Friday, January 14, 2022

Blocking for business reasons or due to delivery?

 


On 12.1.2021 I Tweeted the following:

‘Interesting find.

I just realised that one Gale Morrison @GaleMorrisonEd, Parent education advocate, has blocked me. Why do people block me? I believe I am a threat to their business.’

 

 

A Twitter friend then responded as follows:

Luqman, I’m wondering if it’s to do with your delivery. You have had good success with your students there. Yet Relationship where people “know, like, & trust” take a bit of time. If you were a Microphone you’d be “coming in too hot”. Just some things I’ve observed. Good luck.

 

My explanation:

 

I believe my Twitter friend may have a point. However, I have always called a spade a spade and unlike the Twitters who block me, I have no products or services to sell. This woman, Gale must have blocked me many months ago as I have no idea who she is or what she is upset about. She could have blocked me because one of her friends could have asked her to block me similar to Faith Borkowsky. 

 

Back in 2004, when I first started looking for articles on dyslexia on the internet I found many articles by various researchers stating that phonological awareness deficit (PAD) was the cause of dyslexia. 

 

I decided to research this and by 2010 I had taught more than 20 dyslexic students and discovered that they could all read in Malay and those who went to vernacular schools could read in Han Yu Pinyin (Mandarin written using Roman letters). I started writing to more than 30 professors who had written on PAD. Only 3 responded. 

 

Dr. David Boulton after responding to emails stopped answering questions on PAD. 

 

All my emails were courteous and therefore cannot have anything to do with delivery. 

 

Dr. Reid Lyon’s wife replied to an email to Dr. Lyon saying that he was busy travelling. I received similar emails from a few other researchers.

 

My curiosity was aroused as to why most of these educators did not want to discuss a hot topic like this. Professor Tunmer and James Chapman requested me to write a thesis and submit it for peer review. Here is a post on these two professors.

 

It was then that I decided to openly discuss this topic on social media. Dr. David Boulton was the first person to block me on LinkedIn for disagreeing with him. He blocked me and immediately removed two of the videos I had complained about. Read more on my blog post of this guy here. The videos he had recommended were teaching phonemes of letters wrongly.

 

When I wrote on Timothy Shanahan’s blog post in 2015 on PAD he disagreed with me but changed his mind in 2017 when some research reports surfaced that said that PAD is not the cause of dyslexia. He did not block me but did not respond to my comments on his posts.

 

I then started writing extensively on all social media my discovery that kids disengage from learning to read when they are confused. My students informed me that their confusion is caused by three matters detailed here. I was informed this by my students on a one on one basis and therefore each student’s answer is not influenced by any other student. 

 

After many years of asking questions as politely as possible I decided to be blunt and started writing incessantly on social media.

 

I prepared lessons suitable for dyslexic students and posted them on my blog in 2010. Many parents very happy with my lessons. Unfortunately, the service provider, ‘File Den’, disappeared from the internet and I lost all my lessons which I had not backed up on the computer. Thank goodness I had the hard copies.

 

Together with 2 of my sons we decided to republish the lessons and this time included videos to benefit parents with dyslexic kids. This is what has perhaps riled many of the so-called educators who are on Twitter to promote their products and services.

 

I decided to provide my lessons free of charge only because I want everyone, including the poor, to benefit from what I have learned from my students. 

 

The Anglosphere has been running around in circles with all kinds of reasons as to why the illiteracy level has not come down. 

 

The main reason is because sounds represented by consonants are taught wrongly. The scientists/professors/educators don’t appear to understand this and this is made worse by scientists’ like Mark Seidenberg saying in videos that:

‘The properties of phonemes are such that they can’t be pronounced literally in isolation. I mean they are not parts of speech.’ (Mark Seidenberg)

 

Tell me how to reduce illiteracy when the foundational skills of learning to read is said to be difficult to be taught by scientists? Listen to the video clip in my post here to listen to exactly how phonemes should be taught. I'll bet that no child will be left behind if the foundational skills are taught correctly. No child will need to be left behind.

 

In addition to the above our Maryellen Macdonald (expert on speech production) said in the same video: “It is easier for certain phonemes than others. I believe phonemes including vowels and some consonants that can be stretched out a little are better for teaching kids blending so buh is hard to blend but M is mmmahhttt is an easier path to mat than bat. Different consonants have different properties that will make it more or less easy to be blended.”

 

I wonder if these experts are the puppets of the people with a vested interest to lead teachers astray. 

 

Listen to a kid in Lagos pronouncing the phonemes almost perfectly. LINK.    

 

John Bald, an independent educational consultant mentioned in the above link blocked me soon after my post above. Was it for telling the truth or delivery? 


Of course, you will all recollect out Education Guru Timothy Shanahan asking me to show evidence that consonants should not be taught with extraneous sounds. 

 

Is there any wonder why the illiteracy level has not reduced?

 

Should anyone blame me for ‘coming in too hot’ as suggested by my Twitter friend?

 

My Twitter friend also said: ‘You have had good success with your students there.’

 

Yes, that is true but I have also had good success with parents in many parts of the world who follow my lessons. 

 

“The further a society drifts from the truth, 

  the more it will hate those that speak it.”

      — George Orwell

In my next post, I shall explain why my simple lessons work effectively.

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