Educational Options Newsletter
November, 2007
Greetings: Dr. Ruf and I are always working at streamlining our processes here at Educational Options so that more of our time is spent helping our clients instead of looking for old files, articles or emails. As part of this upgrading, we have set up a new email system that will help us keep better organized. This means we have a new address: kathy@educationaloptions.com. So please change your records, and keep in touch!
In the meantime, we send you and your families our best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving.
Sincerely, Kathy Hara, Editor
In this issue:
- Recognizing propaganda
- Play Propaganda at Academic Games
- Memory: research on the effects of sleep, drugs
- Impact of A Nation Deceived
- In Minnesota
- Keeping up with Dr. Ruf
Recognizing propaganda
As presidential campaigning heats up, it will be difficult to avoid all the radio and TV advertising. And even young children can get caught up in the passion. But how does one know what is true?
The Horace Mann Companies and teacher Alan Haskvitz have put together Reach Every Child, a website full of resources for teachers and students. One of the features on this website is called Help identify propaganda. The site leads its readers to other pages that will teach them “how to dissect an ad, interpret a debate, analyze a poll, view news critically and more.” And that’s just one link.
Play Propaganda at Academic Games
Academic Games Leagues of America, AGLOA, is a national nonprofit organization that encourages academic excellence through organized competitions. AGLOA offers six games that academically gifted students in grades 4 through 12 can compete in each school year. Half of the games are board games – On-Sets, Equations and LinguiSHTIK - and half are played through a moderator who asks questions – World events, Presidents, and Propaganda. Students compete individually and in five-person teams.
In September, Academic Games launched Presidents On-line, in which students must identify a president based on clues given about his personality, political decisions and other events, and Propaganda On-line, where students learn what techniques of persuasion are being used in everyday language. Click on http://www.academicgames.org/onlinegaming.html to play!
Memory: research on the effects of sleep, drugs
Some interesting research has been going on in the study of memory. On one hand, scientists are looking at the role sleep plays in learning enhancement. A recent article in the New York Times features this subject. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/health/23memo.html.
On another hand, it is possible to eliminate short term memories or dull the effects of long term or intense memories with the use of drugs. We’re not yet at the point of having the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but it’s a fascinating subject. Here’s an article about it, or Google “erasing memory” for more links.
As long as we’re talking about scientific subjects, this is a good time to list Science Daily as an interesting site to find news and articles about science, health, environment and technology. A recommended article on this site at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070907092930.htm discusses how the future career paths of gifted youth can be predicted by SATs taken at the age of 13.
Impact of A Nation Deceived
On September 20, 2004, the Templeton National Report on Acceleration, A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students, was released. Copies of the report were and are downloadable from the website, or print copies are available at no charge.
Now the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education at the University of Iowa invites participation in a research study that involves completion of a brief (less than 10 minutes) online survey on the impact of the report A Nation Deceived. The purpose of the study is to evaluate how the release of A Nation Deceived three years ago has influenced attitudes, practices, and policies about academic acceleration.
So if you have read the Templeton report and are in a position to have experienced or observed any impact, please consider completing this survey. Surveys submitted after October 31 will be used for presentations at national and international conferences. For more information, please contact Nicholas Colangelo, Ph.D., at nick-colangelo@uiowa.edu, 319-335-6148 or 800-336-6463.
In Minnesota
Acceleration policies in Minnesota:
Speaking about acceleration, the Minnesota Legislature passed new legislation in the 2007 session. The new wording for Minnesota Statutes, section 120B.15 is as follows:
"(c) School districts must adopt procedures for the academic acceleration of gifted and talented students. These procedures must include how the district will:
(1) assess a student's readiness and motivation for acceleration; and
(2) match the level, complexity, and pace of the curriculum to a student to achieve the best type of academic acceleration for that student."
For more information, go to the Minnesota Session Laws 2007, Chapter 146.
Support your local theater:
Theater is such a creative option for our bright young people. One of our clients, while in high school, has had the opportunity to serve an internship with a local group, Theatre de le Jeune Lune. She is so excited about what she is doing that she is sending invitations to everyone she knows to come see the troupe’s current production, The Deception, before it closes on November 25. To see a trailer of the play, go to Jeune Lune’s website.
“I must still be enjoying this internship,” said our client, “because I'm already slated to be a part of their next production which opens this February (tentatively titled Cat in the Bag).”
Keeping Up With Dr. Ruf...
After several busy months of speaking, Dr. Ruf is happy to keep a lighter schedule and celebrate the holidays with family and friends.
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them. – Sir William Henry Bragg
Deborah Ruf’s book, “Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind,”
is available through Great Potential Press or Amazon.com.
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