Day: March 1, 2013

1028. The Grandin Files

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In academic circles you are not recognized for your physical beauty but for the beauty of your ideas, accomplishments, and struggles. It is with that in mind that NADE chose to honor Temple Grandin as the keynote speaker for this opening day of the 2013 conference. NADE is the National Association of Developmental Educators. Temple Grandin is a Ph.D in Animal Science and pioneered the humane destruction of animals. Her methods have been heralded throughout the planet and adopted by many meat producers. Still, she isn’t really here to talk about meat (though the Pork Board is meeting and she might be seeing them too). She is here because she was diagnosed with Autism at a young age and, despite this then misunderstood affliction, she excelled in academics and earned her Ph.d. She is the goal and the result of a good association of teachers and the reason why many of us continue to fight the battle of developmental Ed against increasingly overwhelming odds.

School is hard. I know this from the perspective of a student who fought through accelerated programs for decades. I also know it from the perspective of a parent of a student with a learning disability. My son is dyslexic in a state where dyslexia is treated with the same regard as UFOs. There is no special consideration for dyslexia. There is no training for dealing with dyslexic students in my son’s school, so when faced with the knowledge of his problem the school chose to handle it as a standard lack of reading interest. They offered additional tutoring and additional strategies to manage the reading. They did not address the problems of reading. Still, what the did worked well enough for him to get an A and move him to straight A’s. unfortunately, the work only gets harder and now I am left to give him the proper tools to deal with his developmental challenges.
My boy and Grandin walk a similar path. They both have had to look inward to get the help they need in the face of a world that either does not understand or willfully ignores their problems. Yet Grandin has been successful in her life. I believe that conferences such as the one I am attending will produce the type of teachers who will help give my own boy the tools to be successful in his life.
Oh, if that doesn’t work I am teaching him to dribble a basketball.
Some Thoughts:
1. Pardon the delay in posting. Turns out the Sheraton Downtown Denver wants you to pay extra for network access or visit their link club to go online. I managed to get to the link club today.

1027. Scenes From an Airport

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I watched a kidnapping drama unfold on Castle last night, so before I begin I feel compelled to remind my reader(s) that my heavily armed wife is not home alone, but is being checked in on by my ex military neighbor. Now, I wanted to share a few observations about air travel. To begin, there appear to be two distinct types of travelers: the relaxed veteran and the bring all. I suppose I fall into the latter category, but I mean to be in the former.

There is some crossover between the two, especially in styles of dress. I’ve noticed that women work especially hard at looking good during travel. This may be as a result of the female species being predominantly more relaxed at traveling. They might carry a purse or handbag and be cool. We guys tend to fall into that bring all category, lugging carry-ons, laptop bags, and knapsacks wherever we travel. The act of traveling itself seems to be a binary affair, with the travelers lined up into the categories I laid out partially according to mission. I am weighed down by bags, because I am going to a conference in the near-arctic land of Colorado. During this conference on Developmental Education I plan to scratch out multiple stories and have mad fun. Oh, I’ll learn something too I suppose.

But back to the travel conversation:

You can spot an experienced traveler at check in. You know them as the people who walk right by check in and zoom up to the security gate where there are often a set of express check-in kiosks mostly under-utilzed. They’re the one in the nice but comfortable bottoms and easy slip off shoes. They fly through the gates unnoticed and arrive at the best seats in the plane. You can see why i want to be down with that.

Some Thoughts:
1. My ipad was recently the victim of football violence. While showing my team a play on the ipad, a player decided to hurl a pretty spiral my way. It caught the bottom corner of the ipad and shattered the glass. The kid’s father offered to cover the cost or switch my ipad for the kid’s. I opted for the switch, but lo and behold Walmart may be riding in to the rescue. My insurance is not yet expired and they intend to try to fix the glass. Go Walmart.

2. Jordan kicked up a newstorm by claiming he would try to play basketball at 50. I’m trying to play flag football at 38 and that is a mess. The problem of it is my inability to work out at all. If I could just start with one gym day a week I’d be fine. Now, with the wife poised to take a job that has her working weekend overnights, I may really be in trouble. She’ll be in no shape to watch kids in the morning, causing me to lose the Sunday Football League. That will result in immediate weight gain and deep-seeded disappointment in self. A friend recently suggested I stop worrying about being athletic. Nope. You are asking me to come to terms with the fact that I can no longer live in the world of athletes. I am not ready for that at all.