No Computer Allowed....

I had to go to court to support a friend and I discovered a sign that blew me away - no computers or electronic devices allowed.  Can you believe it?  In defense of the need for privacy the court has gone to far I think.  How are people with out decent handwriting to function?  What if I had wanted to take notes?  Or if I had needed to demonstrate to the court some evidence of some sort or other that is on my computer.

I probably would have needed to bear the $$$ of printing - trust it to government to be the last refuge of the luddite.  All hands raised for the courts.  Truth, justice and paper only please.  From an evidence stand point I think the computer and electronic documentation too easily changed.  Not that paper is any more solid really.

The assumption is that all attendees can write and then read a sentence in notes.  But times are changing and many people keep notes on there laptop or even blueberry - expect of course in the Court system.

Why Doubt sucks.

or The physiological and psychological realities of being Dyslexic.

Thanks for reading this blog for more blog posts check out the rest of my work at http://dyslexicstoryteller.blogspot.com/

 I am sitting in a classroom in 3rd grade.  My heart rate is high I am in fight or flight mode.  I can feel my pulse beating behind my ears.  The room seems hot – I can’t help but look around the room for a place to hide.  Maybe if I slouched down in my chair I could avoid being picked out by the teacher.  I can not read.  I am the only non-reader in my class and I know it.  I am a shamed.  I wait all day for recess and pray it does not rain.

I am sitting in beginning Spanish in 7^th grade.  I have no idea what is going on in the classroom.  I work hard at night to catch up, but I slip further and further behind.  My body does not know that I am sitting in a classroom in the best junior-high in Manhattan.  Instead my body believes that it is walking across the African safari with a lion behind every bush.  I am preparing to fight or run for my life.

The teacher addresses me in Spanish and I freeze.   A useful response to a lion or a leopard, but not to a Spanish teacher.

I am sitting in basic biology in college.  I keep notes religiously.  I can’t read half of them or figure out what they mean.  When I use the text book I find the new words overwhelming.  I test on reading compression tests better then my peers, but here where the words are too many, too new and complex I find it difficult to associate the words on the page with the words that are spoken in the lectures.  I enjoy the lectures and discussions, but during labs and exams years of training kick in an I turn into a adrenaline junkie who looks like bumbling fool.

Dyslexic individuals have millions of years of biology working against them as they attempt to work there way through the literate world.  As I have written before in this blog the biggest block to the success of a dyslexic person is the realization that success starts outside of the fields that dyslexic students are weakest in.  As human being’s we need to build on previous success and previous triumphs in order to build into our weakness.  The disadvantage that dyslexic people start with such a handicap they need to create other areas of success to hold them over whether is theater, sports, math, science, fantasy, or relationships.  Before suffering the trials and tribulations of dyslexia it is important that students have some touch stone of success.

Thanks for reading this blog for more blog posts check out the rest of my work at http://dyslexicstoryteller.blogspot.com/

Asking for help the Central lesson of Dyslexia

Perhaps the key gift of being dyslexic is that the bedrock reality of learning disabilities is an inability to practice that central story of human experience… denial… denial of my inability to organize without assistance – denial of my systematic mis-spellings and denial of my incomplete memory. I can’t afford any of these denials – I can’t afford to pretend that I can organize, spell or remember with out assitance, because I can’t.

Must people can pretend that they are able to do these things – experts in brain research talk about how the brain is an effective tool for creativity but that organization and memory are not reliable uses for the brain with out using a written system in place. Now I know that many of my readers will disagree with this premise. Think about what I am saying the brain is not an effective tool for memory and organization. Here is the question that got me – what tool are you using to judge your ability to remember and organize things? Don’t believe my word – Read David Allen books.

I would suggest that your brain is not an accurate tool for judging your memory or organizational ability. Try a simple test – write down right now everything you did to day – put it in a envelope and date it one month from today. A month from now right down everything you wrote in the letter and then open the envelope. Make sure you include in your letter every single food or drink that you consumed today – every place you have gone and every person you have spoken too.

I know the what the results of your study will be… and I hope you do as well.

Dyslexic people learn a little bit earlier the value in writing things down and in asking for assitance from others in completing our daily task list. We are just lucky like that… I guess.

Ira Glass on Storytelling

I feel like this is a real gift to storytellers everywhere.


He really has a good points that all storytellers and writers everywhere.


Just to bring us back to storytelling

Why does God give us Brains that don’t work?

Genetic variability aside. It just seems to me that the brain is one humdinger of an ineffective way to store information. I mean if God had intended us to remember things she would have given us computer plug-in or other physical ways to keep track like say a pad of paper and a pencil - instead of relying on such foolish things as memories.

So what is the brain designed to do – some would say nothing. Cause there is no design involved. But what is the brain capable of handling. Well our brains are excellent at detecting danger and problem solving dangerous situations we can see (bears lions and tigers). Not so good at situations that are out of sight(Global warming and nuclear holocaust). The brain seems to be a very clever way to create new things with out having created the ability to see the consequences of those new things (DDT, Plutonium)

In general our brains seem to be really handy out helping us to survive – but not so useful at storing information. Luckily for us the human race invented writing and then computers to help us with that particular function.

Maybe God felt sorry for us cause we were with out nasty teeth or claws, thick skin or even fur. So she gave us creativity instead cause it would help to balance the scales.

The Time Warp of Dyslexia

Through out my life I have been blessed by the ability to forget what I was just thinking. Some of you will no doubt think that this ability is a curse – a reality that has no silver lining. Well, I am here to tell what a gift it is to be so clever and creative that in every moment I can go wondering off into circles upon circles of new thoughts. I know that this is a gift because I have been to many workshops and seminars where people study how to be in the present moment.

This is not my problem.

My gift is to be always in this moment with out remembering what I was intending to do with it. I am “gifted” with fresh starts inserted randomly into my day. Fresh spellings, fresh ideas or fresh projects all I have to do is change locations and the major overhaul I was working on in the next room is forgotten while I blissfully fold laundry. Dyslexia to me is a statistically likelihood that I will have any ability to tie these moments together. The gift of dyslexia is that I can spend the morning with great focus and concentration on a project only to realize with surprise that I am in fact ten minutes late to another appointment.

I don’t need another workshop to be in the hear and now. My path is the path of all dyslexics – I am a student of the note to the future, the list to do or the five part plan. But here is the catch twenty-two I don’t like to make lists because they constantly interrupt my random flow of ideas. Stop laughing at me – if I can’t remember what I was gong to do, then clearly I am surprised when I look at my list. How dare I limit my startling creativity with a list of things to do!

But the mind is a fragile instrument and starting from scratch every ten minutes is not a good way to run business. So on my good days I give myself a little charity and forgiveness and do what’s on my list.

By the way – I think it’s time for me to start my list for the day.

Item 1) Finish Dyslexic Blog post ---- X
Item 2) Post Dyslexic Blog post ---- X
Item 3) Write the rest fo the list ---

Cultural Inertia in Teaching

I read about the Video format wars at length last night. For you young people that's was back in the day when the superior Beta format was done in by the popular VHS format. Not because the market saw the much better qualities of VHS (Beta was better), but instead because a few middle level mangers didn’t do such a good job at marketing Beta and well just bad luck for the Beta manufactures. Many people were left with Beta machines and no tapes.

Witch reminds me of an ancient Chinese proverb I read years ago…

Student:  Why does a river flow that way?
Master: Because of the water that came first.

Well – really I made it up – but it sounds like an ancient Chinese proverb.

Culture can be like river and sometimes it is just a matter of getting there first with your flag, standard or point of view. Then improving upon what you are trying to do to make it work. The problem comes if your basic concept is flawed – because you can’t build on shoddy foundation no matter how much money, resources or time you have. The whole thing is just going to fail again and again.

Modern teaching is like that – in the middle ages monks created a standard mythical ideal of the busy copyist who is a learned scholar and this mythological ideal has stayed with us through years of reform and rethinking.

Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in a monasteries copy room, Stacks of books and scrolls fill the room. The atmosphere is hushed and quite. In one corner is monk who busy working on maps. In the main section are two or three monks working on books. There ink bottles are full and their feather pens are busy. Sun light filter into the room from distant windows and the sound of birds can be heard, but the monks do not raise there heads from the books.

The head monk is sitting on raised platform in the middle of the hall. He is keeping track of the other monks work overseeing their production and quality of there work. The chief monk is not cruel , but neither is he really interested in the personal development of each of his monks. He is more concerned that the books, maps and scrolls being copied are accurate.
This mythology lies dormant in the mind of every teacher in the world. A successful classroom is seen as hushed and quite with scholars quietly working on there separate projects. Even though being a successful copyist has little too do with any connection with the word learning.

The problem of course, is that copyists are busy copying down important facts and figures, they are not engaged in effort to study or learn something.   Also the role of the copyist has been replaced by the printing press about four hundred years ago…

Institutional teaching has had a couple hundred years to be improved, but the basic mythological ideal keeps getting in the way. It’s time we killed the copyists off – it’s time for us to cut loose the idea of that teaching is the transfer of knowledge too the ideal that teaching is the inspiration of culture.

The river flows on – why master does the rive flow that way and how do we change it’s course?
Perhaps you know the answer.

My remidation report - 1985

Hilary K. Waldinger, M.A.
Riverdale, NY. 10463

Remediation Report: Eric James Wolf

Summary

Eric James Wolf is an extremely bright, thoughtful and creative student who demonstrates great capacity in thinking creativity. Understanding mathematical, scientific and historic facts and concepts, and reading literature perceptively. Eric has learning problems which can and are being remediate and which can be compensated for through small adaptive techniques on the part of Eric and his teachers. Eric had made some strong points in writing skills and will continue to do so this year in his tutoring program. Continued practice, motivation, and hard working, and dedicated to improving.

Diagnosis

While highly intelligent, Eric has perceptual difficulties in the areas of visual perception and visual memory. Eric also has problems in language processing, that is, in organizing and sequencing letters, syllables, words and sentences in written and oral presentations.

These perceptual and processing problems are manifest in Erics written work, his difficulties with a foreign language, and his occasional problems in organizing oral presentations. In terms of writing and organizing, these problems are manifest in several specific behaviors.

1st Eric Must and does need to spend much time and effect in organizing himself; his papers, notebooks, books.
2nd Eric has some trouble organizing his essays effectively under time pressure. He needs time to organize these concepts in the expected and clear sequence.
3rd This sequence problem exists in his sentence structure. Sentence fragments or run-ons that appear in class work produced under time limits are not an indication of mental laziness or indifference. Eric merely needs a bit more time to proofread and make corrections for those errors. While Erics sentences structure is steadily improving, Eric cannot yet discriminate between correct or incorrect sequences with 100 percent accuracy.
4th Sequence problems are very obvious in Erics spelling patterns. His reversals and misspellings, are all symptoms of visual perception and processing difficulties. Contributing to his problem is Erics handwriting, witch reveals his processing problems in the motor area. This is not intentional sloppiness or carelessness.

Remediation

Erics learning difficulties can be remediated effectively with appropriate instruction or they can be circumvented with appropriate adaptive techniques for classwork. Currently, an individualized tutorial program has focused on remediating Erics organization problems and his sentence structure. Tutoring has also developed some techniques for organizing essays, answering short answer questions, and writing paragraphs. Eric has made very good progress in using correct sentence structure. We have been working intensively on identifying and using subordinate clauses, identifying subordinate clauses used as sentence fragments, and combing sentences by using subordinate clauses. A successful instructional program for Eric should stress the practices listed below…

1) For teaching language arts or language, a multisensory approach is most successful. Eric needs to hear speak, see and write any new vocabulary word, spelling, grammar, preferably using all these senses in the same lesson. Using all the learning modalities in one lesson reinforces each area of perception.
2) Structured sequential instruction is most effective for learning a language skill. Eric learns best when he is presented with one new skill at a time, through a multisensory approach, and given copious practice in saying, writing, and reading that skill. For example, in learning subordinate clauses and subordinate conjunctions, he was taught one category of conjunction at a time. (e.g. time, then cause the result then condition ). He read, wrote, spoke and heard subordinate clauses suing that one category until he knew each of the subordinating conjunctions automatically. Only when he knew all the conjunctions in a category automatically did we move on to the next.
3) Continual reinforcement and review of previously learned items is crucial because these new language skills are not natural for Eric. For example. Even after moving onto a new category of subordinate clauses, Eric must be given a brief review of the categories previously learned. Each new skill must be built on an old one, which is reviewed and reinforced as that it is not forgotten.
4) In teaching essay writing, Eric must learn a Skelton of the pattern of organization required. Once he has the overall organization delineated for himself, he can express his ideas more fluidly and coherently. Thus, Eric must always prepare an outline for himself, organizing a thesis or topic sentence, his main ideas and his supporting information.
5) When writing a first draft, Eric should skip lines so that he can go back and correct errors in sentence structure or spelling. This would be god practice for in-class essay examines or writing exercises.

There are some adaptive strategies witch Eric can use that will allow him to better demonstrate his true abilities while not giving him any unfair advantage over his classmates. These are listed below

1) When writing an in-class essay or exam, Eric could use a skeleton outline, which does not have any content at all: rather, it is just a visual reminder for him of the overall form an essay should have. IT will just outline the ingredients of the essay – thesis statement, main ideas, and supporting details. Currently, Eric carries such a skeleton in his notebook, which can be used for any and all essays because it has no content. If he could use it, he would write more coherently and produce far better exams and papers.
2) If Eric could carry a spelling dictionary with him to school (such a dictionary shows only the correct spellings of words, no definitions), he could turn in some better work with more accurate spellings. Again, to use this in a testing situation is no extra advantage, because only information in such a dictionary is the correct spelling.
3) In learning gramner, Eric needs more structured practice than do other students. However, Eric will learn and use concept once it is taught to him. Therefore, one method of approaching the problem is to notify Eric’s tutor or parent of the areas covered in the term. The tutoring program can then focus intensively on these skills so that Eric will know them by the end of the term or in time for the unit presentation in class. Another approach might be to engage a student tutor for Eric who can give him extra practice on a skill.
4) For learning vocabulary words, particularly in a foreign language, Eric needs much practice with flashcards, with writing, and listening to tapes or dictation.
5) Eric should be given the opportunity to take essay essay exams on an untimed basis, so that he can have a little extra time to organize his thoughts and make some corrections in mechanics, if this is at all possible. This is not at all necessary for multiple choice or short answer exams where Erics learning difficulties do not hamper him. Perhaps he could just have could just have an extra five minutes a the end of class. If extra time is impossible, perhaps Erics work can be looked at attentively for its content rather then its form (spelling, etc).

April 15, 1985

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Today in 2008 this report seem obvious, but remember when it was written it was, by man by many who read it, considered cutting edge or out side the box thinking. Times change.

Eric Wolf

Once there was a girl who couldn't see the letter s

*ara wa* the nice*t child you would ever meet. *he had *weet per*onality, a nice *mile and wa* very *mart. Her only weakne** wa* that *ara could not read, hear or talk the letter *. Witch could be very difficult for her. Her mother would want her to go and fetch her *i*ter* and *ara would come back with one of them in*tead of all three.

*pelling te*t were a drag at *chool though *he did find with word* like naught and doubt, but *nake and *u*piciou* e*caped her. *ara became concerned and nervou* in *chool one day becau*e the teacher *aid they were gong to *tudy the country of *pain. Witch i* very natural reaction con*idering that *ara though they were all going to have to go through a rather painful experience to *tudy the *ubject. Another difficulty wa* following the he or *he pronoun in any particular conver*ation e*pecially if the per*on talking wa* di*cu**ing a conver*ation between a girl and a boy. "Then *he *aid and he *aid thi* in re*pon*e…'

*ara di*covered over time that it wa* po**ible to live with out the letter * until *he could *pend whole day* with out mi**ing it. In*tead of wondering – deare*t *i*ter who I love *o much – could you plea*e pa** me the *au*age*? *he would *ay hey –Rachel - could you kindly hand over the meat *tring plate to me? It helped that her *i*ter* name* were Rachel, Jane and Amanda. But here mother'* name wa* *u*ana and *ara allwa* called her Mom - ju*t to *ave time.

What is a letter to a friend?

Once there was a boy named *ris who could not see or say the letter z. It didn’t really seem to matter expect on days when he went to the *oo to see the *ebra. So he didn’t really think anything of it

Then one day he met a girl named *eneta who could not see or say the letter c. Witch was a real pity cause she had a *at and that she loved named *harles and *harles was a *hester cat with strips. She was particularly sad because she loved to order i*e *ream *ones – with lots of *ho*olate *hips. When ever she asked for i*e *ream *ones – with lots of *ho*olate *hips everybody laughed at her. But when she met *ris she felt much better.

They became the best of friends – but people would ask them – How can the too of you be such good friends you can’t even say each others names!?

They would just smile and say – what is a name to us – but a word. What is a word to us – but a few letters. A friend is some one who understands what you are going through. Then the two friends would smile and point to the other. Who else would understands me better?

Frankie Loves Peanuts

Once upon a time there lived an elephant named Frankie. Frankie lived in a zoo; not one of those modern zoos that you may have been to, but an old zoo with tired buildings and cracked sidewalks. You would think that this would make Frankie a very unhappy elephant, but no, he was very happy indeed. The lions were not happy, the penguins were not happy, the parrots and the monkeys were not happy, but Frankie didn’t care. He was happy.
Outside of Frankie’s window, just off to the side of his trench there was a little machine for giving out peanuts. Every day the children would come from all over town, and they would bring their lunch money and their candy money to buy peanuts for their elephant. Frankie was very happy. He would reach through the bars of his cage with his long trunk, and he would carefully pluck each peanut from the little hands that offered them. Then he would take the delicious peanuts, he would put them in his mouth, and chew each one… oh so carefully. Then he would smile, look out at all the smiling faces, and he was so very happy. Frankie loved peanuts.

One day a man in a suit came to the zoo to make sure that everything was safe and that the zoo was taking care of the animals. This man saw all the sad animals, the cracking concrete, the worn down buildings and the peanut machines. He shook his head, “We will have to close down this sad little zoo in a few years. We could sell all the animals except for the elephant. He’s too old to sell. We will have to put him to sleep and give his body to the glue factory.“ Then the man said, “Ed, stop filling up those peanut machines;. it’s too dangerous. The elephant might hurt someone. No more peanuts for Frankie.”

Ed was very sad. He had been taking care of Frankie for a long time. He knew how much Frankie loved peanuts, he knew that the man was serious about closing down the zoo and that would be the end of Frankie. He took away the peanut machines so that Frankie wouldn’t see them anymore, and he hoped that Frankie would forget all about the peanuts. The children stopped coming to see Frankie. Now Frankie was unhappy.
He stood in his cage, looked at the blue sky, and got very depressed.

One day Frankie decided not to get up. He said “This is the end. I’m not getting up ever again.” What a sad little elephant he was. Ed came in to clean Frankie’s cage. “What’s wrong Frankie are you OK?” he said, “I have a treat for you.” Ed reached into his pocket, and he took out a little bag of peanuts. But Frankie didn’t move, he was that down. Ed looked at him, then he dropped the peanuts and ran out the door to get help.

Frankie was lying there not feeling so good about himself, but he kept smelling peanuts. He looked around and there was the bag that Ed had dropped. Frankie thought he would have just one, and maybe another and then, all of a sudden, the bag was empty. Frankie was feeling a little bit better. He looked over and noticed that the door to his elephant house was standing wide open. Frankie thought, “maybe I can get my own peanuts. I’ll just take a quick look around town.”

Frankie tried to be very quite about sneaking out of the zoo. But all of the animals saw him, and they wanted to go too. The lion roared. The parrot called. The penguins splashed and the monkey yelled. Frankie ran out of the zoo fast. The man at the toll both said “Stop Frankie. Go back.” But there was no stopping Frankie. The elephant ran into town. He smelled something really good. Hmmm, what was that smell? He ran around corners, and down streets until he came to a bakery. He didn’t like bread, even if it smelled so good.

Frankie decided he needed a place to hide out so that the police couldn’t find him. He was lucky, and he found a beautiful fountain with many stone elephants. This was a great place for an elephant to hide on a hot summer day. While he was hiding in the fountain a police car stopped in front of the fountain. Frankie thought for sure he was caught; but the two officers were only having lunch at the fountain. “Where did my peanuts go?” said one of the officers, “I had them right here.” Do you know where the peanuts went? Then I don’t need to tell you. Frankie loved peanuts.

Frankie smelled another delicious smell. He followed his nose for a long time and discovered a doughnut shop. He found the doughnuts easy to carry on his trunk, but he still wanted to find some peanuts. Then Frankie smelled another scent. The smell was s so rich and full of flavor. He thought, “This must be where there are peanuts hmm… but there were no peanuts, and that shop was full of people drinking coffee. Frankie was getting discouraged. He had looked everywhere all over town, but he could not find any more peanuts . I might have told him to look in the grocery store, but he never asked me.

It was getting dark and Frankie smelled peanuts! He was so sure that he ran down a street, and over a hill. There, they are in front him was a peanut factory! Frankie ran into the factory. He looked through all the different rooms until he found a room filled with piles of peanuts. Frankie had never seen so many peanuts and his whole life. The pile of peanuts in that room was five times bigger than him! There were dump trucks and bulldozers to move the peanuts around. He ate peanuts till he was full. Then he burrowed into the pile of peanuts and leaving only his eyes sticking out.

The next day when the workers at the factory workers came back. They were surprised at how many peanuts were missing. “Where did all the peanuts go?” they asked. I don’t need to tell you. Frankie loved peanuts. The next night, after the night watchmen had been in to check on the peanuts. Frankie went exploring. He explored all around the factory until he found a little building which said, “Top-Secret” and “Keep Out”.

Elephants are very curious creatures , and Frankie couldn’t help himself . What was in that building? Was it a special type of peanut? A secret recipe?

Frankie peered in the door. He didn’t mean to break-in. He just kind of leaned on the lock a little. Then he stuck his head in the door. Then he had to get down on his knees, and crawl in the room. There were lots of peanuts in this building, each in its own special pile. Some were marked, “peanuts with honey,“ and others were marked, ‘peanuts with mustard.’ Frankie’s favorite type of peanut was with chocolate.

Frankie ate all the peanuts covered with chocolate. Chocolate is not good for elephants. He did not feel so good, and he fell asleep standing up. When Frankie woke up it was morning, and he had been caught. There were cameras taking his pictures, and women with microphones. He was surrounded by people; policeman firemen and doctors, but best of all Ed was there too.

Ed said, “Frankie you are famous. People all around the world have heard about you, the famous disappearing elephant.” Then cameras and reporters came closer to Ed and Frankie. “Why did Frankie come here?” they wanted to know. You know the answer to that question; Frankie loved peanuts.

That night Frankie got to go home to the zoo. The next morning the president of the peanut factory came to see him and Ed. He said that Frankie had made the peanut company famous. That nobody cared if Frankie had eaten all those peanuts because now everybody all around the country wanted to eat Frankie’s chocolate covered peanuts. The president of the company said that before he had been planning to close down the factory. Now he had to hire more workers, and he wanted to thank Frankie in his own way. The company had decided to give Frankie a lifetime supply of… peanuts.

That tired old zoo has been remodeled, and made into a new zoo. All the animals live there happily. In one little house there lives a very happy elephant, and every day, when the children come after-school he throws them peanuts! Frankie loves to share peanuts.

Letters to the Editor & Dictionaries

I wrote a letter to editor this last week all about my experience letting my car die and replacing it with a bicycle. I have mentioned before on this blog how much I value the Yellow Springs News for serving as my finale check editor before running my letters. This allows me to be free to participate in the body politics of Yellow springs.

This last letter to the editor I wrote really illustrated the effective of the written word nicely because every where I bike people say to me – O – I read your letter in the Yellow Springs News. It’s sad to say that the era of newspapers is long over and now we replace such fine institutions as the NY Times with well NBC or CBS no – really – Wikipedia. ☺

Or better yet just read my blog. I am in love this one institution of my town this sweet old paper. I don’t really get why they don’t publish the whole thing online and sell google ad words. I’m sure they would make more money that way then any other way. Maybe I am just so pleased that people read what I wrote and it did something – had an impact. I think that might be one of the common lessons that dyslexic children learn early – your writing does not count for nothing - rely on your silver tongue least you forget just look to your dictionary – that book you never opened.

Really – why would a person who reverses the letters in words five times in minute look at a book that is alphabetized? So they can learn to better scramble the words? First time I used a dictionary was when I had to face off against my grandmother in scrabble. She had seventy year so scrabble playing mastery and I could not spell. I used the dictionary to even the score I proud to say I won a game out of the fifty or so attempts.

Down with the Grammar Nazi’s

I have an arrangement with my local paper, the yellow springs news. I write letters to the editor and they kindly edit them, with my permission, so that the typos and other snafus are removed before publication. This allows me to participate in the body politics of my village. Though whether or not the local newspaper is relevant to what is going on in town is a whole different question worthy of discussion. I wish that more people were so kind and generous with there editing abilities.

I am sure that a large percentage of the population does not participate in community politics simply because they feel that they would make fools of them selves any time they sent something into the paper or even posted a comment on an online forum. Maybe it’s a side effect of high school English that many people see the potential risk (embarrassing omission of grammatical ability) far out weighs the potential gain (Getting a letter in the paper).

Perhaps it is the way those of us who are gifted at writing or spelling there way through life behave towards those who are not so gifted. Maybe it’s a few bad apples that spoil it for the rest of us. All I know is that if I didn’t have the kind support of the editorial staff of the paper at my back I wouldn’t be writing those letters to the editor cause I don’t need the five emails I would receive telling me that I need a comma after the second sentence and that I dropped the past tense there and by the way shouldn’t I have someone correct my letters? Like the government is going to give me a grant for that!

Many times if I have not hired or begged a proof writer for some piece of writing; I have had individuals who can edit assume that I have been lazy or that I have been worse yet ignorant of my misspellings. Maybe that is my secret desire of this blog to change the tone of our dialog about spelling and grammar. To a kinder more gentler one where people who can’t spell are given the reasonable expectation that they are trying there best to participate and that there best would look so much better if they had a helping hand from those who can see in the colors of the rainbow.

Of course the grammar Nazi’s won’t be reading this blog, because of all the typos, but what do want out of me anyway?

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.