And most of that wisdom comes from children. Gently guided by Dr. Joan Fleitas, an assistant professor of nursing at Fairfield University, the children teach others about living in bodies that don't always behave, and how it feels to be growing up in a world too L frequently insensitive to their needs. Arranged on brightly colored and inviting pages, visitors to the web site can choose to click into a frog pond or click on a hopping frog to find information for kids, teens or adults. As the web site has grown and become recognized for its quality, over 800 individuals and organizations, the major search engines, and several teaching hospitals have created electronic links to it from their own web pages. That sense of isolation can get compounded when families try to keep the child's illness a secret.
Secrecy is so sad.
Dr. Fleitas began compiling narratives from children during her doctoral work at Columbia Teacher's College. Initially I was afraid they might not want to be associated with a web site concerned with things they wish they did not have. One student with cystic fibrosis, for example, wrote of her gratitude when her teacher allowed all the kids in class to have water bottles on their desks. Their chronic illness or other medical conditions are part of them, but do not define them. I hope they will learn as they grow that they can be proud of who they are and that what's going on with their health is part of that pride, not something to be ashamed of.