President's Message: Getting Organized in 2014

by Blanche Podhajski
 

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So the new year is getting older by the day.  How are you doing with your resolutions? Apparently, only 45% of us make them and only 8 % of us keep them (statisticbrain.com) so maybe the question is moot. I was thinking the other day about what might be among the most popular resolutions. For sure I thought “getting organized” would be right up there but it didn’t make the top ten. Not that I would have realized that by the numbers of organizational aids for sale.  

I was in one of my favorite stores last week and the entry way was packed with every imaginable product to facilitate putting our lives in order:  Pop-Up Organizers, Project Boxes, Laundry Sorters, etc...  I miss Cathy, the comic strip, (she retired four years ago) because every January she demonstrated her great intentions by buying a huge array of organizers and then became more disorganized in her clutter of containers. Which brings up the point of this blog: without explicit teaching, getting organized is not all that easy. As with many other life skills, like skiing, reading, singing—some of us have more intuitive talent than others.

President's Message: Early Opportunity

by Dr. Blanche Podhajski

Early education is back in the forefront.  President Obama is not alone in valuing the importance of quality experiences during the earliest years.  Educators have long expressed concern about disparities on the preschool playing field.

Children of poverty have been reported to have the fewest of these quality experiences and by four years of age lag behind their peers in basic language skills that predict becoming literate.

President's Message: Empathy

by Dr. Blanche Podhajski

I did not blog last month because December was a blur. I was away with family for the holidays and, like everyone, my thoughts were preoccupied with the tragic events in Sandy Hook.  Our hearts go out to the families and survivors whose memories are forever changed.  Those of us who work in schools and clinics know what little six and seven year old children are like in December.  Their exuberance and joy are palpable.  Their loss deprives us all.  May we honor their memory by being inspired to help all children as did the courageous teachers of Sandy Hook. Educators deserve such admiration and respect for the responsibilities they assume every day to advance the knowledge, preserve the safety, and sustain the self-esteem of our young.

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon. It is a 700 page tome but written with such sensitivity and beautiful language that you don’t realize how much you have read.  You can bop around the book and read the chapters of high interest first but may be surprised by those you didn’t expect to relate to and do.  The stories shared are particularly compelling. What resonated for me was the responsibility all of us have when using language.

President's Message: Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water

by Dr. Blanche Podhajski

It’s happened to me twice now.  Both in September and November, as my husband and I are flying home from visiting family, he takes his nose out of the newspaper and says to me:  “you’ve got to read this.”  I love when he does this because the two articles he shared really gave me food for thought. Both articles were from the Wall Street Journal weekend edition.

In September, “Opting Out of the ‘Rug Rat Race’” was Paul Tough’s adaptation of his new book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character.  Tough contends that parents are overly concerned about their preschool children’s intellectual skill set, what he calls the “cognitive hypothesis.” Rather, Tough says what matters most in young children’s development is a totally different set of qualities such as persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence. Tough cites a study conducted with GED recipients who, while demonstrating the same knowledge and skills as high school graduates, did not have the same positive outcomes in life because they lacked the essential ‘non-cognitive” skills.  I surely agree with Tough that motivation and perseverance are essential, as are the qualities that contribute to character.  I happily bought the book.

President's Message: Learning Disabilities Month: A Time to Celebrate

by Dr. Blanche Podhajski

October is Learning Disabilities Month. For me, it is a time to celebrate all we have learned from brain
science over almost half a century.  It is also a time to honor all of the successes of students with learning disabilities and their teachers.

 

What is a learning disability? 

A learning disability is a brain based difference in learning that makes some academic skills harder to acquire than others. A recent report, Don’t “Dys” Our Kids: Dyslexia and the Quest for Grade-Level Reading Proficiency, commissioned by the Campaign for Grade Level Reading and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, indicates that about 2.4 million children and youth in this country have been diagnosed with learning disabilities. Most people are familiar with the term dyslexia, a neurobiological condition that is not the result of poverty, culture or developmental delays (Fiester, 2012).   Other learning disabilities are dysgraphia, difficulty writing and expressing ideas through written language, and dyscalculia, difficulty with math.