Blocked by Tom Bennett OBE

Over the decade I have been blocked by many. The latest block is by Tom Bennett OBE.

@tombennett71 is the founder of

Founder researched, Behaviour advisor- UK DfE. Professor of School Behaviour, Academica Uni. with 116.5K Followers on Twitter.

The importance of going beyond our comfort zone

 

In a LinkedIn comment, David Chalk said: "Our brains have been wired hundreds of thousands of years to speak and interpret by hearing words, but there is no natural ability to read-attaching sounds to symbols-words."

This is making statements without thinking. He repeats what he has read from others such as Stanislas Dehaene and Pamela Snow. Dehaene does not answer questions asked, and Pamela Snow thinks she becomes invisible when she sticks her head in the sand. She blocked me when she could not answer the questions, I asked her. It is irresponsible to say something on social media and to not respond when relevant questions are asked.

The noted neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene (2018) argues that there is no place or mechanism in the brain to accommodate the learning-to-read process, seemingly adding credence to the reading-is-unnatural assumption. Dehaene and other researchers point out that oral language has been around for 50,000 years, whereas written systems developed much later—as recently as 5,000 years ago.

Dr Richard Selznick comments on my post

 

I received an email from Dr Richard Selznick commenting on my post yesterday.

Here is a little about him extracted from a website.

Dr. Selznick is a psychologist, a nationally certified school psychologist, and a graduate school professor. As the Director of the Cooper Learning Center at Cooper University Hospital (www.cooperlearningcenter.org), he oversees a program that assesses and treats a broad range of learning and behavioral problems in children. The Cooper Learning Center is the leading program in its region, offering not only assistance with children but also parent and teacher training programs.

Dr. Selznick also functions as a school consultant, and throughout the year he speaks to numerous parent groups, schools, and regional conferences on topics such as dyslexia, parenting, and ADHD. He strives to offer parents and teachers practical strategies to help children with academic problems. A native of Staten Island, New York, Dr. Selznick lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey. He can be reached through email Selznick-r@cooperhealth.edu. For more information on the Shut-Down Learner, go to www.shutdownlearner.com

  

             

This is his email received yesterday. 28.11.24.

I enjoyed your blog.  A few points:

“How Ivy League Admissions Broke America:”

For ‘The Atlantic's’ December issue cover story, contributing writer David Brooks argues that the nation's top schools are trapped in an outdated meritocracy system that needs to be redefined. LINK

 

My thoughts:

I believe David Brooks is missing the mark, yet this will be the cover story for The Atlantic’s December issue. After listening to his commentary, I have several observations:

David’s commentary:

James Cannon didn't have the right definition of human ability. For him, it was all IQ and IQ is important if you want to be an astrophysicist, it is probably important to have a high IQ but other things are more important, being curious, having a passionate drive, being a good team member, agility, knowing how to move in life so it's you're graceful toward other people.   All these traits which were hard to measure got lopped off and so we not only created these Elites, this inherited cast system but it's not that competent because it doesn't select based on the real skills in society.

Two of my former students

On 24.11.24 my student attended her graduation ceremony at her University.

Chan Tze Xin was sent by her parents when she was a few months into primary two and could read well in Malay and Hanyu Pinyin but was unable to read at grade level as far as English was concerned.

Her mother was at wit's end as she was unable to make headway in teaching her daughter to read in English.

I taught her for less than one month (less than 8 one-hour lessons) explaining to her that the sounds of the letters she had learned in school were incorrect and taught her the correct sounds of the letters.

My book ‘Teach Your Child to Read’ in China

                                                                  46053882386 抖音
 

My book has now reached the shores of China.

An adult learner has received my book and learning to read in English.

He is now posting the lessons on Douyin.

Douyin is China's most downloaded video-sharing platform feeding light-hearted content to its 400 million daily viewers.

Since Douyin is only available in Mandarin Chinese, most non-Chinese people don't use it and can't understand what content is being posted.

Anyone in China who wants to learn English please visit my student's Douyin.

46053882386 抖音.

It would take a genius

 

                   How could a guy who could not read become an advisor to the US President?

Those with a vested interest have ensured that geniuses are flushed out of the school system as functional illiterates.

Only a genius could have conned the world into being a teacher for 17 years without knowing how to read.

You may listen to the YouTube video here.

Elon Musk

 

Is this guy Elon Musk interested in reducing illiteracy? We'll find out soon.
I Tweeted the following on his tweet this morning.

The people with a vested interest ensure that those with intelligence and creativity leave school as illiterate. I know how to stop that brain drain.
@elonmusk are you prepared to discuss this?

The above was my response to his Tweet with the following image.

Emails to and from nora Chabazi (Part 2)

 

This is a continuation of my post yesterday. LINK

Is Nora Chabazi or the Right to Read team interested in reducing illiteracy?

Nora Chahbazi nora@ebli.com Dec 29, 2021, 2:25 AM

Hi Luqman,

I have forwarded your email to Nick and Katie, the story producer.

The documentary team has not decided what they think is keeping the literacy rate so abysmal in the US and other English-speaking countries. That is what they are looking to discover through their work on this documentary. There are still about 30 people on our list to yet be interviewed and we're not sure if funding and time will allow getting to them all. That is why the story producer has been very mindful when choosing people to interview. It looks as if what you say -teach children to decode and also vocab, fluency, and comprehension is along the lines of what many who have been interviewed are saying too.

I'll let you know when I hear back.

Thanks again for your email and the resources you shared.

With appreciation,

Nora

Emails to and from Nora Chabazi

 

Following are my emails to and from Nora Chabazi. 

Think for yourself if the Right to Read producers are looking for ways to reduce illiteracy. 

David (Dyslexic) Chalk (Part 3)

 

From David Chalk’s website:

People with learning difficulties can learn. However, the way that reading is taught at schools doesn't work for their brains. So, difficulty in reading is a symptom that comes about as a result of the flawed education system.

Over the years, David has spent several hours with educators who've used various approaches in an attempt to learn to read, but nothing worked for him as the mere 11 hours he spent with Nora in May 2021.

Nora said, 'If you do what I tell you to do, I will show you that your struggle is not because you can't read but because you were never properly taught how to read.'

David (Dyslexic) Chalk (Part 2)

                                                  Listen to the YouTube of David. LINK

The following is extracted from this website with my thoughts.

By 62, David Chalk had seen it all. While David conquered the world, he never managed to achieve the only thing he always had truly wanted, To Read Fluently.

He was a popular media personality, had built his business empire, made millions, was awarded a doctorate in technology by the University of the Fraser Valley for holding the world's only true patent in cyber security and was described as having a brilliantly gifted mind.

 

My thoughts:

I have repeatedly said that my so-called dyslexic students are smart kids. They have done exceptionally well in schools and Universities.

Sight word – another perspective

 

 

Yesterday, I had a Zoom conversation with a wonderful lady from California who identifies as a Literacy Specialist. She expressed her confusion about the visual memorization of High-Frequency Words (HFWs). Coincidentally, this morning I came across a LinkedIn post by Nicola Lott from Canada discussing sight words and their varying interpretations. She noted, “sight word means different things to different people, creating a lot of buzz—and some confusion.”

 

In my book, I used the term “sight word” as it has been defined for decades. However, while proofreading two books for Dr. David Kilpatrick, I realized that sight words encompass any words we can recognize by sight. 

Terms like Dolch Words, Fry Words, and Heart Words are categorized as High-Frequency Words.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORT

 

I am copy-pasting this from another blog-post of mine where I have the testimonials of parents of kids I have taught. This is because I have referred this on my post on David Chalk and would like my readers to read it here. This was first posted in my blog in 2019.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORT

Date of Assessment: 08.01.2019

Chronological age: 9 years 7 months

Report: 

Emmanuel was referred by Dr. Fauziah (Gleneagle Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah) due to his learning difficulties and to ascertain his cognitive functioning and whether he is dyslexic.

He can read one-syllable simple English words and a few two-syllable Malay words. He is also slow in writing and when asked to copy, he made mistakes easily. However, he is good at memorizing. With regard to his academic activities, Emmanuel is easily bored, but he can spend many hours playing computer games.

David (Dyslexic) Chalk (Part 1)

 

David Chalk posted the following on LinkedIn and let us study this.

This is what is about him on his profile.

About

Through my life experiences, I work to empower those who have struggled and suffered through schooling, particularly with reading difficulties and labeled dyslexic.

These struggles lead to a loss of confidence and self-esteem often manifesting as sadness and shame.

 

The following is what he posted on LinkedIn.

Universal screening

 

This morning I read a comment on my blog and answered it as below. 

This comment made my day. She said, 'I appreciate your philosophical approach'. 

May God bless her for such appreciative words. 

The comment was on my post on ‘An Ounce of Prevention - Benjamin Franklin’.

Anonymous

Thanks, Luqman. I appreciate your philosophical approach to how to best approach reading instruction. Do you think that universal screenings will help in prevention?

Accountability and transparency of Reading Reforms Foundation UK

 

Is the Reading Reform Foundation influenced or controlled by external powers such as funding sources, political agendas, or institutional pressures?

Should there be more accountability and transparency in organisations advocating educational reforms?

I can think of only 3 probable answers to the attitudes of the committee members of Reading Reform Foundation.

They are controlled by the Funding Sources or the committee members are naïve.

Another reason could be to protect their rice bowls – intervention services and sales of educational material.

Controlled by Funding Sources (Part 2)

 

Has the National Research Council hoodwinked the educators and parents?

The National Research Council in their book ‘Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children’ on page 22 says:

‘There are 3 sounds represented by 3 letters in the word “but” but each sound alone does not refer to anything, and only the middle sound can really be pronounced in isolation; when we try to say the first or last consonant of the word all by itself, we have to add a vowel to make it a pronounceable entity.’

What nonsense is this?

How did a 6-year-old kid in Lagos pronounce the letters without adding a vowel sound to consonants? LINK

How did this lady pronounce letters without adding a vowel sound to consonants? LINK

Controlled by Funding Sources

 

 

In my previous post, I posed a critical question: Can researchers, organizations, and government foundations be influenced or controlled by external powers such as funding sources, political agendas, or institutional pressures?

 

This inquiry leads us to consider who is behind BabyTV, the producer of Charlie and the Alphabet, which I believe negatively impacts children's learning.

Consider this question with what Edward Thorndike and Charlie Munger said. LINK

 

The dynamics of knowledge acceptance and personal bias.

 

This is a continuation of my post yesterday. LINK

Biases can lead us to interpret information in ways that confirm our beliefs, rather than seeking information that challenges them. We may be influenced by social factors, such as the majority’s views, which can lead us to hold beliefs that are not based on evidence or reason.

Can researchers, organisations, Government Foundations etc. be influenced or controlled by external powers such as funding sources, political agendas, or institutional pressures?

An Ounce of Prevention - Benjamin Franklin

 

Benjamin Franklin famously advised fire-threatened Philadelphians in 1736 that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” While preventing fires is certainly preferable to battling them, we must consider the broader question: how can we protect ourselves from natural disasters?

 

Let’s shift our perspective. How does this principle apply to education?

Reflection on "The Courage to Be Disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

                                                

These are extracts from a Facebook post by my friend Harold Rozario and my thoughts.

In this thought-provoking dialogue, the authors engage with Alfred Adler’s psychological principles to explore themes of self-acceptance, personal freedom, and the essence of happiness. The conversation unfolds between a philosopher and a young man, leading to several insightful concepts:

 

Separation of Tasks: A key idea in the book is the "separation of tasks," which encourages individuals to discern their responsibilities from those of others.

 

I have taken on the task of raising awareness about why some children disengage from learning to read and how we can combat illiteracy. I know nothing about politics and many other matters and leave that to others.

Reading Recovery and Kareem Weaver

 

Today, 14.11.24 (Malaysian time) the following was Tweeted by:

Kareem J. Weaver @KJWinEducation

 

I believe Reading Recovery... a program embedded in districts AND universities, is a menace. Parents have no idea this snake oil is being sanctioned, sold, and used on the children who need the most help learning to read.

 

I know nothing about Reading Recovery or any other reading programmes.

I don’t criticise reading programmes that anyone claims to work. Thousands of teachers successfully teach using various methods.

Why would anyone criticise the video? LINK

Multiplication of 6 to 10 times Table made easy

This article is for parents with children finding difficulty with their time's table.

Many parents, from a number of Yahoo Groups I belong to, have asked me if I know of a simple way to teach Multiplication tables. I have in the year 2010 written to many parents telling them what I had learnt from my dyslexic students on multiplication from the 6 time table onwards.

This is just a crutch for the time being and should be discarded once the student has learnt his multiplication tables. In fact, after a few months of using this method multiplication will have been memorized.

To use this method place the hands in front of you and have the back of the hands facing you as shown in the diagrams. The thumb is represented by the number 6. The index finger (pointer) number 7, the middle finger is number 8, the ring finger number 9 and the little finger number 10.

By following two or three of the diagrams in the attached folder you will be able to see how the times table is done.

I teach my students this method and they are extremely happy that they can easily multiply 6 times to 10 times table in less than 10 minutes.

Note: Unfortunately the drop-box I had used to record all the diagrams drawn by my daughter is now not available.

So, I have done a simple video to show you how this is done.

 

I am afraid I lost the original clip of the video. Please click on the link for my blog on mathematics.  Link

The importance of combining phonics and whole language.

                          

Phillip Chipping and I have been discussing on LinkedIn for a few days. He asked me to send him 2 posts which I think are the top.

All my posts are worth reading but I thought I’d make a new post as there was another teacher, I discussed with who teaches phonics but does not understand why memorising Dolch words is important.

This is one of the problems with kids shutting down. The phonics proponents are adamant that kids should not rote memorise HFWs because it is based on Whole Language and the WL proponents think phonics is useless as many kids who have learned phonics can’t read.

Neither the phonics or the whole word advocates know why many kids shut down from learning to read. 

Naïve Ph.D’s (Part 2)

 

This is a continuation of my post on Gwendolyn Lavert. LINK

To a question on how she teaches High Frequency Words, Gwendolyn replied that she teaches kids to learn them by sight and patterns.

Luqman Michel

English words are not pictorial like Chinese characters and I teach my students to memorise them by rote memory. I explained what I meant by that.

How do you teach High Frequency Words? Which, where, here, who, like, there.

 

Note: Many teachers teach kids to memorise HFWs by sight. Then they complain kids can’t read. Why reduce an alphabetic language into a pictorial language?

How do you teach the above HFWs by patterns?

Expose (Part 3)

 

                                          The above was posted on LinkedIn by Brian Vieira.

Brian Vieira  President at Scholar Skills: Science of Reading consultant, curriculum creator, speaker, and founder of T.A.G. (The Academic Gym), which helps kids overcome dyslexia by combining multisensory academic and athletic skills.

Brian:

This is the incontrovertible truth that over seventy-five years of scientific reading research has taught us:

 

Luqman Michel

Can you please educate me on how thousands of kids and adults can recite the Quran by memory?

I have never said the Lord's prayer for the past 55 years. How is it possible for me to recite it today?

I learned the alphabet and the times table by memory more than 60 years ago. Did I analyse it?

Expose - Part 2

 

All these posts on 'Expose' are for posterity. Teachers post articles to mislead and when questioned do not reply. This is a big disservice to desperate parents with kids who can't read.

Here is a LinkedIn re-post by Kathleen Seeman (MEd Dyslexia Specialist and Interventionist, Master Teacher, Educator) of an article by Marnie Gindberg. 

Marnie Ginsberg.  Trusted by 16,000+ teachers, our evidence-based Reading Simplified system empowers school leaders to transform beginning and struggling readers into thriving ones—in weeks, not years.

A lot of what has been mainstream for decades in early literacy learning is inefficient and not in alignment with how the brain learns to read.

My thoughts:

Who in the world knows how the brain learns to read? LINK

This woman is trying to impress readers how the brain learns to read. Let us see if she will answer any of the questions in the link above. 

Expose – Part 1

 

On my Facebook post on ‘Naïve Ph.D.’s Part 1,’ I received comments that made me think about exposing educators who either do not respond to my answers on LinkedIn or leave the thread without completing the conversation started.

The following are the comments on Facebook. 

Harold Rozario

Simply because they are not 'educators' but propagators of their ideology. If something does not align with their narrative, they simply ban it. Further, I doubt she even understood your approach to addressing dyslexia. Your approach is revolutionary.

Kevin TL Low

You have challenged their beliefs therefore you are a threat to their existence as "educators".

Harold Rozario

Luqman Michel You are a threat to their fake fame and income.

This will be the first of many similar posts entitled ‘Expose’.