In his recent remarks in Cuba, President Obama offered glowing praise to institutions in that communist country that did not deserve it. The president called Cuba's "system of education" an "extraordinary resource" that "values every boy and every girl."
But there's nothing "extraordinary" about Cuba's educational system. Children are taught by poorly paid teachers in dilapidated schools. Cuba has made less educational progress than most Latin American countries over the last 60 years. According to UNESCO, Cuba had about the same literacy rate as Costa Rica and Chile in 1950 (close to 80 percent). And it has almost the same literacy rate as they do today (close to 100 percent).
Therapy is goal oriented. Artistic, Behavioral, Cognitive; Acupuncture, Biofeed-back or Chiropractic, the A,B,C's of every practice is simply to feel better. Even with retail therapy, to say "one size fits all" is a bit of a stretch, that's one of the reasons a fluid definition of the term is a recognized part of our lexicon. Therapy's polymorphisms are accepted as bonfide aids on the continuum of our present-day zeitgeist.
On Christmas Day, 1998 the late Robin Williams starred in Patch Adams, a semi-biographical film about the unconventional medical practices of Hunter "Patch" Adams. The real life alum of George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth Medical School is an author, comedian, physician and social activist who founded the Gesundheit! Institute in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The Institute was designed in 1971 as a free community hospital with the intention of delivering comprehensive traditional and alternative care to patients from birth to death.
