity and mood swings, as well as increased appetite. But it is rare for them to be used on a long-term basis, he says, and when they are used for more severe asthma attacks, it is usually for five-day bursts.