I read this in yesterday's paper.

Dear Amy: I'm responding to the letter from "Maryland Mom," who was worried because her 8-year-old son saw his gym teacher naked in a public changing room. Most of your response was right on the mark.

I could not disagree more, however, with your suggestion that the child's gym teacher in the changing room "should have been more circumspect." To imply to the child that it was OK for the teacher to be naked in front of everyone except the child would have turned a perfectly normal, mundane situation into one that was weird, uncomfortable and confusing.

The most confusing and damaging influence on children's feelings about their bodies is the wildly inconsistent treatment of the topic by adults. Adults need to exorcise their own demons, get comfortable with their own values and understand the values of others before teaching their children.

—Chris in Narberth, Pa.

Dear Chris: I agree with you that parents shape their children's perceptions.

As I said to "Maryland Mom," if she and her husband don't want their son to see naked men, then they shouldn't go to a public changing room at a state park.

All the same, I do believe that teachers have a special charge to be aware of how their students perceive them when they are out in the world.

I'm thinking of how traumatized I was by running into my teacher, Miss Quinn, wearing shorts in the summer. For some reason, I never knew she had knees.


Ok first I had to respond to this. Are you kidding me? I don't think I have to say anymore. How did this Amy person get a job giving advice?

Second I am now on page 21 of my book. It is pretty rough but coming along and I have found I hate writing dialog. I now have a file of characters where I keep their names and descriptions. Another one with basic plot line and then the basic part where I am actually writing.

Not much else going on here.

So we had three games.... the first was a tie. Heartbreakers scored early and it was answered fast and then neither team could score again. This morning HB was up 1-0 at the half and then in the last ten minutes the girls lost it. After the other team scored it was all mental and they ended up losing 1-2. The team was just not playing together well and they looked tired. The last game, was the best I had ever seen Joelle play. She started and then subbed out for about one minute before she was back in. She played mid and forward and it was crazy. Although she did not score a goal- she was amazing. Imagine- Joelle being offsides! What??? After the game there were a few parents going wow- Joelle is faster than I thought. She played great and wasn't even tired. Beating the defense and making some great passes. Her coaches were stunned and told her to keep up the speed training. HB won 3-0. We didn't make the finals and HB took third in the tournament. We have another tournament next week but it is in Vancouver.
jackie thanks for calling- I would call you back but I didn't get the voice message until at 8 pm. TTYL