I teach High School and wanted to do my part for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One idea I had was for them to bring in Yoplait tops for 10 points each of extra credit and then we send them off on November 1st. Is there anything else I could do to get them to give back? It should be cheap and something anyone can have access to.
Cancer - 5 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Finally, a teacher asking what to do!!!!!!!! PLEASE see to it that your students have correct information. There must be at least half a dozen questions here every day by teenage girls scared to death they may have breast cancer and there are as many boys who are worried about testicular cancer in one month than are diagnosed in an entire year. I would love to get your take on why this is happening. I can understand kids learning about the disease process, but why are they so involved with cancer? If kids are going to have a fear of the death they should be worried about their driving and who they get in a car with as car accidents is the leading cause of death for teenagers. Do you know the odds of a girl between the ages of 15-19 years old getting breast cancer is 1.3 in I million? And there are about 550 cases of testicular cancer in males under 20 years old each year. Also, if schools are going to tell boys to check themselves give them an anatomy lesson as they do not have a clue what they are feeling. BTW self exams do not increase survival rates for testicular cancer and girls should not do self exams until they are in their late 20s. I am not insinuating you are a bad teacher and I think your idea is a good one it is just so frustrating to see all these kids worried about cancer.
2 :
raising money to give to a breast cancer charity? bake sale in school . or by doing something like a sponsored walk or run.
3 :
Don't just focus on breast cancer. There are a lot of different types of cancer that affect young people. Perhaps you can contact your local branch of the American Cancer Society and see if you can get someone to come speak to your class. You can also encourage your students to volunteer at a local cancer walk, or race The Relay 4 Life is a good one. I'm a breast cancer survivor.
4 :
I just want to 100% back up what Denise has said. So many frightened teens ask questions here about the breast cancer they are sure they have when what they actually have is normal breast development. Please remind them that breast cancer is a disease of MATURE breast tissue and they should not even start self examinations until over 20.
5 :
I too am glad to see a teacher posting on this subject! Your idea is a good one and anything you do to involve your students in a charity project is worthwhile; but I agree with Denise and Tarkarri that the best contribution you could make to BCAM (and to breast cancer awareness in general) is to give your students the facts they need to know about breast cancer. As others have said, every day on this board there are posts from teenagers - and occasionally even preteens - who are terrified they have breast cancer. What is scaring them is invariably normal hormonal development, and a group of contributors - cancer professionals like Denise and breast cancer survivors (so far) like me and Tarkarri, - work hard to give them the correct information and reassure them, though unfortunately there are always a few well-meaning but hopelessly ill-informed answerers assuring them that breast cancer can affect people of any age. And you know, not infrequently these questions from scared kids arise as a result of a lesson or talk on breast cancer at school. As a teacher myself, I can't imagine what possesses someone to give a lesson on a subject about which s/he clearly knows very little and has not taken the time or trouble to inform him/herself, but it happens - especially in health ed it seems. The teacher or guest speaker will inform the students that one in eight women will develop breast cancer and encourage girls to examine their breasts for lumps regularly. So the girls do just that, and because breasts are pretty lumpy, bumpy things - especially in puberty - they almost always find what they imagine is a lump, and become terrified that they're going to die. What the teacher/speaker SHOULD have told them is: * Yes, one in eight women will develop breast cancer - over a lifetime of 80 years. The average age at diagnosis is a little over 60, 80% of those diagnosed are over 50, only 5% are under 40, fewer than 0.1% are under 30 and breast cancer is almost unheard of in under 20s. In fact an interesting statistic to pass on is this - a teenage girl is more than twice as likely to be struck by lightning as she is to develop breast cancer. Ask if they waste any time worrying about that possibility every time it rains! * Teenage girls should emphatically NOT be doing breast self-examinaton, which will tell them nothing and worry them unnecessarily. The American Cancer Society and other cancer organisations recommend that women begin breast self examination at no younger than 20, if then (and some cancer professionals say late 20s or 30). Before that it's pointless; firstly because there are so many hormonal changes that there is no 'normal' - and self examination is about a woman knowing what's normal for her and reporting any changes. And secondly because the chance of breast cancer is just about nil. * Most breast lumps, even in women old enough for breast cancer, aren't cancer; at least 80% of breast lumps considered suspicious enough for biopsy turn out to be benign. In teenagers any breast changes are almost certainly normal hormonal development. * The likelihood of a teenager having breast cancer in both breasts is even smaller than the likelihood of her having breast cancer at all. - often it is imagined abnormalities in both breasts that is worrying girls * There is not a scrap of evidence to suggest that bras (no matter how tight or how long they're worn for), deodorants/antiperspirants or external trauma to the breast (pinching, biting, punching, twisting etc) leads to breast cancer * Breast cancer is rarely hereditary; only 5 - 10% of all breast cancer cases are hereditary, and breast cancer diagnosed after the age of 50 is even less likely to be hereditary. Sorry to have written so much, but these are thee things that get teenage girls frantically posting to YA; if there is even one teacher out there giving the facts and countering the misinformation and rumours there will be fewer terrified and tearful teenagers around. Oh, and once or twice a week a teenage boy will post asking if he could have breast cancer because he's found a lump. There has never been a case anywhere in the world of a teenage boy diagnosed with breast cancer; the youngest ever was 24 and his case is known internationally because he was the youngest by several year. Most men diagnosed with breast cancer are over 60. Most breast lumps in males are gynaecomastia; This increase in the amount of breast tissue occurs due to changes in hormone balances particularly in adolescence
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