Another option is to wait for MA Nature to drop some snow and get the season started, and then attend an equipment demo day to take a ride for yourself. It’s just like taking a new car around the block for a spin, except of course you are skiing. A few runs should give you an idea of the equipments feel and personality.

Buck’s Ski Emporium or the Mountain Ski Shop?

So we know our ability level, have picked out a few options to consider, and are ready to go for it and head out to make a purchase. But where to go? Sure, Buck’s Ski Emporium might have rock bottom prices, but do you want to take advice on skis from the same guy selling fishing tackle? If you know exactly what you want and don’t need the salesperson for anything other than ringing up your order, then go where you get the best deal.

However, if you have a few questions and want some good advice, consider a reputable shop with skiers for salespeople. Mountain ski shops, for example, typically have skiers working the floor, who should be able to offer valuable and accurate advice.

In order to get an idea of the salesperson’s knowledge level, consider asking a few of these questions: do you the salesperson if they ski, what they ski on and why, have they tried the gear you are looking at or what their recommendations are.

And one last thing: regardless of which shop you choose always go for the freebies, which could include free poles, free mounting and/or lifetime tune-ups.

There you have it — a little friendly advice to get you on track and into the right equipment. So go for it — get on some new gear and this winter and tear up the slopes. Good luck and pick a winner!

“More people die of eating disorders than any other psychiatric illness,” says Rebecca Manley. She’s the president of MEDA, an organization she founded seven years ago. “In 1993, I had an idea along with my husband to found an organization that was geared toward the education, prevention, detection and treatment of eating disorders. What I looked at was a national basis of other organizations. And what I discovered was, that although there were a lot of self-help organizations, there was nothing really put together, a) that was founded by a recovered individual, which I suffered both anorexia and bulimia for over ten years, and b) there was nothing put together that was professionally run. I have my masters in counseling and family studies, and I worked as a therapist. And what I found was that all the other organizations were self-help, meaning that they were run by lay people, which is all well and good, but in the treatment of eating disorders, what a lot of the research says and what my personal philosophy is, is that all support groups as well as individual counseling, need to be led by an eating disorder specialist. So I wanted to create an organization that was accessible to a lot of people but professionally run.”

Today, MEDA is just that, offering family consultations, individual therapy and after-school treatment programs. The organization has pushed itself to the forefront of eating disorder treatment.

“MEDA is a very innovative and unique organization,” said Cybill Goldberg. Cybill is the Director of Programs. “Eating disorders, though very diverse in their symptoms; anorexia with restricting, bulimia with binge/purge, or compulsive over eating with the bingeing. Though each of those symptoms is very different, the eating disorder symptoms are servicing the same purpose, and that is taking care of feelings that are very difficult for an individual to experience or connect with. So here at MEDA, what we try to do when working with each of those individuals is not so much focus on the symptoms, but focus on the individual’s self-development, and developing an authentic perspective of self; building self-esteem, egos and working to find how they can experience feelings without intense fear. Many individuals with eating disorders have been taught that feelings ‘don’t fit’ unless they’re kind of perfect feelings, and so they’ve suffocated those throughout their lives. And food is used to take care of those feelings,” she said.

Over the years, MEDA has helped thousands of people cope with their struggle through support groups that help fight the secrecy and shame that come with eating disorders.

“And that’s one of the reasons why I really wanted support groups as part of the mission here,” adds Rebecca. “Because I really feel like support groups break the isolation and break the shame of eating disorders. And once you start to break the shame and chip away at the isolation, individuals can start to feel like there’s some hope and feel like they’re not alone and hopefully get on the recovery process for eating disorders.”

In addition, MEDA also staffs a hotline to answer questions and concerns. “We serve quite a few. We have a help line Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and that help line treats hundreds of people every day. People from not only Massachusetts, but also the Northeast as well. We also get a number of calls on a national level,” said Rebecca.

Learning about the help available is the first step on the road to recovery, and that process can begin at MEDA’s Web site.

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To take the case I know best, Australia, there has been a rise, in the requirements of the Australian Homeopathic Association, (the only national association) for accrediting courses. Whereas previously the Association required courses to contain a minimum of 340 hours of education in homeopathy and there were no requirements for supervised clinical experience, the number of homeopathy hours was raised a few years ago to 550 and a requirement for 100 hours of supervised clinical experience was added.

Of course increasing the gross number of hours of instruction in itself does not guarantee higher standards, but it is an indication that higher standards are being set in place.

Around the same time a number of smaller associations banded together to form a new accrediting body, the Australian Council of Homeopathy, which developed an exhaustive set of standards. These standards specify in great detail every aspect of the skills and underpinning knowledge required in courses accredited by the Council. The clinical skills and homeopathic knowledge necessary to investigate a wide range of specified conditions are required and spelled out in the standards.

Thus, in Australia we have developed two different models of homeopathic education. One standard gives greater emphasis to the student’s mastery of “classical” homeopathy — knowledge of the materia medica from a holistic point of view, of case-taking and case analysis, — but is deficient in the area of clinical skills and not specific in terms of knowledge of bio-sciences (although these are required). The other standard is highly rigorous in its requirements for clinical skills and knowledge of the bio-sciences, but gives less explicit emphasis to homeopathic knowledge. The two standards exemplify the two divergent paths down which homeopathic education has hitherto traveled. On the one hand is a “lay” model of homeopathic education wherein the distinctively homeopathic content is given priority. On the other hand is a medical or quasi-medical model, wherein greater priority is given to knowledge of underpinning medical knowledge and diagnostic skills.

Fortunately it may be possible, in Australia at least, to arrive at a synthesis of these two models. All the associations are currently working together (this in itself is a great achievement) on the development of a “National Competency Based Standard.” Under our national training system, these standards can be developed for any profession or trade, and given government approval if the required process is followed and there is sufficient consensus within the trade or profession to adopt the standard. We are working to finish the standard by the end of the year, and it is shaping up as a mechanism for overcoming the divisions between the various groups.

In the US, the Council of Homeopathic Certification makes available a single examination in homeopathic competency which has the potential to become a national standard. In the UK, the Society of Homoeopaths has rigorous requirements for listing on its register, and RSHom (Registered by the Society of Homeopaths) has become a designation which inspires considerable confidence in the competence of the practitioner.

Also, the International Council of Classical Homeopathy has been working towards common international standards and has developed a set of educational guidelines towards that end. A handful of colleges have been accredited on the basis that they have substantially met the requirements of these standards. It would be a great achievement if we could build on this foundation and bring about inter-recognition of qualifications from different countries, all at a high standard.
Homeopathy Returns to the Universities

The only change from the medical curriculum is that homeopathic pharmacology and prescribing is substituted for conventional pharmacology and prescribing. Students then go out to undertake a period of internship. Similar courses have been started more recently at the Natal and Witwatersrand Technikons in South Africa.

With these exceptions, most homeopathic education has taken place outside institutions. One of the most important routes to homeopathic knowledge since the time of Boenninghausen has been self-study. Some of our most distinguished authorities have essentially been gifted amateurs, who devoured every work on homeopathy they could lay their hands on, experimented on their unfortunate families and relations, and came over time to develop a mastery of the art of prescribing by dint of intelligent application and trial and error.

Several individuals, having mastered homeopathy by the self-study route, or by studying with established masters, then went on to found homeopathic schools. There are many examples around the world of schools which are sustained by the drive of one charismatic individual (some of whom in their turn had been educated at small schools). George Vithoulkas and Jeremy Sherr are two of the most prominent examples of this phenomenon. These schools are characterised by the insight and dynamism of their founders, and vary greatly in their educational standards, since the charismatic individuals who found them know a great deal about homeopathy but are not trained in educational techniques as such (I am not commenting here about the examples referred to above). But then you could say exactly the same about your average university academic. University lecturer is one of the few major professions where it has not been considered necessary to undertake training in the profession itself, i.e., the profession of teaching.

Graduates of small schools which are sustained by one teacher can be imbued with a deep understanding of homeopathic theory and therapeutics, but the level of education in the bio-sciences and in clinical skills can be deficient (I am not commenting about any particular school here).

Two trends have emerged which will be of great importance in the development of homeopathic education into the future. The first is that there has been a trend towards a rise in standards in the homeopathic schools. In many cases this rise in standards has been led by the professional associations, and is often stimulated by the desire to build nationally agreed standards for homeopathic education. The second is the return of homeopathy to the universities.

Homeopathic Education: A Round-Up of the Current International Situation

Of recent times, homeopathy in general, and homeopathic education in particular, has not had a strong institutional base. Homeopathy has been excluded from university medical schools in most countries, and from mainstream hospitals, and from research institutes.

In its heyday around the turn of the century, homeopathy was taught in the United States in a number of colleges which were equivalent to medical colleges. But it seems that these colleges did not constitute the strong base they might at first appear to have been. On the Homeopathy Mailing List, Julian Winston has told us a little about them, based on a talk given by Dan Cook, MD (due to be published in the September 1996 issue of the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy). It seems that from very early on they were staffed largely by allopaths, who were engaged to teach the health sciences, and that allopathic theory and therapeutics came to dominate over homeopathy in their curricula. There has been lively discussion on the list about the extent to which this takeover of the homeopathic colleges was responsible for the decline of homeopathy in the US.

It is not my purpose to enter into this particular controversy here, merely to take note of the weak institutional background to our current situation.

Of course there is more to the background of past homeopathic education than the US experience. In the United Kingdom, the Faculty of Homeopathy and its predecessors has been undertaking homeopathic education since the 1840s. The faculty is the most prominent example in the Western countries of postgraduate homeopathic education for medical doctors. In this model, practitioners undertake the arduous and lengthy medical degree over four years (with a further two years of internship).

They are instructed fully in the bio-sciences, allopathic therapeutics, and clinical skills, and absorb a model of health, disease and treatment which is fundamentally opposed to homeopathy. Those whose capacity for independent thinking survives this indoctrination can then undertake homeopathic education through the Faculty. Faculty courses have traditionally been on the short side, as busy practitioners are not in a position to undertake further lengthy courses. Despite the disadvantages of this model, many fine homeopaths have been trained in this way.

Are there differences between raising boys and girls? I think there are, but it may be as much a reflection of my own attitudes and perceptions than something inherently different.

For example, friends with a handful of boisterous boys say they wish they had a sweet little girl like my Jessie. Well, when it comes to volume and staying power, a handful of little girls on a sleepover is tough to top — or at least I sure hope it is.

Personality is the biggest difference to keep in mind, not gender. Jessie loves rugged outdoor activities; Josh prefers going to the movies. Jessie doesn’t make friends easily, while Josh is surrounded by them. They’re very different people, even though we tried to raise them the same.

However, there are situations, such as Jessie going to the park on her own, when we have made decisions based on gender. Without going into any details about my concerns, I simply told Jessie I was uncomfortable letting her go by herself. I told her I thought she was responsible enough to go, but we needed to find a compromise. We agreed I’d walk her close to the park, and that it was OK for me to wander nearby.

It wasn’t long before I was called over by Jessie and her friends because they needed someone else to play the bewildering game they call “grounders.” I happily ran afoul of its many rules and lost most of the time. While rules do seem to be very important to girls, I don’t think it’s particular to their gender, as some people suggest. Because when it comes to arguing over rules, nothing beats a gang of 8-year-old boys playing street hockey. At least in my neighborhood.

No relationship, no matter how healthy, is divorce-proof. First marriages have about a 40 percent “no-go” rate, and the failure rate for second marriages is even higher. For children of divorce, the number of split-ups is also slightly higher, as you’ve read.

It’s understandable that your parents’ divorce makes these statistics seem more real for you. But don’t let pessimism color your outlook. We can all choose how we want to be similar to — and different from — our parents. A higher divorce rate among children whose parents have split up says absolutely nothing about what will happen in your case. In fact, an appreciation of the reality of divorce can be a good thing, motivating you to address marital problems as they arise. People who take an “It can’t happen to me!” attitude toward divorce are liable to fall asleep at the wheel, making a breakup during the inevitable rocky times all the more likely.

Also keep in mind that divorce isn’t always a bad thing. It can be a safeguard against getting stuck in an unhappy relationship, especially when our best efforts to change things haven’t helped. Your mother may have actually taught you a self-affirming lesson by giving herself a fresh start in life. Many people fear divorce when they might more realistically fear wasting years of their lives in a destructive marriage.

Why not learn from your parents’ experience by talking with each of them about what led to their divorce? You may have heard sniping in the past over who did what and why, but now that the smoke has cleared, you can calmly ask for honest assessments. How do they view their own contributions to their marital problems? How has their thinking about what happened changed over the years? If they could go back in time, what would they do differently? The more you can all talk openly about these painful issues, the less likely you are to repeat old patterns — or to mindlessly rebel against them.

The best relationships consist of two people who know that divorce is available as a last resort but who choose to stay together. Your parents’ path need not be your path, where marriage — or anything else — is concerned.

What’s so bad about stress? Stress makes us more alert, true. But it also means poor sleep, memory and concentration. It also results in the ‘short fuse’ when dealing with friends and family. To help bring the equilibrium of stress and relaxation back to normal, try these tips:

Vitamin C helps support the adrenal glands and reduces the effects of chronic stress. Eat lots of uncooked fruits and vegetables such as kiwis, grapefruit, mangoes, broccoli, cabbage, beans and dark green leafy veggies.

The B vitamins are needed for calm nerves and mental stability. Avoid the insanity of an overwhelming schedule with whole grains like oatmeal and couscous, green vegetables, beans and seeds, fish, eggs, nuts and nutritional yeast. The good news is that these foods also make you feel full for a longer time, which means you’ll be less tempted to waste your bucks on junk.

Magnesium is the most critical mineral for coping with stresss. It’s important in a wide array of chemical reactions in the brain and for the immune system. The last thing you need in your studious life is to get sick, so fill up on watermelon, seafood, dark leafy green veggies, bananas, dates, figs, beans, buckwheat, oats, millet and organ meats. Constant stress depletes this mineral from your body and it’s easy to become deficient on a dorm food diet.

Calcium is a mild tranquilizer for the nervous system. Use stress to your advantage and build your bones and hair at the same time with milk, yogurt, lean meats, eggs, nuts, beans and seeds, seafood and dark leafy greens!

The things which help to set your body off balance include caffeine and alcohol. These also take the glow away from your skin, and drain away your B vitamins and calcium. If you need to stay awake to cram, how about a cold splash of water on the face or a bit of stretching to get the blood circulating instead?

Excess sugar gives you momentary energy, but it robs your body of B vitamins. It also brings mood swings, low blood sugar, and can make you feel restless, tired and depressed.

Too much salt in your Ramen noodles (more than 5 grams a day or 1 teaspon) can cause a sodium/potassium imbalance and stress your kidneys. Potassium is another mineral important to proper brain and nervous system function.

Stress doesn’t have to be a bad thing. A healthy attitude towards problems and avoiding last minute dashes for the assignment deadline will help decrease pimples and increase your academic grade anyhow, so eat up our tips for anti-anxiety!