Happy Tuesday

Hi Everyone!  Its Tuesday and school was ....well....school.
I always arrive at around 0710 and go in, today it was FREEZING in the classroom!  Although classes are only 50 minutes by the end of the day (at 1:20) I am ready to take a nap.    At least I know I am not alone, most people in class feel the same way and surprisingly enough many of the students are living away from home to attend school and go home on weekends.  Another thing that is surprising is that there are at least 5 students older than I am! (A lot more that look older than I do, so thats nice too!)  Anyway todays classes were okay, nothing really exciting.  I can not wait until we start getting into practicals and clinicals.  I want to learn the hands on stuff.

First class of the morning was Communications - this is not the class you want when you just get to school after waking up.  It is so boring.  The teacher is cool and is ex-Navy so he is always calling me Petty Officer. :)  Today we learned about characteristics of competent communications and misconceptions about communication and talked about the movie Nell - many of the youngen's had never heard of the movie.  Then I felt old but only for  a few minutes.

Next class was Restorative Art, did I tell you that there are 2 ways for a restorative artist to achieve acceptable color?  Well there are, these are external and internal cosmetology.  External cosmetology is of course by applying complexion coloring to the tissues of the face, head, neck, and hands by brush, pad, sponge, hand or spray.  The second is Internal.  That is by adding dyes or stains to the embalming fluid.  There are 4 incentives to becoming proficient in restorative arts.   1.  To provide a comforting psychological effect on the family, to aid the family through the grief cycle by emphasizing the reality of death, to create good public relations for the funeral home and practitioner,  to meet the responsibilities and obligations towards the family that has asked for his help.

The next class was accounting...This class was a JOKE!!!! Everyone is having issues and instead of going over homework and trying to explain further he brought in transparencies of past compentency exams to show us what type of questions are on the competencies and national board.  At this rate he should just give us the answers if he is not going to teach.

Next was Law and guess what...I have the same teacher that I have for accounting.  He went through the book and literally read the definitions for words that were in the book (the definitions are in the book as well), he didnt tell us any stories or teach anything or tell us why courts are the way they are or anything.  Just definitions and then he said okay you have the 10 questions at the end of chapter to do, go ahead and do them.  He spoke maybe 20 minutes of the 50 minute class.  The man can not teach at all!!!! Why are we even paying for these classes?  We are teaching ourselves.

Embalming....We learned that Embalming means: Em: in, on, or about and Balm: a sticky balsamic resinous substance.  Embalming is the process of chemically treating a dead human body to reduce the presence and growth of microorganisms by the disinfection process.  You must have prior approval to embalm unless it is mandated by the law due to the deceased having a communicable disease, this is required regardless if the family wants it or not.  You can also embalm as long as approval has been obtained (verbally or in writing) by the next of kin.  If the next of kin says embalm but no one else in the family does...oh well, the NOK has overall ruling.  If a funeral director tries to get permission from the family and has tried 3 different family members 3 different times and they can not get a hold of them and there is no reason to believe the family does not want embalming done and other family members in the past have been embalmed then the funeral director can go ahead and embalm but all three of these items must be followed and permisson must be given after the fact as soon as you see the family.

Well thats it for today, have law homework, need to try and figure out the accounting I did not finish last night and need to read over my notes.  Have a great night!

Funeral History was last class of the day and it was better....We learned about different cultures and what they did with their dead.  Some early Native Americans were so afraid to touch a dead body that they literally left them where they fell.  The Mongolians threw their dead to a horde of dogs that lived outside the city walls.  Many ancient people practiced Zulus which is the practice of burning the deceased belongings to keep evil spirits away.  The babylonians immersed the body in earthen jars filled with honey or wax.  Peruvians placed the deceased in squatting positions  Some cultures believe in Suttee which was a universal custom of  burning the deceased's wife to death.  All people wail at funerals.  Some cultures even pay people to wail at the service to ward off evil spirits.
Do you know that many of the things we do normally such as walking up to the body, eating food afterwards, and even giving eulogies have roots back to ancient times?  Pretty cool eh?

Last Class was Funeral History.