I took this photo earlier in the month, intending to cobble together an "On the nightstand" entry, but one thing and then another has demanded my attention. You know how it goes. And for the record? I think I prefer the reading life review format I used throughout 2011 for sharing the books I've completed, so I've reverted to that.
Other notes:
❧ I've deleted M-mv's FB page; the Twitter account is simply inactive.
❧ I am completely caught up on email. Thank you for your patience.
❧ And here are the two lone new(ish) articles in my library of links:
The New York Times: The Upside of Dyslexia
Whatever special abilities dyslexia may bestow, difficulty with reading still imposes a handicap. Glib talk about appreciating dyslexia as a “gift” is unhelpful at best and patronizing at worst. But identifying the distinctive aptitudes of those with dyslexia will permit us to understand this condition more completely, and perhaps orient their education in a direction that not only remediates weaknesses, but builds on strengths.The New York Review of Books: Schools We Can Envy by Diane Ravitch
To be sure, Finland is an unusual nation. Its schools are carefully designed to address the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of children, beginning at an early age. Free preschool programs are not compulsory, but they enroll 98 percent of children. Compulsory education begins at the age of seven. Finnish educators take care not to hold students back or label them as “failing,” since such actions would cause student failure, lessen student motivation, and increase social inequality. After nine years of comprehensive schooling, during which there is no tracking by ability, Finnish students choose whether to enroll in an academic or a vocational high school. About 42 percent choose the latter. The graduation rate is 93 percent, compared to about 80 percent in the US.
1 comments:
Seems to me the less pressure at a young age, less ranking and shaming, and then more freedom as to how to spend the teen years is what makes education better in Finland than in the USA.
Now frame what President Obama said last month about wanting to (somehow) prevent dropping out and force everyone to stay in high school until age 18. Good luck with that. How would such forcing be accomplished?
Regarding the dyslexia I think the best way to help them learn to read is pull them out at young as possible and put them into special classes or even special regional schools where targeted very specific learning is done to help them learn to read. I knew a boy who went to a $60K a year school for dyslexia where the primary focus was teaching reading and the school day had to be longer to "do it all". He was excelling. It took the threat of a lawsuit and a lawyer's presence to push the public schools to let him attend at the town's expense after YEARS of the school's IEPs failing to make any progress. Wasted the kid's time.
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