LinkedIn discussion - naïve or irresponsible (Part 1)

 

A LinkedIn connection and I discussed on LinkedIn Messenger. Here are extracts of our discussion.

Phillip Chipping:

You are turning off people who could be allies to your cause. In the business world, we know that our most vocal critics can become our greatest customers and supporters. We often make an extra effort to satisfy those customers and answer their problems. These are all smart people - why the attack mode? Why not work with them instead of against them? I'm not saying to adopt what they teach, but why not ask respectfully? Are you looking for clickbait for your blog? Sensationalism over cool-headed discussion?

Trusting your Mom Intuition

 

I have copied the following post from Dr. Richard Selznick's blog.

Trusting Your Mom Intuition​

As part of the assessment process I always conduct an interview  to get an overview of the issues of concern.

When a child is struggling, typically there will be suggestions of disorders that have been raised by different professionals along with opinions offered from friends, family members and the internet as to what is going on with their child.

As an example, a mom recently said the following:

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

(Lihat di bawah untuk terjemahan bahasa Melayu)

中文翻译见下文

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.