NY Times Article on the Benefits of Dyslexia

So Dyslexia has it's advantages after all as this article in the NY Times a tests too...

Is the benefit being dyslexic being some one who overcame dyslexia? Ny Times Article about Dyslexia at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/business/06dyslexia.html

Does finding a silver lining mean the cloud is not all bad?

As a entrepreneur am I better situated to build a successful business then other people who may not be as willing to get help as needed? Read the article and tell me what you think.

Is Dyslexia the result of Bad Teaching?

Someone told me that they thought that a lot of children who were diagnosed as dyslexic were in reality suffering from a lack of teaching.

I don't think so - most children are over taught and the more I am involved with working with children the more I think that they need a gentle hand.

You don't teach two year olds how to read - unless they ask for it. So why do we insist on teaching at grade level so much? Studies show that it takes an adult thirty hours to learn to read at an adult level. So why do we spend years on it in childhood?

We do because the lesson is not reading - the lesson is to tame the spirit and squash the soul.   A free people can not be ruled or conquered with out there implicit permission either through non-action or lack of imagination. If the ruler can kill the idea of freedom that what need has the emperor for the sword or the boot?

Dyslexic people are people who have less toleration for the crap that the rest of us call learning by route.   A throughly discredited form of learning that has no business being in the same room with small children or adults - unless invited by there passion and sheperared by there own desire.

With  Love

Eric Wolf

The Truth is Harder then You Think

All of this effort to get my brain functional.  The herbs taken.  The delirious brain concoctions my wife has made.  Mean time every night my wife and I took baths in the old claw foot bathtub.  My wife herself tested for heavy metals a few months ago and she tested high for lead.  She bought one of those lead kits for the house and brought it home and left it in a drawer somewhere.

My 16 year old home-schooler, was wandering through the drawers, found the lead test kit and just for fun he started testing stuff - including the tub.  Turns out that the tub is in fact glazed with a lead based glaze.  Makes me wonder how much of the memory issues I have been having are not dyslexia, but old fashioned lead poisoning.

Of course for the purposes of this blog - I am in fact dyslexic as proven under the tests given my in 1985 at the age of fifteen.   Of course my dream is to successfully find a way of curing myself of the symptons of dyslexia through health, herbs and fitness.  I think that lead poisoning maybe easier to deal with.

The gift of Success

Recently I was talking to a friend of mine who is also dyslexic and she was struggling with writing and I asked for my assistance in creating successful methodologies to create written material. At some point in the conversation I asked her; does she have any examples of success in her writing practice and her answer was: no.

I was astonished.

I always underestimate my ability to be speechless. I was astonished that she had never had a writing teacher who recognized that success breeds success and that you have to start where the student is at – instead of where the standards say you should start.

Statistics and the teaching to the middle of the curve have done more harm to more people then almost any other idea in teaching. I find myself upset (again) that my friend who went through 18 years of public education has not one example of feeling successful with a piece of writing.

But then a very strange feeling come over me – I realized that I was grateful for a little piece of the MS I Education, BA in Human Ecology and HS degree that I have hammered through. I am grateful for those handful of teachers who saw that I clearly could not create written material on level with my peers, but I could write at my level and my ability and that would do very nicely thank you.

Sometimes is felt like I was a thirsty man walking through a desert – just looking for a place to drink. Thank God for compassion - thank God that I missed no child left untested. I call on writing teachers every where challenge yourself to challenge your students to their next level, not grade standard and not the middle of the curve.

Winter and Spring of 2008 Schedule of Guests

For Immediate Release Press Release
Friday, November 30, 2007

Contact: Eric James Wolf
Phone: 937-767-8696

The Art of Storytelling With Children Podcast and Blog enters it’s second year.
This Podcast is a national conversation from all perspectives on the profession of “storytelling with children” recorded as a conference call on Tuesdays at 8:00pm.

We serve all members of the “storytelling with children” portion of the storytelling movement including presenters, listeners, administrators, educators, parents, and storytellers.

If you're not already on the email alert list, you must sign in by the Friday before the call to get the email that will give you the telephone number and access code.

If you wish to listen to the podcast, you can subscribe via iTunes or just listen on the website. Our listener base is still growing so spread the word about this great no-cost on-line program.

To join the list, go to http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com and add your name to the community email list.

Sincerely Yours


Eric Wolf
A.K.A. Brother Wolf to thousands of children world-wide.




#

Upcoming Schedule of Guests.

December 4th – No Conference Call - Yellow Springs Tail Spinners, Developing your storytelling abilities with a group.

December 11th - 8PM EST – Margeret Read Macdonald,
Telling across language barriers.

December 18th - 8PM EST – Michael Caduto, Stories about giving and receiving.

No show December 25th Vacation.

January 1st - 8PM EST- Bobby Norfolk, The brain is hardwired for stories.

January 8th - 8PM EST– Daisy Howard-Douglas,
Herstory - tell the truth, it will set you free.

January 15th - 8PM EST- Steve Denning,
Secret Language of leadership implications for education.

January 22nd - 8PM EST- Priscilla Howe, Creating a successful storytelling practice.

January 29th - Tuesday at 9 pm EST - Alex Feldman,
Connecting Quickly (and Managing Behavior) through Physicality.

February 5th – 8PM EST- Joyce Slayter, Telling to teenagers with newborns.

February 12th - 8PM EST- Dianne de Las Casus, Storytelling a safari into literacy?

February 19th - 8PM EST- Syd Lieberman, Telling your Family’s Stories.

February 26th - 8PM EST - Joseph Bruchac. The Truth of Native Stories.

March 4th - 8PM EST- Mark Morey, Storytelling as a Mentor

March 11th – 8PM EST- Dianne Williamson,
Literacy Development - Storytelling in the classroom.


#





March 18th - 8PM EST- David Epley, Comedy and Storytelling.

March 25th - 8PM EST- Jackie Baldwin - Kate Dudding,
Storytelling in Schools a reference guide to educational programs.

April 1st - 8PM EST- Sally Crandall, Historical Storytelling

April 8th - 8PM EST- La'Ron Williams, Supporting social justice through storytelling.

April 15th - 8PM EST– Jeff Gere, How you can Think Big with radio and TV.

April 22nd - 8PM EST– Jan Andrews & Jennifer Caylel,
The Power of Folktales in children’s lives.

April 29th - 8PM EST– Sally Crandall, Historical Storytelling.

May 6th - 8PM EST- Joshua Safford, Telling to the street – magic for eye.

May 13th - 8PM EST– Buck Creacy, What makes stuff funny in storytelling?

May 20th - 8PM EST– Karen Chace, Story by story, building a school storytelling club.

May 27th - 8PM EST– Avner, Avner Eisenberg, Avner the Eccentric,
The Body Tells the Story.

June 3rd - - 8PM EST– Dovie Thomason, Building Young Adult Audiences.

June 10th - - 8PM EST– Mary Jo Huff,
Early Literacy begins with rhythm rhyme & story time.

June 17th - - 8PM EST– Laura Simms,
What Happens in the Mind of Children during a story?

June 24th - - 8PM EST– Jim May, Storytelling in Classrooms .

July 1st – 8PM EST– Jack Zipes, Fairytales are still relevant.

July 15th – 8PM EST – Tom McCormack,
How indigenous storytelling bridges cultures.


#






Past shows available online at http://www.artofstorytelling.com/ for immediate listening or through iTunes as a podcast.

Mary Hamilton, "Working on Our Work" Storytelling Weekend.

Jonathan Wright, Cross-Cultural Storytelling.

Medicine Story, The Power of Mythology with Children.

Lyn Ford, Breaking into Storytelling.

Doug Lipman, Selling Ourselves Outside the Storytelling Community.

Judith Black, Child-Based Stories.

Jim Flanagan, Teaching Writing to Children with Storytelling and
Working with State Benchmarks.

Stephen Hollen,, Improvisational Storytelling with Children
Creativity and Children.

Bill McKelll , Founding a Storytelling Festival from Scratch.

Camp Directors:, Kate Fox, Ellyce Cavanaugh, and Zayanne Thompson
Storytelling with Children at Camp.

Kevin Cordi, Children Telling Stories – Giving Children a Voice.

Rick Carson, Working with Fear and Children.

Cynthia Changaris, Singing with Stories for Children.

Carol Birch, Working with Copyrights - How We Do the Work.

Eric James Wolf, Going to the Next Level with Your Storytelling Business.

Ellen Munds, Executive Director of Arts Indiana. The A B C’s of Running a Festival.

ETHNOHTEC, Your Highest Vision and the Nitty-Gritty of your Storytelling Practice.

Rev Victoria Burdick, M Div Hospice Chaplin, Storytelling in Ceremony.


#

Cristin Thomas, Director of the Tejas Storytelling Association. Exposing New Audiences to Storytelling.

Steve Otto, one of the founders of the Chicken Festival with Bringing Storytelling to New Communities.

Carolyn Franzini, Director of the Cave Run Storytelling Festival. Running the Festival and How Storytellers Become Candidates for Telling at the Festival.

Julie Mills, Festival Organizer of the Northern Kentucky Storytelling Festival.
Building a Successful Storytelling Festival at Your Library.

Mary Margaret O'Connor, Owner of Itales.com. Digital Storytelling using emerging technologies with your storytelling.

Larry Johnson, Key of See Storytellers. How storytelling in your school and classroom creates successful leaders.

Onawumi Jean Moss, Using culturally driven objects to create entertaining storytelling festivals.

Rachel Hedman, Co-Chair of Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance. Child tellers speak out: what they wish adults knew.

Karen Czarnik, Conversation and songs for the timid singer.

Brother Blue, Street Storytelling and more.

Fran Stallings, Environmental storytelling telling Hope to inspire action.

K. Sean Buvala, Telling for Teens and Tweens.

Mark Wagler, Reshaping classrooms with narrative pedagogy.

Heather Forest, Musical Folktales for Children.

Tim Sheppard, The Authentic Playful Storyteller

Elizabeth Rose, Empowering teachers to use storytelling.

###

End
Storytelling with Children Website

I got impatient today again and I blew it.

I sent an email to a listsev – I’m sure a few of you are on that listserv email. I started the email with me and another person instead of other person and I. Pretty obvious really I could have spared the thirty minutes to bother some body else. But honestly I was impatient and feeling really successful with other stuff so I didn’t get the document corrected. Spent a better part of an hour feeling guilty - beating my self up.

Most of the email was cut and paste from other previously corrected emails. Wait I’ll get it out so you can see it.

Here it is…

Well - Tracking the college E-Cats Free E-course.

Me and Rachel Hedman would like to give every storyteller on the planet a no cost E-course to help you get campus gigs.

We have prepared an E-course for you to take and use at no cost to you. It will give you an idea of what the full conference call course is like. If you are interested, go to
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/college to sign up for the free e-course. Fill out the form and after a few moments check your email and click the link inside the email
to activate your course.

Rachel Hedman has performed at Brigham Young University, University of Utah, California State Fresno University, West Hills College, Snow College, Weber State University and is
the co-chair of the Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance. Here is what some people have said about the workshop Rachel Hedman presented at the National Storytelling Conference this last summer - College Big Cats: Tracking and Capturing the Performance.

I'm sure there are people on this listserv who are already experts in finding work on campuses and honestly I would love your feed back on the e-course.

Peace

Eric Wolf
http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com/college

I’m sure that you see other issues with the posting. But here is the thing – dyslexia really requires that you have a certain degree of optimism to continue writing and that same positive attitude gets you in trouble when you think of course I got it right this time.

Or maybe I just get tired of writing and getting everything proofed – baa humbug to proofing.
FREEDOM from editors!
Dyslexic people of world unite!

Truth is I just need to have patience with myself and my editors.

Forgetfulness and Bills

I don’t know if you noticed, but recently in our society the corporations have been getting a little uppity again. Mostly they are demanding that they be the center of the world. My favorite example is Ohio bell I mean sbc – I mean sbc global – ATT – for now.

They have the weirdest idea that if you want to pay them it has to be really difficult. Sure I could send them a check. But – by the time I write the check get to the post office and mail the think. Just too many steps for me to loose the envelope or other wise go wrong. Once I wrote the check in such a loose script that they rejected it and I didn’t know till they had turned off the phone service. They were very nice when I said I was dyslexic they forgave all the bills and extra chares and I paid the back payment no problem.

My insurance agency was very different experience – to make a phone payment you have to go through three separate steps and it took a while. The basic point being that each of these business required that I think about them and that I remember them and that I spend a half hour to pay my bill. Being some one who forgets why he is waiting at hold or wonders off from making payment at just the wrong moment. I find this idea that I need to dedicate so much time to basic bill paying – really over whelming.

I’m having trouble just getting simple stuff done. I don’t need this extra layer of complexity in my life.

The Rules

I can't believe I am even considering this - kind of like a blind person painting or deaf person writing a sympathy - of course there was Beethoven. This project arises out of my desire to vent a little about the difficulty of blogging with out people judging you just because you can't spell and have no sense of grammar.

My hope is that this blog will help make people more aware of how judgment is so damaging to dyslexic people and that so many potential authors live in shame of a simple typo.

Here are the rules
1) No outside help for me.
2) No spelling commentary accepted on the blog.
3) I will honestly describe moments in my life where my dyslexia or brain dysfunction what ever you want to call it gets in the way.
4) I am allowed - if I am in the mood to use Microsoft word spell check - and you I am sure will be highly amused.
5) I care not one wit for your amusement and will erase comments about spelling errors or omissions.
6) I will accept commentary about thoughts or ideas on the blog.

Peace

Eric Wolf
http://www.ericwolf.org
http://www.ashevilletherapy.net

On Spelling

Tom Sawyer said...

I don't see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. I have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such a breezy unfettered originality about his orthography. He always spells Kow with a large K. Now that is just as good as to spell it with a small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, a wider scope. It suggests to the mind a grand, vague, impressive new kind of a cow.

- speech at a spelling match, Hartford, Connecticut, May 12, 1875. Reported in the Hartford Courant, May 13, 1875

From this website...

http://www.twainquotes.com/Spelling.html