Lots of articles on a snowy day.

[conuly]

Some NSA Officials Favor Giving Snowden Limited Amnesty For All The Wrong Reasons

http://bit.ly/1gxXlHZ

Feds joins battle on citrus disease

http://bit.ly/1b5jANq

Obama to review changes in spy policy

http://usat.ly/18JP52D

Tech giants team up in anti-snooping effort

On the one hand: good for them! On the other, I am even more uncomfortable with corporate influence in the government than I am with the NSA, and that is saying an awful lot.

http://usat.ly/19v5TaK

The Return of the Welfare Queen

http://bit.ly/19odyex

Federal judge declares Utah polygamy law unconstitutional

http://bit.ly/1bFgIKy

This Ethiopian village has gained wealth, but has bred hostility

Because they aren't Christians or Muslims, basically.

http://bit.ly/IShpWz

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: A MATTER OF TRUST?

http://nyr.kr/18Dk0jK

IF YOU REFRAIN FROM TALKING ABOUT RACE, PEOPLE MIGHT THINK YOU’RE RACIST

As many commenters point out, not all of the "black" people on that modified Guess Who? board look unambiguously black. So there's that as well.

http://bit.ly/1k0V0oL

Surprise! Charity Buys 21 Sacred Katsinam for Hopi at Auction in Paris

http://bit.ly/IVI58J

Scientists discover double meaning in genetic code

http://bit.ly/1duyD6q

How cholera evolved to be one of the deadliest diseases in history

http://bit.ly/18IkCil

This study shows how a good metaphor can change the world

http://bit.ly/1bEyUAv

Inside the Rainbow Gulag: The Technicolor Rise and Fall of Lisa Frank

http://bit.ly/1hPDhRG

The second operating system hiding in every mobile phone

http://www.osnews.com/story/27416

A Pen That 3-D Prints Bone Right Onto Patients

http://bit.ly/JeNtEF

In Ukraine, skepticism greets new vow on E.U.

http://wapo.st/1cruH49

Kindergartener signs song for deaf mom. It's the most adorable time of the year!

http://cnn.it/1gxU7UM

Teacher accused of feeding autistic student hot sauce rehired.

Either Florida has a serious teacher shortage or they really hate disabled kids down there.

http://abcn.ws/1ctku7j

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

The danger in putting hot sauce on the crayons is that it might come off on the kid's hand and thus get rubbed in an eye. However, I see nothing wrong with putting a harmless but nasty-tasting substance on the crayons. That's a far more respectful way to deal with pica than reminding and remonstrating: "tastes bad=not food".

Good question, what one could use that wouldn't pose a risk. Murphy's Oil Soap maybe; that stuff leaves an awful taste if one happens to get the least bit in the mouth - definitely discourages nail-biting after cleaning with it, so washing and not rinsing the crayons would probably work. They have to be cleaned if they've been in someone's mouth, right?

[conuly]

Maybe? But she shouldn't have done anything like that without getting the parental OK first.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

She needs a parental OK to clean the crayons after they've been mouthed? Why? If the stuff she uses to clean them is non-toxic, it's nobody's business if it also happens to taste horrible.

The hot sauce was a bad idea because hot sauce burns the mouth and can seriously burn the eyes. That bitter-apple spray made to keep pets from chewing on electric cords and things might work, and would probably be less problematic than Simple Green, but of course one couldn't pass it off as merely disinfecting the crayons.

BTW, for the record I had pica rather severely as a child, and ate literally dozens of entire pencils, among other things. It's a great wonder I didn't choke, get a perforated stomach, or seriously poison myself. A little Murphy's might have made a lot of difference. The manufacturers put bad flavor in glue, paste and Play-Doh on purpose to stop kids eating it; what's the difference between that and having bad-flavored crayons?

[conuly]

If you routinely use Tabasco sauce to clean things, I have to say, I think you're doing it wrong.

And it is entirely possible that the parents don't want the teacher using any sort of aversive on their kid. You might think this is wrong, but I don't think it's asking too much to at least check with them beforehand. Maybe write them a note saying "your kid is eating the crayons, this is a serious hazard and bad for the art budget besides. I was thinking about using this product to discourage it. If you have any questions, please let me know".

"The manufacturers put bad flavor in glue, paste and Play-Doh on purpose to stop kids eating it; what's the difference between that and having bad-flavored crayons?"

The fact that it isn't the manufacturer doing it? Also, just for the record, paste tasted awesome. Play-Doh, which smells so wonderful, is a mean and vicious trick and tastes of bitter, bitter disappointment.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I've routinely used Tabasco to discourage puppies and kittens from chewing on electrical cords, and it works like a charm; they never do it a second time. But as I said, since human children have hands, and often rub their eyes, it's a bad idea to put Tabasco on stuff they'd be touching.

Paste used to taste awesome, but have you sampled the modern stuff? It's utter shite. I loathed the smell of commercial Play-doh from the first, so I don't recall the flavor. LOL, when I was teaching day-care, I had this great recipe for home-made Play Dough - the cooked kind - which was practically indistinguishable from overly salty pretzel or bagel dough. The salt was in the recipe specifically to discourage children from eating it.

So what difference does it make who the manufacturer is? Why is it okay for the Play-doh company to put Essence of Bitter Disappointment in their product, and not-okay for teachers to spray soap on the crayons? I think sending such a note as you suggest would be prudent, but suppose the parents say No - what then? Just let the kid eat the crayons? Never let the kid have any crayons? You and I both know that kids with pica can't just stop the behavior, no matter how much they're scolded and punished for it, so NO form of 'classroom discipline' is effective.

It's falsely inflating the political stakes to call bad-flavored art supplies "aversives". If that's what they are, then by the same token commercial Play-doh is also an 'aversive', which illustrates the absurdity of the notion. Using the term in such a way trivializes it: is there no important difference between a child tasting the crayons and finding them horrid, and a child having something horrid forcibly put in his mouth as punishment for tasting the crayons?

[conuly]

Tabasco certainly is aversive (unless you like it, some children also like very very salty play dough). And it's not soap at all.

This whole conversation, incidentally, is making me wonder if *this* is why one of the nieces' schools specifically wanted crayola twist ups instead of regular crayons.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Tabasco is a flavoring. It can be used as an aversive by forcibly putting it in the mouth of someone who doesn't like it. Unless and until it is used that way, it is not an aversive. It makes no sense to speak of self-inflicted 'aversives', as when a child puts something in his own mouth, of his own free will after having been told not to, and finds that it tastes horrid.

The word that is needed here is deterrent. Tabasco on the electrical cords is a deterrent to puppies and kittens chewing on them (alas, it doesn't deter rabbits; split-loom conduit is the only solution there.) Tabasco on the crayons is a deterrent to children chewing on them, and unlike soap or antiseptic spray, it's a food product, made for human consumption. Some kids love it, especially those from cultures with a lot of spicy foods - my little Princess Plum Blossom eats green chilies like they were tomato slices; Tabasco wouldn't faze her.

Obviously Tabasco is not soap at all. I didn't say it was, nor even compare it to soap. Yes, soaking crayons in a flavoring meant for food could not possibly be explained as anything but a deliberate attempt to make the crayons taste bad: we've established that. We've also established that Tabasco on the crayons is potentially hazardous to childrens' eyes; thus is not a smart idea. Tabasco crayons=Bad; gotcha; no argument there.

However, I say the principle of using non-toxic unpleasantly-flavored substances as deterrents to children eating non-food items is sound, and that a teacher has as much right to do it as the Play-doh company has. If someone thinks of a more effective method for keeping crayons out of mouths, that'll be great, but as far as I know, nobody's thought of one yet. Since there are plenty of parents in the world who don't *get* that, IMHO it's best if teachers use deterrents (such as soap) that can plausibly be explained as having a legitimate purpose besides making the crayons taste nasty.