The NEA's Bassackward View of Homeschooling

The NEA supposedly believes that "every child in America, regardless of family income or place of residence, deserves a quality education." They pursue their mission by "improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement and making schools safer, better places to learn". I see nothing inherently wrong about their vision of "a great public school for every student." I find it noble that they desire to "to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world." In fact, since my tax dollars support public education, I would like nothing better for teachers to succeed in this mission. However, I firmly believe that parents ought to be in the driver's seat in making a choice about education, whether it be in public, private, or home schools.

Closer scrutiny of their core values causes me to pause.

We believe public education is the gateway to opportunity. All students have the human and civil right to a quality public education that develops their potential, independence, and character.

Education is the gateway to opportunity, period, end of story. A quality education ought to develop the character of each student. Every achievement flows out of character.

We believe public education is vital to building respect for the worth, dignity, and equality of every individual in our diverse society.

The result of an education that respects children as born persons, teaches them in their natural environment, trains good habits, and presents of living ideas will build respect for the worth, dignity, and equality of every individual.

We believe public education is the cornerstone of our republic. Public education provides individuals with the skills to be involved, informed, and engaged in our representative democracy.

Pardon me while I scream! Public schools were a rarity in most colonies at the foundation of our country. Most of the founders were educated at home by parents or tutors or attended private schools. Thus, those who built our representative democracy were involved, informed, and engaged without a public education. Research shows that adults who were home educated participate in local community service and vote and attend public meetings more frequently than does the general population.

There is more to the NEA's core values, but I need to get to the nut of this post. You can read it for yourself if you can stand it.

Here is the anti-homeschooling resolution (page 36) that the NEA renewed in 2006 after years and years of research documenting the success of homeschoolers. While I can understand the hesitancy of the NEA back in 1988, how many spelling bees do homeschoolers have to win for them to get the point?

B-75. Home Schooling The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used. (1988, 2006)

Sigh . . .

According to research, "the largest data set on the academic success of the home educated reveals positive things. 16,311 students from across the country were tested with the nationally normed Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The nationwide average for the homeschooled on the Basic Battery (i.e., reading, language, and math) was the 77th percentile. They were at the 79th percentile in reading, the 73rd in language, and the 73rd in math. (The national average is the 50th percentile.)" In a Canadian study on homeschooling, "students whose parents were certified teachers did no better than the other students." And, all of you parents of special need children, chin up:

Dr. Steven Duvall compared the academic engaged time (AET) and basic skill development of learning disabled students who were home educated to those in public school special education programs. Higher rates of AET and greater academic gains were made by the home educated. "... parents, even without special education training, provided powerful instructional environments at home..." (NHERI)

How about these factoids from the NHERI site and for more information, check out Home Educated and Now Adults:

• The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests.
• Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.
• Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.
• Degree of state control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to academic achievement.
• Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions.
• Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.

Are you steamed?

Some homeschoolers in Florida started a petition to present to the NEA in protest of their ridiculous resolution. They include a link to statistics supporting their petition. One word of caution: always beware of any petition you sign because you do not want to be caught looking foolish like the young ladies at Padua Academy who signed petitions to end women's suffrage.

Mistakes to the Rescue!

A mechanism in the human brain reacts in .01 seconds to prevent us from repeating an error we made in the past. No doubt you've heard the old cliché that we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. Recently University of Exeter researchers discovered how quickly the brain works to help us avoid repeating our blunders.

Interestingly, when research participants saw images that led them to diagnose a blood sample image incorrectly, warning signals came within a tenth of a second, whereas brain signals triggered by a correct diagnosis were much slower.

Early warning signals help us avoid another costly gaffe at the business table. You'll know exactly what I mean if you ever fell for a slick salesman's vision without checking the facts. You do not go there again and you are so prepared the second time around! Ever had that kind of experience? Mistakes can cripple or catapult the business brain.

Let's keep our fingers away from hot burners on the stove! Sure doesn't take long for the brain to react to the red glow!

Silly Talk

My friend, the Queen Mum, gave an example of how RDI differs from other therapies in trick or treating. Someone made a comment to me today about Pamela's great conversation yesterday. The mom wrote, "It is so reassuring to me to see other kids with mannerisms like my son's." I realized that RDI is different in another way.

My goal is not to make Pamela indistinguishable from her peers. I want Pamela to be Pamela. She would not be the same Pamela if she lost her gentle, yet quirky qualities. I want to be able to share with Pamela my experiences and find out about her experiences. I hope that she can learn to enjoy spontaneous exchanges and to be able to collaborate with others for she has so much to share. I pray that she can learn to be resilient and bounce back more quickly when life does not go exactly her way. I want her to be able to communicate non-verbally and pick up on the subtle ways that others do so. I hope we can open the door to friendship outside of the family (we are already her friends), to meaningful work, and to independence if that is even possible a long time down the road. Of course, she can chose not to go through these doors, but, at least, she will know how if she does choose!

Today's clip from the same great conversation reminds me of what attracted me to RDI. When I read the following paragraph describing the language used in Level I, I had an "aha!" moment because I was doing these very things with Pamela starting when she was about eight years old. We have been playing these language games, which we called "silly talk", for years!

Vocalization is used for the enhancement of excitement, the irect attention to our faces and to celebrate our simple successes. Ritualized song segments, often repeated "chants," set phrases and silly words are used for their relationship binding and enhancement elements. We often take phrases that the novice enjoys and repeat them, with slight changes in emphasis or rhythm and find that this significantly increases with their fun. We may pick up on stereotypical language, modify it and then ad it contextually to the activity we are setting up. (page 36)

When Pamela was little, she would sit in my lap and we would go back and forth with her favorite stim phrases. I would slow down my pace or increase my pace. I would raise my voice right before I would insert the wrong word. Silly talk always meant lots of giggling and laughter. The most oddball thing we did was to stretch a jingle from TV to teach calendar skills. Pamela picked up a jingle and ran around the house singing, "It's Sunday." So, every day, we sang it for that day, "It's Thursday." When she mastered that, we practiced what day it was not, "It's NOT Tuesday." Next, we worked on today, tomorrow and yesterday: "Yesterday was Sunday!" Then, we extended it to months. It amazed me how far we stretched one silly jingle that Pamela loved!

In the following clip, notice how Pamela smiles and laughs when I say things wrong on purpose. Her enjoyment increases as keeping getting close to the right word (Super 8 Motel), but never quite right. Pamela learned to be playful in language because of all the silly talk we have been doing for years.

Nokia Music Store in UK

Uphill battle for music fans just started in UK powered by Nokia Music Store.
Buy a track, album or streaming. Music has been allways hoped to be accepted on mobile phone.
The pricing for such a commodity will be extremely fierce.
I expect some type of digg-a-like rating system ( for similar mobile music services ) for artist popularity in addition to other features made famouse by Last.FM, Party Strands etc .

Nokia Search gets more presence in Latin America

Search the content of your phone and in the outer mobile space

Not so visible and important by metrics and measurement I've seen, but mobile search by Nokia is gaining momentum in Latin America.
Nokia made deals with local search providers ( 15 in South America and 38 overall in the World ).

“We’re on a mission to bring everyone the ultimate search capabilities, whether locally or on the web,” says Jussi-Pekka Partanen, head of Nokia Search, Multimedia, Nokia.

Mr. Jussi- Pekka sounds like they try to explain themselves as internet connected mobile multimedia and phone top search.

What about photo and mobile code searches ( visual ) ? Are those engines counted ?
Point and search ? Not type and search.

A moment for reflections

One needs to write.
It helps on a lot of occasions.

We need to put digital footprints into this digital see of information.
The goal is sometimes to put yourself up for somebody to pay attention or to serve as a reminder to ourselves that we had dreams, hopes, attitudes and done something to feel alive.

That's what I am doing right now.
The life is too short. We must act on our desires, senses, wishes, capabilities and reach what we like and hope for. ''Too late moment'' could be a moment closer then we think.

That's the life.
A bit poetic post today after some time on hiatus. Yes, I am still talking about mobile space.

After some time, I did more closely watched Forum Oxford forum. It's again interesting and nice to see some new important discussions.
But more about this in my future posts.

I've discussed about business opportunities inside mobile space recently with one of my friends but we riched conclusion there's nothing specific we are thrilled right now, so we won't bother with mobile business anytime soon.

But I'll be involved into mobile because of my passion.

10 Tactics to Jumpstart Creativity in Your Work

Creativity's placed at the highest cognitive level of thinking, analysis and reasoning skills by learning experts... A recent Gallop Poll reveals that 59% of workers say that their current job brings out their most creative ideas. To ante up your work products, why not try new approaches? Here're suggestions from other bloggers to kickstart your creativity!

1. Darren Rowse advises folks to stimulate your mind differently...

Stimulate yourself with a variety of new sounds, sights, ideas, conversations, tastes, people etc the more creative ideas that seem to come out.

So you hereby have permission to take yourself to see a movie, to read a book, treat yourself to a magazine, to make a new friend, to buy yourself a new CD, to try a new radio station and even to take a trip and visit a new culture!

2. Drew McLellan collects creativity triggers to "twist the common into something fresh and brainwipes...ways to clear your head of that the expected, to make room for new ways of looking at something." Here's one of Drew's favorites:

Be like a reporter. Query the situation, problem, product that you're needing to be creative about. Not a who, what, where, how kind of an interview, but more of an in depth character study. Do it out loud if you have to, but really dig in. Ask probing questions. Assume the persona of your interview subject to "feel" the answers. I know it sounds a little silly but you'll be amazed at the interesting insights. Give it a spin and let me know how it works for you.

3. Seth Godin wisely looks beyond a creative idea:

99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn't coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you've thought of.

The devil doesn't need an advocate. The brave need supporters, not critics.

4. Frank Roche tells us to take a child's approach to your task without any fear of the process...


5. Ellen Weber asks, "How do people who problem solve creatively … differ from noncreative counterparts?" Here's two main differences researchers at Drexel University found...

Firstly, creative solvers tend to show greater activity in several regions of their right hemisphere. Apparently, creative individuals even daydream with more remote associations, than noncreative peers. There’s more than making links or connecting unusual pieces though. How so?

Secondly, creative workers differ in areas of the brain that process visual images. Interestingly, their “alpha” and “beta” brainwaves showed diffused rather than focused visual attention. They also create unusual connections ... that less creative people miss.

Maybe you do not realize that Einstein's teacher called him a bonehead at school, but he later visualized the theory of relativity by "riding the curve of the arc."

6. Joanna Young finds that just the right music can help her achieve writing flow...and cut down on writers' block...

This morning I've been experimenting with baroque music. It's supposed to be great for learning and concentration.

7. Daniel Sitter shares how to unleash selling creativity... For creative people the end results might not play out as you anticipate. Daniel says...

Years ago I had a bright idea. I wrote a compelling sales letter and decided to mail it to a hundred prospects which I had identified through an industrial directory.

I decided that my letter would focus upon the core question "Do you suffer from industrial indigestion?" I cleverly glued a Tums® tablet to the page, knowing that I had a marketing winner in my hands! I could hardly wait to print the letters and mail them off.

The letters were mailed on a Monday morning and I began the follow-up calls the following Thursday...My bubble was soon burst by the news that I was hearing from many of the prospects. When they opened my letter, a small pile of mint-scented powder dumped on their desk. Oh yeah, they remembered me alright! It seems that the antacid tablets were crushed by mail-handling machinery; something I had not considered.

While some of the prospects were obviously bothered, most that I spoke with were not and the mailing ended up being quite successful. One way or another, I created an interesting, unforgettable first impression. The effort led to many new customers.

8. Bill Parks tells us that we can actually increase creativity by setting deadlines. Begin by asking: Why might a deadline make a difference to me and my idea? Bill says, "Have you noticed as you get closer to a deadline, you become more creative? Deadlines cause our thoughts and imagination to become active giving us ideas to get the job done before the deadline." Try it... it has made lots of difference for me.

9. Braingle suggests that folks might find more creativity by taking ideas apart. Here's how it works...

Elaborating on an existing idea is a great way to come up with new and better ideas. One way to do this is by taking an idea apart and looking at its components. By looking at one part at a time, you might be able to ignore your preconceived notions about the idea and come up with some interesting improvements.

Start by listing the attributes of the idea. Just the act of listing the individual pieces will get your mind thinking about improvements or modifications. For example, if someone asked you to design a better bird feeder, you might be at a loss about where to start. It's a little overwhelming to tackle a large project all at once. To take it apart, you might list the individual attributes like this:

1. Hook for hanging
2. Container for seeds
3. Covering to shield feeder from rain
4. Perch for birds to sit on
5. Tray to collect fallen seeds
6. Device to prevent squirrels from eating seeds

10. To stir even more uniqueness in your work, check David Airey's collection of creative resources just posted today. David, our minds are running with synchronicity today! And I'm certain Brad Shorr will love that word!

What do you do to ante up new products where you work? I'd enjoy hearing tactics you use to catch a great idea and take it to "out of the box" results. Please provide a link for me and I'll post a sequel.