Life after the Holocaust

PDS marked Holocaust Remembrance Day last week with an assembly planned and led by the students of the Genocide central studies elective with the help of their teacher Bernadette Condessa and librarian Sarah Feldman.

This assembly, Life after the Holocaust – part of a PDS Equity and Justice series – came eight days after Yom Hashoah and one day after the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (Եղեռնի զոհերի հիշատակի օր).

We were honored by the presence of distinguished guests. The three panelist were Rabbi Daniel Polish of Congregation Shir Chadash, in Poughkeepsie, Michael Silberstein – a survivor of Auschwitz, and Norbert Kamlot – a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. Their presentation was followed by a question and answer session and the contributions of members of the local Armenian community including Armine Isbirian.

The program included music, poetry and a documentary film by PDS students examining genocide that included interviews with a Holocaust survivor and a survivor from Rwanda.

We were delighted to be joined by over ninety students and teachers from Spackenkill High School.

How to pay for college

From today’s NYTimes: Timely advice on paying for college:

Calculating Financial Aid

THIS week, members of the (college) Class of 2011 are coming down to the wire in deciding which colleges they will attend and, more often than not, their choice is influenced by which offers the most generous financial aid package.

Most students and their parents have until Tuesday to decide. In the precious few hours that remain, as they try to decipher the fine print, they can be forgiven if the whole process reminds them of buying a car from a slick salesman.

The car salesman would undoubtedly start the negotiations by quoting the sticker price, and he would quickly cloud the whole deal with an intricate verbal fandango about loans. He may eventually lower the price a bit, though that would probably take the form of free car mats.

It is remarkably similar with colleges. They have an advertised price for tuition. The award letter that students received this month lists what the school will do to knock down the price. It can do that with scholarships or grants, but more than likely it will quickly get you to think about loans. More: The ABC’s of Calculating Financial Aid

GHOTI spells "fish".(Of course, everyone knows that)

George Bernard Shaw was a great proponent of English spelling reform. Here is an example he used to illustrate the absurdity of some English spelling and pronunciation. Using familiar pronunciations here is how the letters GHOTI spell “fish”:

GH as in “rough”

O as in "women"

TI as in "nation"

GHOTI = "fish"

For further spelling confusion try this verse:

An Orthographic Lament

If an S and an I and an O and a U
With an X at the end spell Su;
And an E and a Y and an E spell I,
Pray what is a speller to do?
Then, if also an S and an I and a G
And an HED spell side,
There's nothing much left for a speller to do
But to go commit siouxeyesighed.

Charles Follen Adams

GHOTI spells…what?

Quick, quick! – spell “yacht”

New research on spelling and the brain

English spelling and pronunciation are renowned for complexity and quirks.

Spelling still matters and we all know how computer spell checkers can mislead**.

So what goes on in our brains when we spell a word or try to?

New research about exactly what happens in our brain when we are asked to spell a word has just been published in the journal Mind, Brain and Education *. It provides insight into what happens in our brains when we are asked to spell certain types of words and just where in the brain the activity occurs. The findings have implications for the teaching of spelling.

Here’s how the researchers at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire describe their goal:

… we took a first-time look into the human brain while
people processed the spelling of words in an attempt to
understand how humans accomplish the remarkable feat of
spelling. We sought to determine the neuralbasis of spelling
spelling in healthy adults using the novel lens of contemporary neuroimaging technology.
Our goal was to provide new
insights into the decades-old debate between single- and
dual-route models of spelling hitherto impossible to resolve
with behavioral evidence alone. Beyond our fascination
with spelling was another deeper goal: to understand
how humans’ capacity to spell relates to the overall ability to read

They asked 12 young adults to spell a total of 90 words while lying in a brain scanning machine. They were then asked to assess whether the same word presented on a screen was correctly spelt.

A third of the words had regular phonetic spelling. Another third were irregular words where the letters did not match the sound of the word heard on headphones. The last third were invented nonsense words.

The scans showed that that more brain regions were active when the words were irregular the greater activity was in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) which is where it is believed we store word meaning information and in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) which helps with reading. and processing printed text..

Spelling difficult words – like “yacht” – taxes the brain. Brain-scan images show how our brains struggle when the way the word sounds is not aligned with the spelling. Trying to spell “yacht” requires more brain power that a simple word like “blink”. The scan shows that the effort to spell the more difficult word generates mental activity.

This evidence about how the brain processes different types of words is an insight into what is involved in word memory. It helps resolve the debate between the importance of memorizing a word as a whole or breaking it into sound components. This research suggests that both functions are important. Breaking words into phonetic segments is helpful as well as sight recognition of the whole word.

The findings may help to resolve a debate over whether children should be taught to read by memorizing whole words or sounding them out. They may prompt changes in language teaching.

*Norton, E.S., Kovelman, I., Petitto. L.A. (2007). Are there separate neural systems for spelling? New insights into the role of rules and memory in spelling from functional magnetic resonance imaging. Mind, Brain and Education , Volume 1, Number 1, pp.48-59

**Eye have a spelling chequer
I disk covered four my pea see.
It plane lea marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew

Etc. Anonymous

Those apocryphal flying cats

The flying cats of Borneo – apocryphal? Hyperbole? Fantasy? Jungle legend? Imaginary animals?In response to a request from a professor at The University of Iowa: Here at least is one piece of the story of Operation Cat Drop backed by the official record. (For a little background see earlier posts: The great cat drop and The truth about the flying cats.)

Above is the relevant page from the Operations Record Book as compiled by Flying Officer Humphry with the account of the RAF flight that parachuted the cats in their baskets to wage war on the rats. “Over 20 cats” – far short of that mythical and highly unlikely tale of the 14,000 – imagine the herding involved. (So – still missing – approximately13,980 allegedly rounded up, flown and parachuted cats.)
The particular cargo listed in this record was but a sideshow to the wider military operations in Malaya and Borneo during the 1950′s and 1960′s during which British, Commonwealth and Gurkha forces were involved in a protracted light infantry campaign to contain an insurgency.

Imaginary Animals

Choreolab North

Last Friday’s Choreolab concert of ten original dances was the culmination of a central studies (CS) elective.

Choreolab started at The Walden School in the 1980’s and was further developed as a student-led and directed experience by the work of Laurie Roth and Kirstin Been Spielman at Trevor Day School in New York City where the annual dance extravaganza is a highpoint of the school year.

Our CS teacher/ dancer/ choreographer -Jessie Levey – performed in those original Choreolabs as a student in NYC.

This spring she brought the Choreolab experience to PDS and it was glorious.

Movement, music, meaning – my camera was not fast enough to capture many sharp images.These photographs give a glimpse of the concert that included dances performed and choreographed by PDS students, Shirley’s Scottish dancers and guest artists from the Barefoot Dance Center.

Some people dance to think and they tell their stories in movement. These were great stories.

The Eagle Nation

Magnolia in bloom in front of Kenyon House

The title and content of this entry have changed. The original title – A Challenge to Stephen Colbert – referred to the Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report where the grippy and relentless megamerican Stephen Colbert holds court. The show opens with dramatic graphics of eagles, waving flags and the swooping adjectives that Colbert proclaims for himself. Lincolnish and flagaphile have been recent examples.

I note that since he was offered the PDS challenge he has removed the word “eneagled” from this list. I don’t know whether there is a connection.

The Eagle Society at PDS inducted its new members at the annual meeting last week. The newly eneagled as well as other members recited their poems at an event presided over by a silly administrator in a ridiculous costume. Mr. Colbert was not in attendance. His claim to be eneagled was false and I am glad to see that he is no longer using it to open his program. Truthiness and integrity matter.

Mr. Colbert does have an eagle namesake -Stephen Junior – an eagle in the wild and being tracked. One member of the Eagle Society had Stephen Junior in mind as we recited the Tennyson poem that is the mark of membership:

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Bald eagle, Quogue Wildlife Refuge, Quogue, New York April 2007

Life on Earth – an amazing multi-media musical

I had the great pleasure of attending Life on Earth – a student written, multi-media and very original musical by the students in a central studies elective. The script was impressive – witty, pointed and poignant. The modern day Olympians – from Dr. Freud and Robin Hood to Miss America, from Wonder Woman and Bacchus to Ben Franklin and all those in between – were appropriately muddled and meddlesome. The earthling citizens hapless and hopeless. (Dr. Freely is an inspired creation and her media presence right on target.) A creative, clever cast of very distinct characters played with verve, and, best of all – everyone seemed to be having a whale of a time.

There were many great lines, contemporary references, terrific performances and moments of comedy, melodrama, slapstick and tragedy. (A personal favorite: the memory-impaired grandmother who remembers Phoebe’s birthday while the self-obsessed and over-scheduled parents need a lesson in familiy values.) But love conquers all, and, with or without the help from mighty Olympus, all ends happily in true musical tradition.

And so – to the writers, producers, directors, cast, crew and musicians: Thank you for this… great evening at the theater. An impressive theatrical feat. I hope everyone is feeling that great glow of a job well done, a unique production created, and an audience made happy.

From kindergarten to high school

Robbie sent me this picture of a high school student with members of her kindergarten class. As you can see from the background lights – this was taken the all-school winter festival event.

A cheering picture for a gray day as we dry out from the deluge. It was taken by Alexandra.