Schools, like other bureaucracies, are typically slow to change. However, parents who are committed to their children's success, are not constrained in this way. Those who are seeking guidance in this realm will find it useful to go to The Concord Review at http://www.tcr.org/--a site devoted to the pursuit of academic excellence in secondary schools.

Dr. Blank, My son struggles with reading, but far more with spelling. At the beginning of second grade, his reading is at the 1.5 grade level but his spelling is at the 1.1 grade level. What is the best way to improve his spelling?

The good news is that lots can be done. The less-than-good news is that the practices we need to use are unfamiliar. So it means getting used to some new ideas.

Neither is the much-used weekly spelling list. As endless numbers of parents know, only too well, the effort put into learning those lists often results in nothing more than forgetting once the test is over. It's not uncommon for parents to proudly report that their child regularly receives 90% or higher scores on the spelling tests. When that is followed up by my asking, "Does he remember them a few weeks later," the typical response is "Oh no--he never gets them right when he has to use them in his actual writing." This pattern is so common that parents automatically assume that the spelling words of the spelling lists are obviously going to be forgotten as soon as the test is over. Unfortunately, their assumptions are well-grounded in reality.

What "sounding out" and "spelling lists" and other comparable techniques overlook is that the key to effective spelling is long-term visual memory. It's what allows good spellers to look at a misspelled word such as "accomodate" and "know" that it is not right--even before they can identify exactly what is wrong. (Just in case you haven't spotted it, it's a missing m). But almost no one talks about the role of visual memory in literacy. It is the basis not simply for effective spelling, but effective reading as well. For the most part, visual processing issues were thrown out of reading research a few decades back. Some of the discarding was useful; other parts of it were not. it was another instance of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

But there is no reason for this neglect to continue. We simply have to recognize that effective long term visual processing of words needs to be taught and can be taught.

The following is a series of steps you can use to help your child develop the visual memory needed for both reading and writing.

1. Selecting the Level: Start at a level that the child can read with 90% accuracy. Select two sentences.

2. Writing the Words: Have the child read one sentence. Following that, you show one word at a time .Then you cover the word, and ask the child to write it. If the writing is correct, you move on --doing each word in this manner. The child is responsible for punctuation and capitalization. You tell him that at the start, but do not point it out when he gets to a part of the sentence that demands either punctuation or capitalization.

If the child makes an error at any point, you take away the paper, but do not point out the error. It's your child's job to figure it out. Then you provide fresh paper and have him/her start the writing from the first word--even if it is the last word that contained the error. Remember, you remove the paper at the first sign of error.

3. Increasing the Span: At this point, the child is probably not "seeing" the words, but rather is retaining them by saying the letter names. You want to discourage that --since as long as a child relies on letter naming, s/he will not develop the necessary visual memory. You develop the skill by increasing the number of words done each time (e.g., up to four at one time) thereby "overloading" the naming strategy (i.e., a child generally cannot remember the letters in a sequence of four words so s/he has to abandon the strategy). So once s/he is comfortable with one word, increase the span to two words, then to three words and then to four words (the process may take about 2-4 weeks).

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You do the second sentence in the same manner as above, following steps 2-3.
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4. Writing Without a Model-After a Delay::After a delay of 30 minutes or more, you have the child again write one of the sentences. Say, "We are doing one of the sentences again--but this time, you cannot see the words." You select one of the sentences the child did that day (Do not allow him/her to make the selection). You dictate the words of the sentence—without showing any of the words. Here your child is allowed to make one error in the writing or punctuation. If there is a second error, you immediately stop him/her and repeat all of the earlier writing done that day (following steps 2-3 above)

5. Frequency: The technique should be used a minimum of four to five times a week Generally significant improvement is attained within 6-8 weeks.
Once a child has shown one week of solid performance (i.e., s/he can achieve accurate writing at step 4 80% of the time), the level of the work should be increased (so that the child moves up to handling more complex material.)

Once the child is comfortably and accurately writing at grade level material, the program can be reduced to twice a week. If progress is maintained under that regimen for two or more weeks, the program can be discontinued. It, at any point, there is a decline, the program can be re-instated till solid performance is again achieved.

Like all regimens, this does take some work and discipline. But the two-to-three month effort yields payoff for life. As you will see, it is an amazing investment.

The message is one that offers both good news and bad news. On the one hand, it highlights a practical and valuable path to help us out of the economic crisis. On the other hand, it shows how the poor performance of the US on major indicators of academic achievement is a huge handicap that must be overcome if we are to prosper.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths of a population of 42 million.

Kseniya Simonova says:
"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paint brushes, but using sand and fingers is (not) beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there's surely no bigger compliment."

And now, sit back and relax
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vOhf3OvRXKg

Afgani Saale Nao Mubbarak
Afrikaans Gelukkige nuwe jaar
Albanian Gezuar Vitin e Ri
Armenian Snorhavor Nor Tari
Arabic Kul 'am wa antum bikhair
Assyrian Sheta Brikhta
Azeri Yeni Iliniz Mubarek!

Unfortunately, as often happens with too much of a good thing, it has allowed us to be less than diligent about mastering other languages. Nancy C. Rhodes and Ingrid Pufahl of the Center for Applied Linguistics recently conducted a survey entitled "Foreign Language Teaching in U.S. Schools." It has a clear message.

This is a vital area. Fortunately it is not a difficult one to deal with, either financially or administratively. What we need to the resolve to change the current state of affairs. Parents can do a lot by insisting that schools, from primary grades on, start teaching our children what they need to learn if they are to have the skills they need for work and life in the coming decades.

If you would like to offer Christmas Greetings in a different language, here are some possibilities. (And if you would like to take it further, locating the countries on the globe could be a fabulous lesson in geography.)

Afrikaans: Gesëende Kersfees
Afrikander: Een Plesierige Kerfees
African/ Eritrean/ Tigrinja: Rehus-Beal-Ledeats
Albanian: Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Argentine: Feliz Navidad
Armenian: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun

And the winner is ---Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia with a course load that includes DNA science, neurology, and quantum physics. But that is not all.

Of the 21,786 public high schools examined across the nation, 1,750 were recognized for considerably outperforming their state's standards. In that group, there were 561 schools that also were found to be doing an excellent job of preparing students for college-level coursework. California leads the nation this year with 110 high schools that earned recognition, followed by New York (53 schools), Texas (50 schools), Illinois (37 schools), Florida (24 schools), and Massachusetts (21 schools).

If you would like to delve into this further, go to http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2009/12/09/americas-best-high-schools-gold-medal-list.html

Here are some of the responses
'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'
Mary Ann - age 4

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
Bobby - age 7

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'
Danny - age 7

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'
Nikka - age 6

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'
Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'
Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'
Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'
Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford..'
Chris - age 7

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.'
Karen - age 7

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'
Jessica - age 8

The final one is from a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

But when we lower our sights to individual words, we have much better luck. And the search can be fun and fascinating--as you will find if you look at a book by John Bemelmans Marciano titled Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words. (Anonyponomy, by the way, is a person who is almost anonymous despite the eponymous use of his name in everyday language).

For example, let's consider the word "sandwich" which was created in honor of the fourth Earl of Sandwich who liked to snack—with a slab of salt beef stuffed between two pieces of toast.

MAVERICK
Samuel Augustus Maverick was a successful businessman who accepted a herd of cattle in exchange for a debt. Not caring for and not needing to care for the livestock, he allowed calves to wander about unbranded. The lack of a brand became a brand in itself: Whenever anybody found a stray calf with no markings, they said, “That there’s a maverick.”

GUY
Not unlike Halloween, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated across the United Kingdom with fireworks and bonfires. This has been going on for more than 400 years. It marks the November day in 1605 when a man, named Guy Fawkes, was arrested for being part of a Roman Catholic conspiracy to assassinate King James I, his family, and both houses of Parliament. In the end; he was hanged.

On the "holiday," children parade effigies of Fawkes through the streets chanting, “What shall we do with him? Burn him!” Upon reaching the central bonfire, the kids toss “the guy” into the flames. Over time, a “guy” came to mean someone of grotesque appearance, which came to include everyone, at least everyone in America.

DUNCE
John Duns Scotus was a Scottish theologian who had considerable influence in the Middle Ages as a follower of St. Francis. Duns Scotus’ followers, known as Dunsmen (pronounced DUNCE-men), dominated theology until another group, the Thomists (after Thomas Aquinas), rose to power. These new philosophers ridiculed the Dunsmen as being were impervious to learning anything new or different. Then in the radical changes of the Renaissance, the Dunsmen were ridiculed ever further. The worst insult a would-be man of letters could receive was to be called a “dunce.”

PANTS
Pantaleon was an unmarried physician and citizen of the pagan Roman empire who was a believer in Jesus Christ. He was said to be able to perform miraculous acts such as healing the blind. Pantaleon’s fellow doctors were predictably jealous and denounced him to the emperor. Whereupon Pantaleon proved the power of God by curing a man of paralysis. Having witnessed the trick, the emperor condemned Pantaleon to death for practicing black magic.

Martyrdom gave him a second life. Pantaleon became the patron saint of bachelors and physicians, and his name could be invoked to cure a variety of ailments. When the Black Death swept through Europe, St. Pantaleon’s stock went up dramatically in places like hard-hit Venice, where a spectacular church was dedicated to him. “San Pantalone” became so identified with Venice that his name was borrowed by the commedia dell’arte, the acting group.

Each actor of the troupe dressed in mask and costume. The costume signature of Pantalone was a pair of red leggings that reached the feet, a distinctively Venetian manner of covering the legs. Over the years and in various languages, the character’s name was borrowed to describe varying fashions of long trousers and related garments. By the mid-1800s, the Anglicized name Pantaloon had comfortably been shortened to “pants.”

FRISBEE (n.)
In the 1930s, a couple of drunk Yale students munched down a pie and started playing catch with the leftover tin plate. The game took off, and soon the whole campus was eating pies and playing the new sport. The students’ pastry of choice was made by Mrs. Frisbie’s Pies of Bridgeport, Conn.

At the same time, on the other side of the country, Fred Morrison had created a disk designed specifically for flying. But no one was buying them. Nevertheless it was noticed by the Wham-O corporation which had created the unbelievably successful Hula Hoop. They purchased Morrison’s designs, which up till then had had unappealing names like Pipco Flyin-Saucer and Pluto Platter. They soon learned there was already a better name for a flying disk—namely, Frisbie. Wham-O decided to call its plastic version the same thing, but to trademark the name, it changed the spelling to Frisbee. The Frisbee wound up being Wham-O’s most popular and enduring product.

If you'd like to delve further into this fun-filled, rich topic, go to http://anonyponymous.com/

Unfortunately, in American education, the move seems to be in the opposite direction. Writing is one of the most important skills that schools can teach. Yet, high schools are going to shorter and shorter assignments, often to the point of requiring no papers at all.

The leading U.S. proponent of more research work for the nation’s teens is Will Fitzhugh, who has been publishing high school student papers in his Concord Review journal since 1987. In 2002, he persuaded the Albert Shanker Institute to fund a study of research paper writing by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut. The results were ... bleak .... Sixty-two percent of the 400 high school history teachers surveyed never assigned a paper as long as 3,000 words, and 27.percent never assigned anything as long as 2,000 words.

They had no time to assign, monitor, correct and grade such papers, they said. If they assigned long projects, they could not insist on the many revisions needed to teach students the meaning of college-level work. So most new undergraduates check into their freshman courses unclear on the form and language required for academic research.

The colleges aren’t great at filling the gap. A new book by Seton Hall University scholar Rebecca D. Cox, “The College Fear Factor,” painfully exposes students wallowing in ignorance, and professors not understanding why. Only about half survive this torture and graduate."

Despite the talk of higher standards, almost all the focus in on the early primary grades. Little thought or effort goes into developing the more advanced skills in the later school years. So, regardless of how desirable, it is not realistic to expect much change in schools in the near future.

Given this situation, what can committed parents do to overcome the problems? As with many issues, it requires taking matters into one's own hands. It may be surprising but there is an option that can do a lot--and happily at the same time, foster family interaction. It is THOUGHTFUL DISCUSSION. The key is to set regular times for conversations about key issues--in the family, in the nation, in the world. The demands of such conversation are not identical with writing--but they have important similarities. And rules can be put into place that offer the advantages of research. For example, once a mutually agreed upon topic is determined, each person agrees to read at least three articles on the topic. That way, when the conversation takes place, they are prepared and ready to back up the points they raise. Admittedly, this type of discussion is currently fairly rare, but that does not mean, the situation cannot change. The potential gains in family communication, self-expression, and world knowledge are enormous. So with a little effort and no cost, amazing things can be accomplished.

They start from the premise that we'll never control health care costs until we halt the nationwide epidemic of overeating, lack of exercise, and obesity. Currently, among America's children -- nearly one in three youngsters, from age 2 to 19, is overweight, and approximately 17% are dangerously obese.

But that does not mean that things cannot change. And, interestingly, they see children as the ones who can lead the way.

Accordingly, they urge the creation of a new national initiative in grade schools -- the Living Skills Semester -- with a curriculum designed specifically to prevent obesity by addressing knowledge and understanding of the human body, nutrition, fitness, and all that is required for a long, healthy, and happy life. They ask this thought-provoking question: What if fifth-grade American children receive an entire semester in which all classes in math, science, geography, language, history and the environment integrated existing fifth-grade educational requirements with studies of how the body functions; its nutritional and physical needs, and proper sources and preparation of healthy, fresh, nutritious foods?

They also urge Congress to enact bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to modernize decades-old nutrition standards in the schools by covering not only student cafeteria meals but also the foods and beverages in the schools' vending machines. Schools should also be required to offer physical education to every student every day.

They also cite several examples of effective programs that can serve as models for the entire nation. For example, at Rutgers in New Jersey, HealthBarn USA offers children the opportunity to work on a farm and learn about nutrition by growing, harvesting, and cooking fresh seasonal food. The University of Massachusetts has developed Strength and Power in Nutrition (SPIN), a program that has been tailored to, and tested, with low-income, culturally diverse adolescents. Similarly, the Louisiana State University Agriculture Center conducts a traveling exhibit called Body Walk that has taken the message of healthy eating and frequent exercise to more than 125,000 children in more than 250 schools.

And if we fail to do this? The costs will be astronomical as an appalling 86% of Americans could be overweight within two decades. Obesity-related medical bills will amount to almost $1 trillion. As they write, "The solution is prevention via education, and it must start now."

And that's what has been happening in some schools around the nation. One teacher in Chicago checked the Internet for ways to help her restless pupils sit still.

The Wisconsin company, WittFitt, which sells exercise ball chairs for classroom use reports a increase in customers, from one school in 2004 to more than 300 across the country and abroad.

Subconscious mental activity lies at the core of the science behind the balls' success, experts say. The tiny movements kids make to stay balanced stimulate their brains and help them focus, says Dr. John Ratey, a Harvard University professor and author of "Driven to Distraction" and "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain." Children with attention disorders, he says, have "a sleepy cortex," and exercise combats that mental disengagement. "Just by using their core muscles more, they're flipping [their cortex] on" and increasing their mental activity, Ratey says.

In his research, Professor Foster has highlighted studies which suggest that teenagers coping with the onset of puberty need more sleep than the rest of the population. As a result, they are likely to be at their peak performance in the afternoon rather than the morning, and continuous interruption to their sleep patterns is likely to have an impact on their health and mental capacity. The tests conducted thus far appear to confirm the idea that students perform better in the afternoons.

Initially, Dr Kelley wanted to make a more radical change to the school's timetable, pushing back the start time by two hours to 11AM. However, a compromise deal saw it changed to 10AM. Lessons carry on for an extra 30 minutes in the afternoons, with the school staying open for study until 5PM.

At the same time, the school still remain open from 8am until 5pm, so that parents with childcare problems, or families in which both partners have jobs, can still leave their child at school before going to work.

Dr Kelley said several schools in Canada and the United States had put back their starting times – but some had abandoned the idea because it was more difficult to fit in sport schedules with schools sticking to traditional timetables.

Hopefully, this "experiment" will continue to flourish and expand. It's so nice when bureaucracies are open to change that can offer powerful benefits to their "constituents."

For many, this may seem like a wild proposal whose main effect is to raise the anxiety of all concerned. But it takes on a new light when you consider some of the ideas that are behind it.

As Smith says, "I've watched too many students get caught up in the admissions arms race and spend their high school years preening for colleges. They rocket through advanced-placement classes; they push their SAT or ACT scores to the 98th percentile. Yet they don't slow down to reflect on who they are and who they want to become. Soon after plunging into their dream engineering or pre-med program, many realize that they aren't cut out to be engineers, doctors and the like."

The potential to take a year off will also ease the stress of the admissions process. Students who don't get into their first- or second-choice school during 12th grade will have another shot. Or maybe -- just maybe -- the extra maturity will allow them to realize that college is about the fit, not the brand.

There are advantages to the families as well. It gives them a better chance to handle the increasingly onerous finances of higher education. While the pay during the year off may not be great, it still can serve to lower the debt that the student is likely to have to take on.

Some colleges are in tune with this idea. For example, Reed College, in Oregon., allows admitted students to defer entrance for a year, after submitting a plan for their activities that year, and nearly 7 percent take up the offer.

H. Keith H. Brodie, a psychiatrist and president emeritus of Duke University, has been quoted as saying that he believes freshmen who delay college for a year tend to be more altruistic and empathetic because brain development continues into late adolescence. He advocates the year off with a key proviso--the student should have a mentor, a plan for intellectual growth and a commitment to do public service.

So productive "waiting" has a lot going for it. In the increasingly pressured atmosphere of modern existence, this idea deserves serious consideration.