What's New April 2006
The Power of Knowing how to Read.
April is usually the month for the IEP's. I have quite a good
collection of IEP info and links already because I spent months and months
reading the Education Law as it pertained to children with Special Needs...MY
KID. Do not go softly into that IEP meeting. Do not sign anything
you do not agree with.
GreatInfo/IEP Pot Pouri April 2005
Great Info/IEP_stresses.
Great Info/Reid's IEP
If you can read, then you are better prepared for the IEP's. If you
have access to the internet, you have a valuable tool to improve everyone's
life. If you have a book on the subject, you are further ahead too. You can read
by daylight.
Really the only glitch is that there are more kids who are
identified and all the bad teachers are running the school boards, so you will
still have to be prepared, to read to evaluate, to bargain, and if necessary to
educate them with each demand you child needs from note takers to smaller
classes and overheads..
Universal Literacy is a great Idea
What is the purpose of education anyway. When vast numbers of people cannot
read for themselves there are at mercy of the people who can read and control
what knowledge each will have. The ability to read has to be done every day. It is not good enough to teach
reading without providing books to read. There must be choice in isms.
What is in the books affects the mores of the future. These days the books and
teachers have
to compete with media industry which is sparkly to appeal to all, and sinister
in its ability to promulgate violence.
The Printing Press made knowledge accessible
I just reread The Seven Minutes by Irving Wallace. Wallace says
"Soon after Gutenberg made it possible for books to appear in great quantities
in Western Europe, that is to say, after 1454, the Vatican realized that it must
adjust itself to this new phenomenon. Until then the pulpit had been the primary
means by which the priest disseminated knowledge and faith. Now books offered to
become a greater transmission agent for good...Wallace, Irving. The Seven Minutes
p.150. New York :POCKET BOOK 1970 LC 72-775780
As a professional librarian who protects anyone's ability to read anything
they want, I see a path from a pulpit and usually a man, to everyone being able
to read being fundamentally necessary for this world especially the girls
and women.
The problem with universal literacy is that the former power players
loose out and they know it.. When we moved to a small town in rural Canada in
1986, the local paper had mostly pictures. Each year the local
literacy stats changed due to the newest graduates of the school system, and the
paper started to have more pages, more words. The paper provided the lowest
political stage. The Canadian government runs on representational
democracy, but as all Canadian citizens become educated, the need to elect
someone to represent you becomes less important.
The federal government realizes this and is giving a lot of access to federal
events and services through the internet. I have always felt that as a Canadian
citizen, and especially as a mother raising the children for the future of
Canada, I should have direct access to the Prime Minister through his or
her office. When I started I wrote letters by hand, now I send emails. My
concerns are usually responded by the staff, and forwarded to the minister
responsible. My most recent letter to the PM was about getting the lead out of
Canadian Military responses in times of emergencies. After my email was sent,
the government fell. None the less I received a letter from the Acting Prime
Minister.
It is important to realize that in many issues being decreed, there have been
months or years of discussion in the "In Club". The "In Club" is older, richer
and more powerful than I am. I'm sure no one cares about each hard of hearing
child's rights to education, but they might care about creating a market for the
high tech hearing aid industry. Most parents are poor when they have kids. They
can't afford hearing aids, so if they want a hearing aid industry they either
have to lower the price of hearing aids or put subsidies for them.
May we have spring flowers, gentle rains and lots of good
chocolate.
PAM Candlish
April 6, 2006