We’re near the end of the year and that frequently means taking some time to get mentally quiet and reflect on where you are in your life and where you want to go in the next 1-2-5-7-10 years.  It’s also a great time to sit down with your children and teach them to do the same. A book that I really like and sometimes fall back on during this end of the year reflection is the book “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.  I’ve quoted him here before but this selection below is why I really like this author … and this book:

“Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked, when they had made camp that day.

“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

“But my heart is agitated,” the boy said. “It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it’s become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I’m thinking about her.”

“Well, that’s good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say.”

“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.”

“That makes sense. Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”

“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”

“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and about the world.”

“You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?”

“Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

“Every second of the search is an encounter with God,” the boy told his heart.

“Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him,” his heart said. “We, people’s hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out indeed, to be threatening place.

“So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.”

Here’s hoping that in the next year we all spend more time following our hearts and teaching our children to do the same.  Following your heart won’t insure success (nor prevent the bumps in the road) but it’s the only way to insure even a chance of happiness in the short …. or long term.

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“One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me “Superman” did not exist.  Cause even in the depths of the ghetto you just thought he was coming …. She thought I was crying because it’s like …. (he’s) not real.  I was crying because no one was coming with enough power to save us.”

- Geoffrey Canada. “Waiting for Superman”

The movie is controversial ….. very, very controversial.  Seen by some as a scathing expose on our current educational system and by others as simply a hit piece on the educational unions “Waiting For Superman” is, at the very least, a movie that is worth investing two hours of your time to see.  Since it hits on a topic near and dear to our hearts (and the hearts of anybody who really cares about this country I suppose) we wanted to make sure that not only did we see as soon as we could be that we could share it with you as quickly as possible.

Here are 10 facts from the “Waiting For Superman” movie and book that really jumped out at me:

1. NCLB – With four years left to reach the act’s goal of 100% proficiency  in Math and Reading most states hover around 20-30% proficiency
2. Among 30 developed countries the US is
   • 25th in Math
   • 21st in Science
   • When comparing our top 5% against their top 5% we’re …. last
3. High School Graduation Rates
   • African American – 51%
   • Latinos – 55%
   • Whites – 76%
   • 60% of those who do graduate will still need to take at least one remedial class in college
4. In Pennsylvania (as an example) 68% of state prison inmates are high school dropouts.  It’s costs, on average, $33,ooo per year and $132,000 per sentence to house, feed and care for that prisoner.   That’s enough to have sent that prisoner to private school for K-12th grade (avg. tuition $8,300) with $24,000 left over.
5. Since 1971 educational spending per student (adjusted for inflation) has doubled while test scores have remained flat.
6. The Teachers Unions (National Education Association & American Federation of Teachers) are the nation’s largest political contributors (exceeding NRA, Teamsters, AARP, Chambers of Commerce) with 90% of that money going to Democrats.
7. Protecting Teachers:
   • In Illinois (for example):
     • 1 in 57 Doctors loses their medical license
     • 1 in 97 Attorneys will lose their law license
     • Only 1 Teacher in 2,500 has ever lost their teaching credentials
   • In NY
     • Average teacher disciplinary hearing lasts 8 times longer that the average US criminal case at a cost of $65 million dollars per year
8. A top teacher in the top quintile will cover 150% of the required curriculum in a year.  A teacher in the bottom quintile will only cover 50% of the required curriculum.
9. If we eliminated the bottom 6-10% of underperforming teachers and replaced them with just “average” teachers we could bring the average US student up to the level of Finland, which is the top performing country in the world.
10. By the year 2020
    • 123 million jobs will be high skill/high pay occupations
    • Only 50 million Americans will be qualified to fill them

Some great resources I came across during interview prep:

• Michigan Public Schools Financial Data – Michigan Department of Education
  • See page 7 for the teacher pay summaries that we discussed during the show
• Predicting Success In Football & Teaching
  • This is a great piece by Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point, Outliers, Blink, What The Dog Saw) on the process we use for selecting, training and evaluating teachers.  We’ve referenced it before on the show and it’s a must read piece for all parents out there trying to figure out the challenges of education reform.
• Will Richardson – Tech Teacher
  • Here’s a teacher that truly gets the importance of changing HOW we teach in the information, tech heavy age.
• How To Fix Our Schools : A Manifesto – Washington Post
  • This is a brief “mainfesto” for educational reform  written, in part, by Joel Klein (Chancellor, NYC Dept. of Ed) and Michelle Rhee (former Chancellor, DC Public Schools)
• Rebuttal to the “How To Fix Our Schools Manifesto”
  • This rebuttal is but one (and there are MANY) of the rebuttals out there both to the type of reforms indicated in the above referenced manifesto but also in “Waiting For Superman”.  This one was written by Kevin Welner, Director of the Education Policy Center.  His rebuttal (evidently he was still a bit worked up is continued here.

“When you see a great teacher you are seeing a work of art.  You’re seeing a master and it is as, I think, as unbelievable as seeing a great athlete or seeing a great musician” – Geoffrey Canada, President & CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone

This undoubtedly will be a story and movie that we will continue to discuss in the coming weeks and months.  I hope you enjoy our interview with Karl Weber, author and editor of the book “Waiting for Superman”.  After listening to the interview and/or seeing the movie please feel free to share your comments (positive or negative) both here and on our Facebook page.

Click the picture above to purchase or find out more about the book!

Click the recorder below to hear our informative interview with Mr. Karl Weber from “Waiting For Superman” …..

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Who you calling a bully?

Can’t figure out why there’s bullying in the schools – here’s why:

“The Lakeview Public Schools was recently notified of one parent’s allegations of bullying at Ardmore Elementary. Ardmore Elementary is an outstanding place for children to receive an education with committed staff and caring parents. We believe any allegation that suggests there is a culture of bullying at Ardmore is ludicrous,” said district representative Karl Paulson.

This quote came from a local TV news story recently where a parent made a claim that her son was being bullied pretty viciously.  The above response is from the school in response to the story.

I don’t know if this mother is telling the truth.

But it doesn’t matter because in this case the problem is the school’s arrogant, bullying, dismissive response not the bullying accusation.

We believe any allegation that suggests there is a culture of bullying at Ardmore is ludicrous

• We believe – not we’ve investigated, not we’ve determined, not we’ve discovered … we believe (or we think)
• ANY Allegation – not this allegation, not in this instance but anybody saying ANYTHING happened EVER is wrong
• That SUGGESTS – this is called CYA, not only is it not true but if you even were to imply it COULD be true … you’re wrong
• A Culture of Bullying – unless they live outside of the real world in a bubble they’re part of a culture that does bully, it doesn’t mean that they agree with it or promote it, it also doesn’t take an entire culture of bullying in any place for something to occur …. just one person
• Is Ludicrous -  def: extravagantly humorous, idiotic, unthinkable to the point of being funny, laughable

Well, after reading this statement from Ardmore if I were a student or parent that was concerned about bullying I would certainly feel comfortable talking to someone there ….. how about you?

I’m sure they would take my claim very seriously and then address it respectfully, right?

Yup, sure wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked – called names or mocked – for suggesting that any of their precious children (or staff) could POSSIBLY have done anything wrong.

Nope.

Actually, I take back my earlier statement about no bullying going on at Ardmore.  Based on this statement alone I feel pretty comfortable saying that at the very least this district spokesperson (and as such the district) are bullies, even if their children are not.  I’ll even go a step further and say that based on this statement they’ve got a pretty good culture of bullying too.

Course, they’d probably just make fun of me and call me names …

As for the bullying legislation, the ultimate reason it doesn’t work is because a law requiring bullying training isn’t going to help schools and administrators that already think they’re the picture of perfection.

Not all elementary school bullies end up in jail.  Sometimes they end up in administration …..

"Nope, no bullying here..."

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Insurance News – Blue Cross to Pay $125,000 in Ground-Breaking Settlement for Autism Care

It’s not getting much (any?) attention anywhere in the media but yesterday the ground shifted in the Autism Insurance battle that’s been battling for years in states across this country.  When you buy insurance you buy it to protect yourself from unseen illness and tragedy.  However, if you

‘re the parent of a child with Autism more often than not your child’s Autism diagnosis will not be covered.  The reason it’s not covered is simple – it’s expensive and the insurance companies have figured out how to avoid paying for it.  While not covering children with Autism saves the insurance companies money it robs children of the opportunity to get life changing therapy during a developmental window when it will do the most good.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBS) is one of many insurance companies that has been trying to wiggle out of truly covering these children by testing (and stretching) every loophole they can find.  If all else fails they stall and stall and stall, safe in the knowledge that most parents :

• Can’t afford to fight them
• Are so overwhelmed with the needs of their new Autism diagnosis that they’ll have to give up the fight.

The parents quit the fight and the insurance companies save money.  They can use that savings to overpay their executives millions of dollars (seriously, read it for yourself here, or here) or fund advertising campaigns that attempt to convince us they’re – “accepting everyone” and there to  ”protect you” and turning a profit (see here).

However, in the second loss in a year it’s possible the tide of insurance change may finally be turning …. ever so slightly … in favor of children with Autism.

DETROIT, June 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has again been compelled by a lawsuit to pay claims for autism spectrum disorder treatment known as Applied Behavior Analysis, or “ABA.”

In the case of Matthews v. Blue Cross, Case No. 09-018750-CK , Wayne County Circuit Court, Blue Cross accepted a case evaluation award of $125,000 in favor of the plaintiff, Cheryl Matthews, an Oakland County Circuit Court judge.  Matthews alleged in her lawsuit that Blue Cross wrongfully refused to pay $38,000 in insurance claims stemming from the ABA treatment provided to her autistic son.

Earlier this year, Blue Cross paid over $1,000,000 to settle a class action lawsuit, Johns v. Blue Cross, No. 08-12272 (E.D. Mich) which also alleged that the insurer had engaged in a pattern and practice of wrongfully denying claims for ABA therapy.  Both the Matthews case and the Johns case were handled by Gerard Mantese and John Conway, who devote a large part of their practice to making ABA therapy available to children with autism spectrum disorder.

Blue Cross took the position that Matthews’ claim should be denied because ABA therapy was not an approved medical treatment under her insurance policy. Blue Cross filed three separate motions for summary disposition, seeking to dismiss the case, but Judge Prentis Edwards denied all three motions, forcing Blue Cross to either settle the claims or go to trial.

The $125,000 amount which Blue Cross must pay to Matthews represents three times the cost of therapy and recognized Matthews’ argument that her inability to access additional therapy from Blue Cross for her son will result in increased life care costs for her son. Many other States mandate that insurers pay for ABA therapy for autistic children, but the Michigan legislature has not yet passed a law to this effect.

Gerard Mantese, counsel for Cheryl Matthews, stated: “We believe that this is the first settlement in the United States to recognize the link between the inability of children with autism spectrum disorder to access needed ABA therapy and increased life care costs in the future because of the reduced functioning of children with ASD.”

John Conway, co-counsel for Matthews, stated, “We will continue to bring these suits until all insurers stop making baseless excuses for insuring this needed therapy.”

Now let’s be honest, $125,000 is a drop in the bucket for BCBS (they’re a $20 billion a year com

pany).  The tab for their sponsorship and week up at the Detroit Chamber of Commerce Mackinaw Policy Conference in Mackinaw this week likely far exceeds this judgement.  The reason for celebration though is that this judgement’s recognition of “increased life care costs” has the potential to change the game.  Now when insurers look to avoid providing coverage the stakes have increased.  The fact that it’s the second loss for the insurance giant in the past 12 months is also encouraging (see first case details here).

While suing insurance companies for coverage is one option the real change that we need will only occur when the State of Michigan joins  Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin in passing true insurance reform that will requires the insurance companies to stop refusing, excusing and denying treatment coverage for children with Autism.

It’s nice to see that with this judgement that Blue Cross Blue Shield will be held to the same ideals that they  proclaim they believe and want other insurance companies to uphold:

“Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan believes in covering people, not rejecting people. We believe in fulfilling the promise of health insurance when it’s needed most,” said Andrew Hetzel, BCBSM vice president for corporate communications (source: here)

Trust me, when your young baby/toddler is diagnosed with Autism and requires tens of thousands of dollars worth of therapy that is one of those times when “fulfilling the promise of health insurance” is needed most.  Here’s hoping that in the not so distant future it won’t take a courtroom judgement to get insurers to fulfill that promise.

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No Long Term Benefit To Delaying Vaccines, Study Finds

Hmmmm, what’s this….. a study looking at the effects of vaccines?  That’s an interesting finding …..

They report in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics that children who were vaccinated following the recommended immunization schedule exhibited better verbal skills, had higher IQs and were less likely to stutter than children who received vaccines on a delayed schedule.

Wow, kids that were vaccinated according to schedule did better than the kids that weren’t vaccinated or received delayed vaccinations.  Maybe vaccines are not only not risky for kids maybe they’re HEALTHY.

Meanwhile children who did not receive vaccines on time performed no better than children who did on any of the tests which looked at speech, fine motor skills, executive-functioning and behavior, among other skills.

Well,  if they’re not healthy maybe at the very least they don’t make a difference.

“The lack of any statistically significant results that favored delayed receipt of vaccines in the first year of life sends a clear public health message that should be comforting to many parents with vaccine safety concerns: children can receive their immunizations on time and expect to have the same neurodevelopmental outcomes as children with any other pattern of vaccine receipt,” the study authors write in their findings appearing online ahead of publication in Pediatrics.

Yup, sure enough that’s what they discovered too.  Well, that certainly will be a relief to a lot of nervous parents out there …. I better head to the computer and start spreading the word:

“Not only are vaccines not dangerous they might make you smarter!”

Wait a minute ….. what’s this?

Children who were not immunized on schedule typically came from lower income households and were more likely to have mothers who did not have college degrees, the study indicates, which could be one reason for the lower performance of kids in this group.

Ooops, the kids that didn’t get vaccinated and didn’t beat the other kids in the tests (or did worse) also (coincidence I guess?) were from:

• Poorer
• Less educated families

Now, as we all know poorer children from less educated families generally have access to the same health care, prenatal care, pre-school care, educational assistance, etc. that rich educated families get right?

And as a result they do just as well in all those academic and neurological tests right?

What…..that’s wrong?

Oh yeah!

Kids from poorer, less educated families generally do WORSE on these tests and these areas.

Soooooo, if you want to say that poorer, unvaccinated kids from lesser educated families didn’t do better than richer, better educated, vaccinated children that might be just a TAD bit more accurate.

So let’s look at this and see if it makes sense:

1. You do a research study.
2. You stack the deck on one side with children that statistically are going to do worse …. regardless of any other factors.
3. Coincidentally, this stacked population also happens to be the group that is your test group which you’re hoping will perform poorly (or at least not better) than your other, non-stacked group.
4. You do your research.
5. “SURPRISE” these stacked results prove that the kids that you’d expect to not perform as well (poorer, less educated, etc.) didn’t perform as well.
6. Conclusion: Vaccines are safe.

Sound like perfectly good science to me – how about you?

So that brings up a couple of questions?

• Why stack the deck in a “research” project?
• Why not have similar populations on both sides with the difference being the item you’re testing for (in this case their vaccine status)?

Wasn’t that how you were taught to do experiments in 3rd Grade?

Another interesting point – the study was also done on children between the ages of 7-10 years of age.  That’s significant because by then children that might have had negative neurological reactions would have already been identified and received their special “classifications” and “labels”.

• I’m wondering how many children studied were children believed (or proven) to be DAMAGED by vaccines?
• I wonder how many of these children were in Special Education programs?

See those would be important things to consider if you’re going to be drawing big grand conclusions about vaccines.  If you’re going to say they’re safe and the vaccines made no difference ….. you want to make sure you’re not excluding the kids where vaccines either made – or may have made – a difference.

Wanna make a little wager there weren’t any of those kids in this study?

Which is what makes this Pseudo Pop Science so frustrating.

We trust science to help us protect, guide, educate and direct our children and our decisions.  Yet time and time again we’re led down a twisted path with marketing and propaganda in a white scientist/researcher lab coat.

(click the picture above for some great Smoking “science” ads)

We need real research.  We need real science.  We need real answers.

I’m disappointed because this kind of research is DESPERATELY needed and for some reason few people out there are willing to do real, unbiased research.  Which always makes me wonder :

• Are they not doing it because they’re afraid of what they might find in a true, unbiased, scientific, representative population study?

- or -

• Do they know what they want before they start and they just need to wait to get the “right” results that “prove” they were correct all along?

- or -

• Are they just sloppy and don’t care if it’s slanted?

I don’t know which answer is better but the simple fact that one of them is true … keeps me awake at night.

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How Do We Keep Our Kids Safe?

This week’s show was a doubleheader with two great interviews both dealing with that same question.

First up was the husband and wife team of Carolyn and Andrew Gammicchia founders of the organization L.E.A.N. On Us whose stated mission is to:

… provide first responders with information and resources that will allow them to better serve individuals within their communities affected by hidden disabilities and mental illness.

The simple fact of the matter is that those with mental illness and disabilities are more likely to be both the victim of crime and unfairly arrested for crimes that they were not responsible for.  Unable to adequately defend themselves or explain what happened they are often at the mercy of first responders and a justice system that simply doesn’t understand them or know how to respond properly to them.

The Gammicchia’s have the advantage of having one foot in both the law enforcement community and the “disability” community and are working hard to try to bridge the gap that occurs on both sides.

In our interview we certainly talked about those topics but we also covered what EVERY parent should be doing to keep their children safe at school, in the neighborhood and in their own homes.  We also discussed the importance of teaching your children from a young age how to act and react when encountering first responders (along with some great tips on how to do this).

Some great related links ….

• L.E.A.N On Us – First Responders Card for Autism Spectrum
  • This is a great resource that you can share with your local law enforcement and first responders when you visit them at their stations (one of the many outstanding tips from the interview)
• ICE Your Cellphone
• Domestic Violence and Disabilites
• Unarmed Man Shot And Killed By Police
• Autistic Man Jailed On Hospital Assault Charges Won’t Be Charged

The second part of the show was the conclusion of the Mary Tocco interview in which she discussed the safety and concerns surrounding the Gardasil vaccine for girls ….. and now approved for boys.

• National Vaccine Information Center : Gardasil Vaccine
• Vaccine Wary Parents Guarded Over Gardasil Pitch To Boys
• New Hope For Teen Suffering From Possible Deadly Vaccine Reaction
• NH Mom Sues Alleging HPV Vaccine Hurt Daughter
• Educated Parents Less Likely To Let Daughters Get HPV Vaccine
• FDA Meets With Mothers of Gardasil Victims
  • The Gardasil Mom’s – The Truth About Gardasil
• How A Public-Private Partnership Made The Government Merck’s Silent Partner
• British Shops Bribe Teen Girls For Cancer Jab

We hope you enjoy both interviews!

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Great interviews this week!

Jim Amick from Nordic Naturals, who is one of the show sponsors but he’s one of the show sponsors because we’ve been long time fans of Nordic Naturals Fish Oils,  joined us to tell us a little bit about fish oils and the Nordic Natural products.

You hear all the time about the importance of EFA’s for kids and adults and in my opinion they make the best products out there.   I was first turned on to them years ago by Lisa Geng from The Cherab Foundation (here’s a good link) who was doing some interesting work with Apraxia / Late Talkers and the EFA’s.  They were seeing good results and so we tried them and we’ve been fans ever since.  The reasons that I like them are simple:

• They were an early supporter of working with family with kids with speech challenges in adopting their products.  Rather than just put their products out there they actually WORKED with families and groups early on.
• Their products are as pure as I’ve been able to find and are tested extensively.
• They’ve got a good informative website and have had really good support materials over the years (here’s a good example)
• We’ve seen a difference when we use them both with our son and personally.

In addition to explaining what the EFA’s do and are good for Jim also shared with us a couple of things that surprised me, including:

• Your fish oils shouldn’t smell like fish (seems counter intuitive huh?)
• Once opened all fish oils should be refrigerated (even the capsules … mine are now in the fridge next to the Cherry Juice)
• The color of the capsules …. doesn’t matter (contrary to what some ads are currently saying)

If you’re not familiar with fish oils or the importance of EFA’s don’t think this is a kids only or special needs kids only issue.  EFA’s are critical for all members of the family (pets included) and play an important role in mental, neurological, cardiac and overall health. If you’re not familiar with their products or don’t know which ones are right for your family please check out these two links - Fish Oil FAQ’s, Which Product Is Right For Me? .

The second part of the show focused on the “Why’s” and “How To’s” of Picky Eaters with Jill Bloomfield from Teach Kids To Cook and a food blogger for Betty Crocker.  Jill discussed some really interesting things about how to work to make kids less picky with their eating, including giving some pretty good insight into the things that led her to be a picky eater in the past.

We forgot to mention it on the air but Jill also has a booklet called Educators Guide:  Food and Cooking For Kids that is a down loadable PDF and it is a GREAT guide for bringing your kids into the kitchen.  It shows you how to teach your kids about cooking, recipes, menu planning, cooking vocabulary, basic cooking skills and it’s totally free.  So after you listen to her interview go download it, print it and you’ve got a good blueprint to follow to get your kids more knowledgeable about food and cooking,  which as we discussed in the interview is a great way to get them more willing to experience a wider variety of foods.

In the final minutes of the show I also went off on a small rant about all the bullying we’ve been reading about lately, due to the constraints of time I was still fuming afterward so expect a post that wraps up what I was saying on the air.  Actually, it’s already written but I learned a long time ago that it’s best to write some posts, let them marinade a day or two and then post them (it really keeps you from putting your foot in it).

Thanks for listening and please let me know what you think of the interviews!

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We’re hearing lots of hype about the Apple Ipad this week and I have to admit that after checking one out myself it’s a pretty impressive little tool.  The question of course is …. what kind of tool is it really?

It’s easy to criticize it as just a blown up IPod, Ipod Touch,  Iphone, etc. and it does incorporate features from those previous Apple creations.  But does it really matter or is it just the latest piece of candy in the Apple candy store?

Here’s why it matters …. alot.

It’s going to destroy the textbook as we know it and it’s going to change school curriculum as we know it.

• Textbooks are insanely expensive.  Universities and publishers have carved out their own little niche where they can efficiently gouge their poor students because their students don’t have any choice.  As long as you have professors writing required textbooks for their own classes they’re always going to be overpriced. But the IPad is going to make them cheaper.  It’s inevitable.  Much like the record companies fought it and the movie companies are fighting it now, once it’s digital you have to make it cheaper…. or everyone will simply ignore you or steal them.  Imagine being able to buy your books a chapter or section at a time.  Instead of dropping $50 to $100 or more for a book that a professor will barely use (or use only a handful of chapters out of) you’ll be able to pay just for what you need.  Have no doubt that the schools and publishers will fight it … but the kids and technology will win and the prices will come down.

In the long run, it will be very difficult for proprietary textbook publishers to compete with freely licensed alternatives. An open project with dozens of professors adapting and refining a textbook on a particular subject will be a very difficult thing for a proprietary publisher to compete with. The point is: there are a huge number of people who are qualified to write these books, and the tools are being created to leave them to do that. – quote from Lawrence Lessig

• It’s not just textbooks at the college level though. Oh, nooo this one is going to rock the foundations right down to the elementary school kids.  If you wander into a handful of schools you’ll notice a certain …. similarity …. in the publishers of all their materials.  That’s because a small handful of publishers rule the roost and control the content being delivered.  Digital technology has a way of really screwing up scenario’s where a small handful control the access to content … ask the music publishers.

• There will be fewer excuses for outrageously outdated material.   The world changes fast and with tech on our side there will be no excuse for the materials not to change just as fast.

• Books are not interactive.  Electronic media is built to BE interactive and the IPad in the classroom pushes the bar even higher for a more interactive, shareable, linkable, networked education.  Which is GREAT because that’s what’s happening outside of the classroom in the real world.

“Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages — not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs,” Aaron Horvath, a senior at Princeton – IPAD Centric Education

• It’s great news for all of the kids that don’t “fit” into the central educational system’s main box.  Students with “disabilities”,  Autism, attention challenged, bored out of your minds, visual learners your education is going to open UP because we’re going to shrink text, enlarge text, read it out loud, show it as an animation, present thoughts one at a time with immediate references or explanations along side,  break a page of text into an outline version or mind mapped version.  The possibilities are endless and the best part is that it can all be done with a student having a tool that looks (from the outside) to be the same as their classmates.  Imagine the ability to be able to have a digital aide right on the screen to help a child instead of someone sitting next to them in the classroom!

• You’ll never be able to say you forgot your book, homework, notebook, pens, pencils again.  On the surface this is funny but let’s be honest the vast majority of us reading this were able to use that excuse …. some of us more than once.

The books will change from physical to electronic, okay, but how big a change will that really be?  The textbook will still be the textbook …..

But if it’s all digital will we really need the “book” concept at all.  Why not simply ditch the book (even in it’s digital format) and have the class materials as part of a blog?  The teacher can create the material …. linking to applicable pictures, references, passages from books, etc. …. and the students all simply log into the class “blog” to access it all.  Aren’t we just about there already with Wikipedia and the “wiki” idea anyway (not sure what a wiki is click here or here)?

Okay,  I know some folks are going to say we’ve got a lot of these advantages with computers already.  As a matter of fact computers have been required in colleges across the country already for years ….. but there’s still textbooks.  Besides can’t it be just as interactive with a laptop as it could be with the IPad.

The answer, simply, is …………..No.

It’s not the same thing at all.

It’s almost like comparing your pencil to your pen to your typewriter to your word processor to your first computer….granted they all allow you to do work but the WAY it’s done is DRASTICALLY different.

First of all …. the IPad will make it faster, smaller, easier and more lightweight.  It’s kind of hard for a 1st grader to lug a laptop around but at 1.5 lbs the same can’t be said for the IPad (see the video below).

Secondly, it’s Apple cool.  It’s beautiful.  It’s sleek.  It’s sexy.  I love my Droid Motorola phone and in many ways (non AT&T service for example) I could make the argument that it’s every bit as good as an IPhone if not better…. until you actually hold them each in your hand and look at them.  Laptops are great but the IPad … it’s cool and cool is important when you’re trying to get kids (and who are we kidding ADULTs) to use something.

Third, Apple has our kids and schools …. shoot they have most of us too …. in the palms of their hands already.  Apples have been the dominant tech in most of our schools since those odd little beige Apple II’s first landed in school libraries.

Even beyond the schools though we love our Iphones, Ipods and Macs.  A bunch of folks will buy the IPad just because …. well,  it’s new and from Apple.  We know the Itunes store,  we know how to get our apps,  we know that we’ll have to pay but it will probably be less than if we had to buy something in a real store.  The vast majority of us already have our electronic libraries of movies, music, games, apps all being fed by the Apple store.   So really, what’s another “ITool” in our toolbox?

The IPad's Great, Great, Great Grandpa (even though it's only 33 yrs old) the Apple II's (this one is the slightly younger IIE). Hey, check out the color monitor!

As parents (and grandparents) in our 30′s, 40′s, 50′s and 60′s you think you feel old and outdated when it comes to tech now?  Just wait and see where those little toddlers running around now with their “ITools” are going to take us….

But don’t take my word for it check out this great articles from this month’s Fast Company Magazine – “A is For App” – to see how this revolution is already rolling.

The IPad (and the next couple of generations of the IPad) will be the wave of tools that will really push this into high gear.

The biggest problem and hurdle to making this a reality?

Us. The old folks (everyone over 30 … hey, it’s old in tech terms unless you’re really working hard to stay up to date)

All of us that didn’t graduate in the past two years are going to be looking at this tech and be utterly confused as to how it should be used properly.

We’ve already got millions of teachers in this country that can’t do much more than send an email as proof of their technical prowess.

True, some teachers have class blogs, Facebook & Twitter accounts and are always looking for the latest and greatest tech tool to improve their teaching (and our kids’ learning).  However,  the overwhelming majority of the Teachers (and administrators) are outdated.  In far too many schools computers are still nice “tools” and great “extras” in the classroom …. instead of THE tool in the classroom.

If we can keep the adults out of the way and make sure that the 2.8 million new teachers that will be filling the ranks (and joining the other 3.2 million teachers already there) in the next eight to ten years are not only up for the task but up with (and stay up with) the tech we’re going to see an educational revolution like we haven’t seen since the printing press.

Think that’s an exaggeration?

Since the printing press?

Come on, I’m getting carried away ….right?

Think about this ….while you’d be hard pressed to find many offices in this country that don’t have a computer at every desk you’d be equally hard pressed to find many schools where there IS a computer at every desk (imagine that, school culture evolving slower than the rest of the world).  Some classes you’d be hard pressed to find more than one or two computers in the classroom (and likely the one or one of the two is the teacher’s computer)

Now it CAN happen.

Now we can get a computer on every little kids desk.  Actually, the computer won’t even sit on the desk because it will travel with the student which is what makes it even better and will make it a success.

Let’s face it … we need an educational revolution in this country.

We’re doing an embarrassingly bad job of educating our kids.

We spend far too much money.

We lose far too many kids along the way.

We generate results that are inadequate and graduate kids that are unprepared.

We live in a technology rich, networked, digital world but most of our kids have more contact with tech on their ride into school than they do their entire school day.

BUT ….. with the IPad (and it’s cousins) we’ve finally driven technology down to a point where it can be implemented in an easy to carry, easy to use package.

All of this at the same time that the Internet is overflowing with knowledge, networks and the tools to make it all a reality.

Man!  Do we live in exciting times or what?

• Has The IGeneration Arrived
• Apple’s IPad Will Read Books Out Loud
• Colleges Dream Of Paperless, IPad Centric Education
• How The Iphone Could Reboot Education
• Laptop Killer?

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The kids that make every meal a ……. challenging, torturous, frustrating, hair-pulling experience  (though many other adjectives would fit there too)….

THE PICKY EATER

It’s not just that if you don’t give into them they can make the whole meal a test of wills, it’s also the fact that you worry ….

• Are they really getting all the nutrition they need?
• Will they become an adult who’s whole diet consists of pop tarts, pizza, chicken nuggets and peanut butter sandwiches?
• Is there a real reason for the picky eating ….. or are they just being difficult?
• Do I give in …. or starve them out (not really of course,  Grandma says EVENTUALLY they’ll eat)?
• How do you break them of the habit?
• Will they ever eat brocolli?

This weekend on the My Great Kid Radio show we will be interviewing Jill Bloomfield from Teaching Kids To Cook and the founder of the kids cooking consulting company Picky Eaters.  She is also the author of the Jewish Holidays Cookbook (click here for a recipe from the book) and  DK Publishing‘s (the folks that do all those great colorful, high quality, picture packed, visually rich books) resident kid’s cooking expert.

Most importantly for this topic she is an expert on how to free your kids from the “Picky Eater” habit (being as she’s a reformed Picky Eater herself).

If you have any questions you’d like to have us ask comment below, email us or post them on our Facebook page!

• Jill’s Interview on Oprah
• NYT Article : When Picky Eaters Grow Up
• Jill’s Blog @ Betty Crocker
• The Educator’s Guide to Food and Cooking For Kids (great downloadable pdf)
• Author Interview from Jewish Holiday Cookbook

Don’t forget to become a fan of the show on Facebook and get your name in the drawing for the free Wrightslaw Special Education Training CD’s and the FREE Toys from Tree Town Toys.

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I ran across this anti-bullying website for kids and parents (primarily younger kids).  It’s got some good information on it and some scenarios that parents can work through with their kids.

I especially liked that it had some good resources, book recommendations, tip sheets, etc..

Best of all there are little animated scenes that you can read through (they have the script), watch online, download or print out and read comic book style.  Great resource for kids who need a more visual approach!  They also have little games kids can play and quizzes for after the videos have played

The scenarios are simple and short.  My only real complaint is that they are a bit stereotypical (jocks pick on music nerd, etc.) but other than that they are great!

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