I Speak of Dreams

Captcha & Sp@m Deterrents

OK, we really do need sp^m-deterrent bots.  Why?  Right now, after cleaning the sp#m traps yesterday,  I have >350 sp*m comments in the sp@m trap.  All on boring posts whose comments have been closed for months.

But I have a hard time remembering that there's another step in most commenting systems, after you click "post".  The authentication/verification step.

Oh, well, eventually I'll get the drill down.

Vaccines, Mercury, and Autism: "Experts" Who Claim A Connection Found to Be Not Qualified

Kathleen Seidel has all the details, but the short version is, a family that sought to prove that their son's autism was caused by the thimerosal preservative in FDA-approved vaccines.  The judge found that the family's "experts" --- weren't, and excluded their testimony. But go read the whole thing.

Orac reviewed the case and summarized 2007 antivaccination lunacy, concluding:

I like to view all of this as evidence for the desperation of antivaccinationists. Against their will, deep down, they're slowly being forced to realize that they are wrong and that neither vaccines nor thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. It's a case of wishful thinking finally smacking into cold, hard, scientific reality. Unfortunately, they're so invested in the concept that they simply can't let it go. Perhaps 2008 will be the year that sanity finally starts to prevail when it comes to the pseudoscientific claims that mercury in vaccines (or vaccines in general) cause autism.

Maybe the reality-based community will prevail.

Two Articles on Learning Disability, Special Education, Response To Intervention, and Mainstreaming

The Wall Street Journal's article is entitled How a School in Florida Got Mainstreaming Right, but I don't think so.  Look at this:

In fifth grade, Adam Nystrom was diagnosed as having attention-deficit disorder and a "specific learning disability," which refers to dysfunction of the basic mental processes used to acquire, organize or express information. In Adam's case, it meant difficulty reading and responding to oral instructions.

I would say that the schools did not meet Mr. Nystrom's educational needs from Kindergarten on.  Early identification and intensive, effective remediation is the key.

The second article is from the Washington Post, Waiting Too Late to Test?

Third-grader Tylor Goshorn sometimes writes letters or numbers backward*. She has trouble with simple directions and lags a year behind her class in reading. Her parents suspect that she might have a learning disability and that she would be better served by smaller classes and more intensive instruction from special education.

But the Loudoun County school system has balked at testing Tylor for a possible disability. Instead, the schools have arranged for a reading specialist for the 9-year-old, a special computer program for math, even a seat in the front of her classroom. These alternative steps reflect a growing national movement to contain one of the costliest programs in public education. After three years of such efforts, the Goshorns aren't satisfied.

"We feel like we are chasing our tails here," said Jereme Goshorn, her mother. "It's obvious there's something wrong."

Loudon County does assess using acceptable screening measures, but the description of interventions for struggling readers is less informative.

Mainstreaming works for some students with disabilities--provided that their unique instructional needs are met.

Dan Hodgins Speaking Jan 10 & 11

He's the keynote speaker at the 19th Annual Pre-K and Kindergarten Kaleidoscope Conference, sponsored by Southern Illinois Regional Offices of Education,  www.roe12.net.

Thursday, January 10, 2008
Boys and Girls Do Learn Differently- Understanding Their Behaviors, Learning Styles and Classroom Needs
What about those boys? Rings out from classrooms around the country.  If you find yourself asking these questions, this workshop is for you. Increase your awareness of boys and girls:  how they learn, how to educate them based on brain science research, and how to create the ultimate environment that supports boy’s and girl’s needs.

Friday, January 11, 2008
Who’s In Control Here?  Looking at the differences between teacher controlled environments and child controlled environments. Strategies to help children develop self-control are discussed.

I wonder

How Threatening Is It To Tear Up A Book?

On December 7, 2007, at Parker High School in Janesville, WI, a male student  (probably in 11th grade)  gave a planned presentation  on the writings of Ralph  Waldo Emerson.  The student took out a bible (version unspecified) and began ripping up the bible's pages.

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the student may well have  had a deep and sophisticated understanding of what Emerson was about:

Conformity is the chief Emersonian vice, the opposite or “aversion” of the virtue of “self-reliance.” We conform when we pay unearned respect to clothing and other symbols of status, when we show “the foolish face of praise” or the “forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease in answer to conversation which does not interest us” (CW2: 32). Emerson criticizes our conformity even to our own past actions-when they no longer fit the needs or aspirations of the present. This is the context in which he states that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers and divines” (CW2: 33). There is wise and there is foolish consistency, and it is foolish to be consistent if that interferes with the “main enterprise of the world for splendor, for extent, …the upbuilding of a man” (99).

Not, however, according to the student's school and classmate's parents.

The school:

The Janesville Gazette reports the student was suspended and required to undergo a psychological evaluation before he could return to school.

Parker Principal Dale Carlson says the student was not disciplined just for ripping up the Bible. "There were other behaviors that came to our attention from the classroom."

The classmate's parent:

Paul pulled both his daughters out of Parker 9 days ago. He wants the district to convince him this incident was not a precursor to another school shooting. "This boy has done something that is unbalanced, violent in my opinion. He tore that Bible apart as a effigy for Christians. This was not some kind of a demonstration about free speech, this was in my opinion the words of a sociopath."

Guess Emerson was a sociopath also.   It is probably not a coincidence that the Gideon Bible society was founded in Janesville.

Update 1/1/08:

Joanne Jacobs linked to this post.  Go read the comments over there, but I wanted to repost what I said:

I didn’t really finish my thoughts on the original post –
1. If I’d been the young man’s teacher, I would have hoped to have advanced warning that the presentation might be confrontational or upsetting to some students. I wish we could have heard from the young man in question, or better yet, his teacher as to the "threatening" nature of his behavior.

2. All the reporting has been from the POV of the Jacobson family only  who seem, well, easily offended, but quite good at public opinion manipulation

This article, http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/12751397.html has three accounts claiming to be eyewitnesses (everybody on the Web could really be a dog…).  I've added emphasis

“As a member of the class and a witness to what happened, i’d just like to say this. im outraged, not by what chris did, but by how everyone is reacting. im not surprised drama elle had to make a scene, but wow. Thank “god” praying has been taken out of schools. I look at myself and wonder, what if i was religious, oh what a mess I would be. This is sick, he is a threat to no one, but is instead a well spoken, outgoing, friendly individual. He did what sometimes many of us wish we could do, make a valid point. If only he would have seen all this drama and these outrageous statements”

” As a student that saw the speech personally like Elle. I find her reaction quite over the top. The student talked about here is not a threat what-so-ever. Elle is more of a threat then he is. He expressed his views on both sides and said which side he is, irreligious. He ripped the bible to show that in fact it does not hold him and he will not instantly die or something. He was simply following the guidelines for the speech and received a B on the speech. The student was removed and got the review, and then was allowed back into school. Where people started throwing the idea around that he was going to start a shooting and was unstable is beyond be. Just because he doesn’t believe in god? It is quite frankly ridiculous and for everyone that says he’s ‘attention seeking’, he declined to be interviewed from everyone cause he isn’t seeking ”

“Parker High School Classmate Elle’s actions were over the top. He is not a ’sociopath’ he is a brilliant student that is not a threat what-so-ever. He didn’t threaten any of us in the class when he gave the speach. Just expressed how the people hold to the bible without questioning it and that he didn’t believe it. But the fact that Elle said that he ripped ’sections’ is completely false. he ripped several pages at max. He was not official suspended, just forced to get a evaluation. Thus deemed not a threat allowed to return to school. He is not atheist he is Irreligious. He completed his project/speech with a 20/25. For them to call him a sociopath is outrageous and false.”

Lunch at a Happy House

You know how when you walk into somebody's house, you can sometimes feel happiness and contentment, or conversely, stress and strife?

I drove over to the East Bay Thursday afternoon to visit with Kristina Chew of Autism Vox, normally of the East Coast, but here with Charlie & husband Jim to visit with her family.  Kristina & I have been blog pals for...[checking for data, but not easily available]--more that a couple of years, anyway, but have never met in the flesh before.   You wouldn't have known it by the way we talked.

That's a happy house -- Charlie is a well-loved boy. 

Kristina's mom had roasted vegetables, which were delicious, and I shared a piece of gluten-free bread with Charlie. 

Kristina & I talked briefly about the Autism and Advocacy: Witness and Hope conference that Jim organized at Fordham. I wonder if it is time for a West Coast version, and something that my new University might be interested in?  Too soon to tell, but something for me to keep in my mind.

High Achieving Dyslexics: Anne Gaddy

Anne Gaddy has dyslexia and is a special education teacher at Webber Elementary School in Eastover, South Carolina.  She was in special education herself until middle school, and learned to love reading and writing.

High Achieving Dyslexics: Alan Meckler

Link: Alan Meckler: Old, Boring, White (And Dyslexic).

The other day I was called "old, boring, and white" by a writer over at ValleyWag. Now we can add dyslexic to that description!

Out of the blue a writer from Business Week called me the other day (Gabrielle Coppola) for an interview about my dyslexia. (I was educated at a time when this condition was not understood and only found out a few years ago that I was indeed dyslexic.) Lo and behold I ended up in Gabrielle's story in Business Week.

I might add that growing up was a bit rough since I recognized I had learning problems, but teachers thought I was not trying when I could not complete certain tasks. Of course such experiences toughen one up for life and business. All in all I cannot complain the way things have worked out.

Business Week article and a 2006 interview with Meckler

Bollywood Celebrates Dyslexia: Taare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth)

I'm not much of a Bollywood fan, so this came to me through a Google alert.

Aamir Khan directed and stars in Taare Zameen Par, which is the story of an eight-year old boy, Ishaan Awasthi (Darsheel Safary), with undiagnosed dyslexia.  He frustrates everyone around him until he meets the charismatic teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan), who sets the boy's creative genius loose.

Review from Bollywood Trends.  Taare Zameen Par: official website.

When Will People Get It That Dyslexia Has Nothing to Do with "Seeing Things Backward"?

As I've said before, the survey on dyslexia and entrepreneurship done by Julie Logan raises more questions than it answers.  She certainly has done an excellent job of getting press, however (MSM Money, and the New York Times for starters).

I heard from John Wills Lloyd that  Logan was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition, by Steve Inskeep.  They both perpetuated the "seeing things backwards" myth:

Inskeep: Let's explain what dyslexia is.  The simplest explanation is, I suppose,  that you "see things backwards"?

Logan: Well, when you are young,  it can be, you struggle to read, you see things backwards, you may have problems with numbers.  As you get older, its much more about having disorganization, still maybe mixing times and dates up, and sequencing numbers badly.

My, what an....unusual definition of dyslexia.  It really makes me wonder about the quality of Logan's research, which isn't even being published until next month.

The International Dyslexia Association's definition is rather different than Logan's:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

The Dyslexia Association of Singapore has a good page of myths debunked, including:

Myth 6: Reversing letters is a good indication of dyslexia.
The facts: In fact, backwards writing and reversals of letters and words are common among young children learning to write whether or not they are dyslexic. Only about 10% of dyslexics reverse letters.

And the PBS Parents' website has a quite good primer on dyslexia:

Do children with dyslexia see letters backwards?
There is no evidence that children with dyslexia see differently from other children. The root cause of dyslexia lies in a difficulty processing sounds--not visual information. While it is true that children with dyslexia tend to reverse similar letters, such as "b" and "d," for a longer time than typical children, it is important to remember that nearly all children reverse letters in the early stages of reading and writing development. Letter reversals in children with dyslexia are a result of slower literacy development and do not indicate that they "see" the letters any differently from typical children.

The Merck manual online says,

Dyslexia occurs when the brain has difficulty making the connection between sounds and symbols (letters). This difficulty is caused by poorly understood problems with certain connections in the brain. The problems are present from birth and may cause spelling and writing errors and reduced speed and accuracy when reading aloud. People with dyslexia do not have problems understanding spoken language.

So what do we have to do to get the bad myth out of circulation, and accurate information in circulation?  Beats me.