I Speak of Dreams

Dove Foundation Annoying Me

The Dove Foundation has nothing to do with the Dove line of products, or the "Real Beauty" campaign.  It's the creation of Dick Rolfe,  Mission and history:

In 1991 The Dove Foundation began promoting family-friendly entertainment. Our standards and criteria are based on Judeo/Christian values, free from the pressure of commercial interests. We believe in a positive approach of commending high-quality, wholesome movies rather than condemning filmmakers for not meeting those standards.

I keep getting calls from them asking me to participate in a "values survey", even though all my lines are on the "do not call" list.  Here's what the Dove Foundation has to say about their annoying calls.

I'm getting pretty good at saying, "I'm not interested, thanks" and hanging up.  I wish I didn't even have to answer the phone.

So you can email them and ask for your number(s) to be added to their do not call list.  The email address is movies@dove.org

Here's Steven Weiss's take on the Dove Foundation.  Family First (!) has a long list of complaints. It turns out that the Dove Foundation passes along sales leads to Feature Films for Families.  Details below the fold.

Aaargh! Another Woo "Cure" for Dyslexia!

A man named Gary Craig is making a stupendous claim for a treatment he has developed (Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT):

EFT provides impressive results for Dyslexia. In many cases the ability to read and process information normally are restored within one session of EFT. Also, repeated applications of EFT often eliminate the problem completely.

No data.  No pre-treatment test scores.  No post-treatment test scores.  Just claims and anecdotes.

And for bonus points, he claims Einsteinian validation.  EFT

draws its power from (1) time-honored Eastern discoveries that have been around for over 5,000 years and (2) Albert Einstein, who told us back in the 1920's that everything (including our bodies) is composed of energy.

Run!  Run!  Run the other way!  Fortunately, one of his "students" gives pause.

High Tech High School Bayshore To Close

Updated

Updated again.  I think I'm just going to keep modifying this post, rather than making new ones.

I got an alert from DrumsNWhistles that the Silicon Valley campus of High Tech High School is going to close.  (I know I've written a blog post about it, but maybe it never got out of draft.  I'll look later.  Update: yep, I wrote a long post in May 2006, but never posted it. Rather than sticking it in May 2006, see here.)

Scoble wrote about it, and is gathering support.

The parents are rallying; the Save High Tech High School blog is here:

http://savehightechhighbayshore.blogspot.com/

Look for the Nuance: NCLB; High Tech High School Bayshore

Notice: this post was to have been published in May 2006, but I never got it out of the draft pile.  Rather than publishing it retroactively to the May 2006 archive, I'm publishing it now. The Save High Tech High School Blog is at http://savehightechhighbayshore.blogspot.com/

Ukiah Coach Brown has a post on his status vis à  vis No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

The Reflective Teacher  wonders about the status of some of her students vis à   vis their actual English language mastery.

Brett says talking about parents' shortcomings is "the third rail".

Hi Tech High opened to great fanfare.  But is it really serving Hispanic students?

Attention, High School Teachers: How Would You Grade These Responses?

Update for science teachers: The entry on dinosaurs, at the bottom.  I'm thinking the image is a spoof.

Here is Part I  promised follow-on to my Conservapedia post.  I've been thinking about this for the last couple of days.  There may or may not be a Part II, or Part...more.

[This project]  began in November 2006, as the class project for a World History class of 58 advanced homeschooled and college-bound students meeting in New Jersey.

I don't know what "advanced" means, but surely "college bound students" means those who have applied to college -- in other words, the equivalent of high school seniors.

High school teachers, I want to know your opinon on the quality of the responses, below.

Conservapedia: Laughing, Then Second Thoughts

conservapedia

The excellent blog Making Light has a thread on Conservapedia.  I'd seen references to Conservapedia before in various dives  serious blogs I frequent.  However, the Making Light thread made me dig in. 

One commenter, after sampling Conservapedia entries, and considering the age and experience of the original entry authors,  reflects:

It's not even proper brain-washing; it's, it's brain-creme-rinsing.

(It's comment #122, if the link doesn't work the way I think it does.)

The whole discussion is here.  I started poking around Conservapedia, and found some  astonishing [current] Conservapedia entries.

(Note to readers: I've used a lot of jpeg images -- screen grabs. If your internet service is slow, you may want to load the full post, and then go get a cup of coffee.  Or whatever.)

Delightful Blogs

There was an article in the paper yesterday about how HipsterCards.com has a new venture enabling "women 30-to-49 to cut 'through the blog smog.' " by developing a directory of blogs that have been deemed to be "personal, passionate and stylish."

I won't be on there -- Delightfulblogs.com  -- this blog is more like a general-interest magazine than anything else.  They're targeting on a short list of focused blogs.

You might like it, though.

I live to serve.

Christy Harrison's Advice On Dyslexia: (a) Inadequate and (b) Plagiarized from the Jehovah's Witnesses

dyslexia

Christy Harrison is director of operations at Sylvan Learning Center in Cookeville, Tennessee, and the principal of Cumberland Early Scholars Academy.  Part of her duties as principal is to publish articles in the local paper, the Herald-Citizen.  Her most recent was an article on dyslexia. 

The title of the article is "Make A Plan To Overcome Frustrations of Dyslexia".  The advice offered in the article does not give parents an effective plan to meet their childrens' needs..  The article is riddled with inaccuracies and myths.  The only source for further dyslexia information given in the article is the phone number for Harrison's school.

It is also not Ms. Harrison's work.  The body of the piece is plagiarized from an earlier, copyrighted article.  The recommendations to parents are lifted from a website.

In the course of researching this post, I discovered the original source of the body of the article: The Jehovah's Witness publication, Awake, originally published August 8, 1996, and available online at http://www.watchtower.org/e/19960808a/article_01.htm.  The original article has some better recommendations that the truncated version that Harrison published under her own name.

The top ten list of recommendations to parents are lifted from Gerard Sagmiller's site, again without attribution.

I wonder if Sylvan's study skills courses  and the curriculum at  Cumberland Early Scholars Academy cover plagiarism.

(If you will recall,  I've published previous articles on Sylvan and other chain tutoring operations, and how they aren't equipped to remediate learning disabilities: Survey of Chain Tutoring Programs; Sylvan's Mendacious Advertising)

There are two excellent resources for accurate information on dyslexia in Tennessee: the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia and the Tennessee branch of the International Dyslexia Association. It is a pity the Herald-Citizen didn't ask either of these two organizations for an article.

Below the fold, Ms. Harrison's article, indented in roman, and my comments, full width,  in italic.

At Least We Have The Right To Homeschool In The United States

An anti-homeschooling law was passed in Hitler-era Germany, which never has been repealed.  In fact, German authorities insist that

"you and your children are not living in isolation on some island but rather in an environment posing intra- and extracurricular situations where you'll have to accept that your world view will be curtailed." Mr. Kohler further explained that homeschooling could not be allowed as "children should not be encapsulated or kept apart from the outside world. In these cases, the parents' rights to personally educate their children would prevent the children from growing up to be responsible individuals within society."

Several families have been prosecuted. 

Now Melissa Busekros, 15,  who was being tutored at home after struggling with several subjects, has been forcibly removed from her family and placed in a psychiatric institution.

A Family Struggles With Dyslexia

Kim Smith, now an adult, was diagnosed with dyslexia in fifth grade.  Her son, Mercury Nevarez, attends school in San Bernadino County, California, and also struggles with reading.

It appears there's some kind of disconnect between the family, Mercury's school, and the district.

Because the family has a history of dyslexia, both parents have asked the school to test Mercury and asked for him to be held back a year. Both requests have been denied. “They said it’s not their responsibility to test him, and they don’t want to hold him back because they said it’s bad on his self esteem,” his father Joe Nevarez said.

It's a pity, because Hesperia has been a leader in changing the approach to struggling students.  I hope that young Nevarez is getting the help he needs.