I Speak of Dreams

Amy Wallace's Pro-Vaccination, Pro-Science Article in Wired & Reactions to It

The short version: Who is Amy Wallace, and what's all the talk about?  She published a pro-science, pro-vaccine article in Wired, and several anti-vaccine heavyweights mouthpieces with big bankrolls mounted sexist personal attacks.

Update: On November 1, Dr. Isis of "Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess" published a post ridiculing J. B. Handley and asking her readers to also post their opinions on Handley's anti-vaccine stance and his misogyny.  Scroll down to the bottom for the list.

Update: Paul Smalera at True/Slant links here.  See link below.

Update: On November 5, Mr. Handley returned to the attack at the Age of Autism blog.  See link below.

The very long version follows:

Note: I've found several more reactions, pro and con, and have added them without comment.

Council for Exceptional Children -- Division for Learning Disabilites -- 2009 Conference

I spent last Friday and Saturday at the Council for Exceptional Children -- Division for Learning Disabilites's annual conference, which always focuses on Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice. If you are involved in special education in any way, put it on your calendar for next year -- probably October 22 and 23, certainly in Baltimore.  I already have it on mine.

LD Blog has a complete list of sessions.  Sessions I attended:

• Phonological Awareness Assessment and Instruction: A Sound Beginning by Paige C. Pullen
• Self-Regulated Strategy Development for Writing by Karen R. Harris and her doctoral candidate, Karin Sandmel (also see NCLD Talks, interview with professors Harris and Graham)
• The ORDER Routine: For Comprehending Content-Area Concepts by David Scanlon
• Building a Strong Numbers and Operations Foundation to Enhance Mathematics by Susan P. Miller
  (also see this peer-reviewed article)

Every single one of the sessions I attended were excellent -- full of valuable content I can put to use, well-organized and well presented. 

African Americans on the Rodeo Circuit

Most folk don't think of black people and rodeo in the same sentence. They are wrong. Bill Pickett invented bull-dogging. I missed this year's Bill Pickett local appearance--it closed July 11 in Hayward--but you can find out more at the site. There's also the Cowboys of Color National Rodeo Tour (the site also hosts the National Cowboys of Color Museum and Hall of Fame website; you can take a virtual tour.) Update: The more you know, the more you find out. An enormous Black Rodeo. Black Rodeo in Harlem . There's the Black Rodeo, and the Federation of Black Cowboys (Phone: 718-925-0777 Fax: 718 -925-0474). Here's a page of photos; a biography of Alonzo Pettie and an amazing album here.

Congratulations to Paul Offit, M.D.

Paul Offit was one of the co-inventors of the rotavirus vaccine, Rotateq.  He has written a number of books relating to vaccine issues, most recently Autism's False Prophets. He has recently been interviewed in Wired: An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All. Offit is the dominant voice repeating the messages that vaccines are safe and effective. For his efforts:

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will present Paul Offit, MD, FAAP, with the President’s Certificate for Outstanding Service at the National Conference and Exhibition of the AAP. The award recognizes an individual’s outstanding service and long-term, personal dedication to the mission of the AAP and to the health, safety and well-being of children. Dr. Offit is a pediatrician, chief of infectious diseases and the director of the vaccine education center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The AAP is honoring Dr. Offit in recognition of his ongoing commitment to promote immunization.

Congratulations, sir, for a well-deserved award. Paul Offit's official website

Jan Tritten, A Midwife, Bullies Pregnant Women To Build Demand for Midwifery.

From Jan's blog:

This is what I want to say to every young woman in the world: your birth is the most important event in shaping your life as a mother.

This is wrong on so many levels. Start at the top. It isn't "your birth" -- it is the child's birth.  A pregnant woman doesn't own her child's birth. 

Second, Brittain goes on to imply that a woman who fails to hire a midwife or doula is putting her child's future at risk.  This is fear-mongering marketing at its most shameless. 

Third, Tritten's attitudes imply that there is a "right way" to give birth and that the mother is somehow responsible for having a good birth.

Fourth, reducing mothering to the birth experience trivializes the process of parenting.

Confutata, Jenijen from NotCalmdotCalm, Sweet | Salty,  and  An Acorn Dreaming  Tritten, each in her own way.

Well, That Was Annoying

A random 90 minute power outage, which PG&E's automated system didn't recognize.  This neighborhood sure is quiet.

The Dead White Folks in the Faux "Sweatlodge"

Back when I started this blog, one of the things that got my engine running were the "plastic fantastic shamans" -- people making money from "Native American Traditions" -- mostly "new age profiteers" .

I saw the story on the two deaths and nineteen made ill by James Arthur Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" woo-fest in Sedona, AZ on October 9. I intended to blog, but then real life intervened.

Teresa Nielson Hayden at Making Light did the heavy lifting.  Read the post, read the links, and read the comments.

Don't Pay to Pray.

Reason #65,384 That Special Education Parents Distrust the Schools: Boy with Autism Tasered

Larry Mathews' 13 year old son has autism, and attends Hawthorne Middle School (in the Los Angeles, CA area). The boy appears to be in an inclusion program, but a severe problem arose on Sept. 23, 2008.

It was picture day, and the boy reacted negatively to a change of schedule and to being ordered to line up with his classmates.  His sister Lauren (a college student) went to the school to help soothe her brother.  The "school resource officer" Vincent Arias, did not allow Lauren near her brother.  The boy became increasingly upset, and Officer Arias used a Taser at least twice, and then transported him by patrol car (presumably handcuffed) to a locked psychiatric ward, again without his sister's presence.

Larry Mathews filed a complaint with the police department.  A week later, the boy was arrested at school, handcuffed, and taken to the police department and questioned. Neither his parents or a lawyer were present during the questioning.

Now Mathews has filed a class-action lawsuit against the City of Hawthorne, its Police Department, Police Chief Michael Heffner, Officer Arias and two other officers.

Sources:

• Daily Breeze October 13, 2009 
• Daily Breeze March 3 2009
• Case number 2:2009cv06845

Charter School 101 and Charter Schools: Organizational Lifecycles

Doug Hering is a Colorado charter school specialist who writes for Examiner.com.  He's written two series I recommend, Charter School 101 and a series on organizational lifecycles.

Charter School 101 (also see Education 101 -- What is a charter school)

• Charter School 101 How are charter schools funded?
• Charter School 101 7 easy steps to a charter school budget
• Charter School 101 Multiple Entity Disorder
• Charter School 101 Why don't charter schools have to hire "highly qualified teachers"?
• Charter School 101 What's the difference between EMO and emo?
• Charter School 101 To whom are charter schools responsible?

Charter Schools and institutional lifecycles

• Institutional lifecycles Phase 1 -- Planning and opening
• Institutional lifecycles Phase 2 -- Growth
• Institutional lifecycles Phase 3 -- Stability
• Institutional lifecycles Phase 4 -- Stagnation

A Question for My Fellow Grandmothers and Grandfathers

How do you establish how you are addressed by your grandchildren?

I do not wish to be called "Grandma Liz".  I do not wish to be called "Grannie" (as much as I admire and wish to be like Granny Weatherwax). 

The closest  friend I have who is a grandmother is my friend Sue.  She is happy with the name  Nana, just as she addressed her own beloved grandmother.

My grandparents were (paternally) Mimi and Pops and (maternally) Grammie and Poppy.  I'm not sure how those names came about.  In the case of Grammie and Poppy, their first two grandchildren, born during WWII, lived with them until they were nearly school age, so the names may have just evolved.

My father decided that he would be "Jack",  just as he was to almost everyone.  That worked well as a name easy for a toddler to say.  My mother was "Grandmother".

I have two grandchildren. The older is my older stepson's daughter.  The younger is my younger stepson's son. 

My oldest  grandchild has been taught to call her grandmothers Abuela + given name, so I am Abuela Liz.  Given her age and her dialect, it is more like aBuee Liz.  

Personally, given the complexity and the cast of characters, I'd like a unique name. 

I also think that there should be a naming convention that honors my step-sons' mother more than me.  I'm not sure why  I think that... but I think it has to do with boundaries.  As it turns out in the current episode, I am available to do the more traditional grandmotherly duties like the fill-in babysitting, etc.  We're a team, my step-sons' mother and I.  It is a relationship that is really important to me, and I don't want to mess with the team feeling with names I didn't select.

I think I'd like to be some variation on Liz -- like Li'li or LeeLee or Lihlih. 

My oldest (15 months) grandson is pretty good at truncating words at this point.  He'll point at a dog, and if he has the time, will say "ruf!".  But if he sees something interesting, or perhaps doglike, he'll point, and say very clearly "fff!"