I Speak of Dreams

I Have Idea!

That's what Jumper Girl used to announce, circa 1992.

Given Mrs. Palin's latest atrocity upon the meaning of the Constitution, let us require all candidates for high elected office to pass the INS Citizenship Exam.  Or perhaps this one from American Civic Literacy.

See more at Glen Greenwald.

+ Bad Behavior: Teach Lagging Thinking Skills « Dyslexia Tutor: News-Resources

Link: + Bad Behavior: Teach Lagging Thinking Skills « Dyslexia Tutor: News-Resources.

New Lenses, New Tool

Greene’s mantra throughout the book is

Behind every challenging behavior is an unsolved problem or a lagging skill (or both).

Lagging skills are the WHY.  Unsolved problems are the WHO, WHAT, WHEN  and WHERE.

Greene offers his assessment tool called ALSUP (Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems).  The ALSUP is a list of the lagging skills a child needs, along with a section for listing unsolved problems or triggers.

He suggests bringing a copy of the ALSUP to meetings in which a child’s challenges are being discussed.  Why?  Greene contends all caregivers of a particular child must achieve consensus on and list the problems that seem to be precipitating the challenging behaviors.

Why consensus?  Because if caregivers have disparate notions about what’s getting in this child’s way, there can be no coherent treatment.  The time devoted to hashing out and coming to a consensus about a kid’s lagging skills and unsolved problems is worth it in the end.

Once everyone has a handle on this child’s lagging skills and unsolved problems, they’ve taken a major step toward fixing things.  The kid’s challenging episodes are now going to be highly predictable.  Caregivers and teachers will be able to be proactive.

Link to Ross Greene's  first book, The Explosive Child.  Link to the Center for Collaborative Problem Solving .  Link to Amazon page for the new book, Lost at School

Who I really voted for

I stole this from Michael Drout.

Nancy Snyderman to Matt Lauer: NO! Matt, there's no controversy over vaccines and autism

updated The whole clip is 7.09 minutes. Nancy Snyderman, M.D., interviews Paul Offit, author of Autism's False Prophets, and Kristina Chew, who blogs at Autism Vox.  At the end of the segment, Matt Lauer tries to refer to the "controversy".  Dr. Snyderman corrects him. (aside: J.B. Handley smears Dr. Snyderman.  His language really is shameful.)

Dr. Val has the interview, too. And Schwitzer Health Blog:

Snyderman immediately shot back, "Not controversial subject , Matt. ...It's time for kids to get vaccinated. The science is the science. It's not controversial."

 

Paul Offit's official website

Santa Barbara Independent: Vote No On Prop. 4: It Damages Families

The editorial reads in part:

Proposition 4, the so-called parental notification initiative, is perhaps the most dangerous issue on the ballot today because unless we defeat it, thousands of California’s most vulnerable teens will be put in harm's way. Proposition 4 is a third attempt by the same right-wing extremists to amend the California Constitution despite the fact that voters clearly voiced their opinion against this issue in two prior elections. Unfortunately, Proposition 4 is even more dangerous than the first two initiatives because it damages families as well as teens.

Proponents claim that the “alternate family notification” provision in Proposition 4 addresses the issue of teens who are unable to talk with their parents by allowing them to notify another adult family member. But this notification is nothing more than a state-scripted form letter sent to another relative who may not live in the same town. Proposition 4 contains no requirement for counseling, no requirement that the other adult help a teen when she is in crisis. In reality, “alternate family notification” is a cruel process that would force a pregnant teen who wants to notify another family member to sign an affidavit reporting the history of mistreatment by her parents — prompting a written report to law enforcement and an investigation would ensue. A scared pregnant teen who cannot talk to her parents is not going to go to a doctor, report her parents, and then return home to wait for law enforcement to knock on her door!

Californians, Here's How Things Change if Prop. 4 Passes

I found this chart at Beautiful Day Rule.  You can find out more at the  Campaign for Teen Safety.

The way it is now:

But if Prop. 4 passes, there will be a host of bewildering options (A, B, and C)

See how the passage of Prop. 4 "protects" teens and "empowers" parents?  That's sarcastic. 

You can download this decision map here: Download No-on-4-JanesJourney.pdf

Twitter Notes (notes to self)

Thanks to Beth Kanter

• Chris Grogan's Guide to Twitter
• Brian Solis's Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals
• lldoolj2's delicious bookmarks for Twitter tools

Lessons from Forge's Financial Shortfall

Forge is a program founded by Kjerstin Erickson to provide economic and social support for refugees in Africa.  The motto is "Refugees Revitalizing African Communities".

On October 17, 2008, Erickson announced: Forge Is In Trouble. They have failed to raise almost 25% of the budgeted amount.

On October 21, Erickson published the reasons why fundraising has been so dismal:

1. Forge changed its impact model, and with it lost an income stream.
2. Forge's activities don't quite fit many funders' guidelines
3. Forge predicted that the new website would be an excellent fundraising tool, but traffic to the website has been unsatisfactory
4. The economic downturn

The first three are errors are interlocking.  Essentially, Forge committed to a new model that also decreased fundraising capacity by 50%, and assumed the shortfall would be made up by grants and direct donation through the website.   It is possible that the Board of Directors didn't have the depth of experience to guide this decision properly.

Erickson's latest post details how Forge will address the crisis.

I wish them the best.

Local Organizations Supporting College Scholarships

Peninsula College Fund

OUR MISSION

The mission of THE PENINSULA COLLEGE FUND is to partner with and aid motivated, gifted and traditionally under-represented minority students from the Mid-peninsula and particularly East Palo Alto, East Menlo Park and Redwood City, in their quest for a college education. Our program targets talented, needy students who are often overlooked by other college scholarship programs.

The Fund believes that these students (with approximate GPA’s of 3.3 to 3.8) should not be limited in their education by personal financial circumstances. We provide them with scholarships, mentoring and summer internships that will help them achieve their short and long-term educational and career goals.

GOALS

The primary goal of the program is to assist students in achieving their academic and vocational objectives. Our hope is that our support will then create a future community of givers who want to help others achieve similar goals.

Look around the community that serves your child's high school.  Is there a similar organization?

 

Larry Diller: Palin Promises Special Education Pie, Cannot Possibly Deliver

I think that Diller's premises are correct.

Palin Promises a Chicken in Every Pot: The Slow Cooked Death of American Public Education. 

So now I've probably offended everyone. Palin's promise is just that. It'll never happen on the short term because there are too many other interests competing for their fair share of the federal dollars (especially with our current fiscal crises) - even if it's legally owed them. I think it's good that Palin has brought up the feds' persistent penury and wheezling on special education funding. However, lawyers are the ones currently making the most money suing and defending schools.

I'm not sure what the answer should be. Some kids need supported small group instruction. Some of it can happen within a smaller general education classroom environment. I'm far less convinced that primarily psychiatrically disturbed kids should be getting the bulk of their services paid for by school districts - yet I know that money must come from somewhere in the society besides just from the family.

Still more and more kids from the middle and upper middle classes have "disorders" these days - not because of "better diagnosis" - or not only because more premies are living longer, as Kate Zernicke suggests. In The Last Normal Child I posit that our WORRY about our children's feelings has ironically led to a growing intolerance of minor differences in children's behavior and school performance. This profound and pervasive cultural phenomenon will not be addressed by teachers, doctors or legislatures. American business and the Supreme Court will ultimately set limits on how much and who will pay for America's different kid

More at DocDiller.com