Faculty Bibliography

Klass, a pediatrician, has encountered justifiably angry parents. However, Klass claims the professional right both to make mistakes and to remind parents that pediatrics isn't a science--it's an art. Klass notes that she handles logical issues more easily. She tries to return evening and weekend messages pretty promptly. Klass suggests that the key to parent-pediatrician relations is openness and honesty

This was not an obvious one, a January trip to Oslo. The last time I was there, I was 18, bumming around Europe with my boyfriend, Larry. We stayed in an Oslo campground, and I thought the city was beautiful. Of course, that was in August. But then recently the chance came up to spend a long winter weekend in Oslo, so Larry could do research on the painter Edvard Munch. And to be honest, I thought it would be fun to see a northern city in its true winter; days without sunlight, I imagined, snow heaped high along the streets. The frozen north. Our room, in the old part of the 252-room hotel, was large and warm and supremely comfortable, with plenty of pillows and comforters. And right outside the door was the center of Oslo, one block away from Karl Johans gate (street), the broad, majestic 19th-century avenue that sweeps from the central station to the royal palace. Oslo was founded (by the proverbial Viking king) a thousand years ago, but it took on its current shape after a fire in 1624, and a subsequent reconstruction by King Christian IV, who ruled over Denmark and Norway. The city is built along the island-filled Oslofjord, with the old castle of Akershus on one side of the harbor and the ultramodern steel and glass Aker Brygge district on the other, built on what had been an old shipyard. So what do you do on a winter weekend in Oslo? We visited the Munch Museum, of course, which was holding a suitably cheerful special exhibition: ''Love-Angst-Death.'' Munch, who lived from 1863 to 1944, moved in the artistic circles of Berlin and Paris, but returned to Norway in 1909 and lived there for the rest of his troubled life. An Expressionist genius, the creator of ''The Scream,'' that famous totem of modern anxiety and hysteria, Munch is considered a giant in modern art. In his own country he stands alone, comparable to Ibsen in drama, although even more troubling and controversial. When Munch got involved with an image, he tended to repeat it over and over in different media and in slightly different forms -- as a painting, a woodcut, a lithograph. At the Munch Museum these different treatments were hung side by side, all of them parts of an extensive compositional series called ''The Frieze of Life.'' In the National Gallery, on the other hand, single Munch images (''The Scream,'' ''The Sick Child'') hang along with other important Norwegian paintings and a small collection of European old masters

Klass discusses the need for parents to emphasize their role as a parent over their role as a playmate and friend to their children. She examines various behaviors that parents should avoid, such as living in fear of their child's anger, making child activities their passion, and organizing their lives around their children's needs and wants

I RECENTLY HAD TO WRITE AN APPEAL LETTER ASKING FOR DONATIONS TO BUY CHILDREN'S BOOKS FOR DOCTORS TO GIVE OUT AT CHECKUPS. 'AT A TIME OF FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY,' I WROTE, 'THE HOMEBOUND PLEASURES OF SPENDING TIME TOGETHER, READING ALOUD, CLOSE CONTACT BETWEEN PARENTS AND YOUNG CHILD, BECOME EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. AS MANY AMERICANS FEEL NEW KINDS OF FEAR AND WORRY, THEY HUG THEIR CHILDREN CLOSER.' The letter went on to argue that as even young children struggle with disturbing images on television or the sense of adult worry and anxiety, the reassuring sound of a parent's voice reading aloud and the comforting colored world of a children's book become more and more important to the child - and to the parent. I urged my audience to think about what they were doing to help their own children through this time, and to make donations that would help us help more parents to understand the value of stories and bedtime rituals and comfort. Children's books are ways out into the world, just as literacy itself is power and strength and knowledge - but not necessarily always comfort. Children are entitled to the happy familiar books that lull them at bedtime into the warm comfort of knowing that all is as it should be - but they are also entitled to the fascinations of the books that tell you about the unfamiliar - about monsters and wild things, curiosity, adventure, and danger

Klass discusses the science of choosing a baby's gender and explores stereotypes behind the fantasy. Experts worry about implications of frivolous applications and designer babies, and people should worry that the privilege of parenthood, watching new human beings unfold, would be compromised

Klass discusses how it's good for a child to be in on discussions with the doctor--most of the time. When talking honestly in front of a child, doctors must speak cautiously and explain thoughts thoroughly.

Klass discusses her time spent learning Spanish at an immersion school in Antigua Guatemala. Klass describes the people she met, the new foods she tasted and the experience of a lifetime that she will not soon forget

Klass offers tips for parents on helping children make sense of the Sep 11 tragedy. Parents should let their child know that they are all right, control their own emotions, and show extra affection towards their children