I Speak of Dreams

The Difference Between Animal Rights and Animal Welfare

There is a very good organization,  EARS (Emergency Animal Rescue Services) that I don't support directly  (See below the fold for my support strategy).   Why?  The parent activism group, United Animal Nations, is too close to the animal-rights movement.  What is the difference?   There's a dedicated blogger that covers the excesses of the animal-rights movement,  Brian O'Connor who writes at Animal Crackers.

Animal Rights is premised on a couple of beliefs: first, that the life of an animal and that of a human are of equal value. Second, that any exercise of control by humans over animals is sinful. In short, if it is immoral or unethical to do something to a human, it is likewise unethical or immoral to do it to an animal.

These considerations trump the survival of a species, or the health of a habitat. For example, Animal Rights activists believe it is morally preferable to allow an entire habitat to be destroyed by deer overpopulation than for humans to cull deer by shooting some of them, even if by leaving the deer population alone many of them starve to death, and cause the deaths of other animals whose habitat the deer destroy.

....Animal Rights activists define being kept in a zoo as cruel (animals and humans are of equal value, and if it's immoral to keep a human in a zoo, it is to keep an animal in a zoo . . .), and would prefer to see  [zoo animals] .... released into the wild regardless of the consequences to the [animals]  the survival of their species, or the consequences to habitat they might be released into.

It's a matter of ideological purity . . .

If any of you are interested in domestic terrorism, do follow Animal Crackers.  Dr. O'Connor has the goods.

 

Students with Learning Disabilities and Special Ed

Let us posit a population of students with normal to above-average intelligence, who have barriers to academic learning.  Some may have specific reading disability (dyslexia) or auditory processing disorders (hearing is normal, but there is a delay in understanding and acting on spoken information), or a complex mix of deficts.

With the correct remediations, and some flexibility on the part of teachers, these kids can and do excel in school.  (You laugh?  Two eminent examples: you think Toby Cosgrove and Bill Hewlett should have known their places?)

Well, what happens now to kids with these sort of deficits in public school?  Anywhere but Here has a revealing essay on how to (and how not to) help kids with learning disabilities be ready to make full contributions to society.  And how it is not working at all in one school.

education dyslexia ADHD ADHD:Children learning disability learning skeptic school parenting

Pirate Day is Coming

Arrr, it be nigh.  A fortnight and some.  In Portland, Oregon

Pirate Island: The Island Cafe (250 NE Tomahawk Drive,         in the heart of North Portland Harbor, Portland, Ore.) will once again         celebrate TLADP with costumes, pirattitude and pirate specials, including         the infamous Rum Runner, grog o' choice at this poipular floating cafe.

Educating Education Writers

Nanette Asimov, the Chronicle education writer (who otherwise has good chops--she investigated Scientology's worming its way into the SF school district) made two serious  errors in a recent news article on special education:

In 2001, Juleus Chapman was a Fremont 8th-grader with "scotopic sensitivity syndrome" -- a condition that makes words seem to swim across the page -- and dyslexia, which causes letters to appear in reverse order.

In other words,

1. She accepted a quack definition.  "Scotopic sensitivity syndrome"  exists only in the mind of the people who provide an expensive and useless fix
2. She perpetuated two destructive myths about dyslexia: that it has to do with visual perception, and it has something to do with  reversal of letters.

Homeopathy: It Just Doesn't Work

Homeopathy is big business.  But oops, it is just selling placebos.

The Lancet,  the United Kingdom's leading medical journal, has published a study (lead researcher) on the efficacy of homeopathy.

In a nutshell?  No homeopathic remedy has been found to work.  Any positive results can be ascribed to the placebo effect.  Allopathic medicine, on the other hand, does demonstrate results beyond the placebo effect.

In an editorial, the Lancet urged doctors to tell their patients they were wasting their time taking homeopathic medicines -- but also to make more time to connect with the patients rather than just prescribing and forgetting.

“Now doctors need to be bold and honest with their patients about homeopathy’s lack of benefits, and with themselves about the failings of modern medicine to address patients’ needs for personalized care,” the journal said.

Stand back and watch the homeopaths wriggle out of this one.

Course Content at Private Schools

Independent schools are free to teach whatever they like.  The only constraint on private schools' curriculum  is is the acceptance of the degrees they grant by follow-on institutions.  For example, if there's a kindergarten through fifth grade school, the follow-on institution would be middle schools.  For high schools, the follow-on institutions are colleges.

This is good and as it should be--it is the market (so to speak) providing constraints on the private schools' offerings.

As the ideological battle over the intellectual underpinnings of creationism heats up, there's a new wrinkle: are science and theology equivalent viewpoints in the teaching of science? 

An association of Christian schools has sued the University of California to demand that the UC system recognize courses taught using two evolution-denying texts  as legitimate science.

So you can make up your own mind, herewith the complaint and the ads the schools are using to make the argument that biology courses that explicitly deny evolution are equivalent in academic value to those that cover the theory of evolution.  (This might come in handy in Kansas)

Download Evolution_denying_Bio_Complaint.pdf

Download Evolution_denying_biology_adpdf.pdf

Like a Curse

The story of Sarah Johnson struck me as Greek tragedy:   the unexpected outcome of what might have seemed reasonable actions.

There's been another chapter.  It is like a curse.

August 29, 2005: I was wrong.  The event I was referring to had no direct connection with Sarah Johnson.

Darren R. Wilson, 18, Dies of Alcohol Poisoning

Update July 7 2006-- belwo the fold

Darren spent the evening of Aug. 8, 2005, drinking hard liquor with   Chris Seifert (22) and  Mitchel Allen (18), and possibly others,  in Bennington, Vermont. 

Wilson (who was known as Waldo by his friends) was found outside of the apartment complex where the friends had ended up, at about 3:00 AM Aug. 9th.

Wilson's breathing was shallow and his heart was beating about 20 times per minute, according to police.

Efforts to revive him at the hospital were unsuccessful.  He died about 90 minutes after he was found.  The news stories did not report Wilson's blood alcohol level.

Seifert has been charged with two counts as a consequence of supplying the alcohol.  He is out on bail; he has a 5-year criminal history; he will appear in court Sept. 12, 2005.  The manslaughter charge is separate from the charge of supplying alcohol to a minor.  Manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $3,000 fine.

My condolences to his friends and family.

 

Ivy Ridge

The Academy at Ivy Ridge is a WWASPs school, a chain of for-profit "therapeutic" schools with a questionable history (read the riot story here) has been censured by the New York State Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer.

New Book

There's a new book out.  I haven't read it yet:

Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You, by Barrett Seaman
                     ISBN: 0-471-49119-5 (Hardcover)

It has gotten mixed reviews at Amazon.  I was particularly impressed by Peter Lorenzi's review.

But the dangers of binge drinking are out there.  Seaman reports that