Our Best Shot: Needle phobia? There s help available to deal with fear. Overcoming a common phobia is key to the success of the COVID-19 vaccine campaign.
By EDITORIAL BOARD, Star Tribune April 10, 2021 6:00pm Text size Copy shortlink:
Like hearing fingernails on a chalkboard. Feeling lightheaded if you stand up too fast. Having lizard brain take over, triggering almost overwhelming fight-or-flight instincts. That s how Eryn O Neil of St. Paul describes the acute discomfort that has accompanied her lifelong fear of needles. Nevertheless, the 36-year-old software engineer and mother of a toddler isn t backing away from the COVID-19 vaccine. The greater good of ending the pandemic is far more important, she said, than the temporary but very real distress that comes with the shot.
Across the country, teachers prepared lessons on the days following the attack on the U.S. Capitol to help students understand the importance of the event and their part as citizens.
Making sense of Capitol violence through poetry
12 Jan 2021 Police stand guard after a day of riots at the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6. File/Associated Press
Michael Melija and Carolyn Thompson,
Associated Press
A teacher in Alabama presented photographs of the insurrection at the US Capitol without commentary and asked students to write poems in reflection. A Minnesota instructor fielded comparisons to the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. And a civics educator in Connecticut urged her rattled students to work toward making the country better.
Social studies teachers nationwide set aside lesson plans to help young people make sense of the scenes of the violent siege in Washington by supporters of President Donald Trump.