Posted by julie @ 6:24 am
Shelved under Bits and Pieces, In the News

It was swift, deadly and scary. Thank God it’s over!

As we were listening to the news over the transistor radio, I was focused on the fact that several people were killed by toppling over steel billboards (scattered all over the metropolis). I don’t like those billboards. In fact I even wrote about it last April. I even took photos of a billboard laden highway. Hah, such waste of lives just so these companies can advertise. To “experience” the storm’s after-effects, click here and here.

Posted by julie @ 7:54 am
Years ago, a preschool was about to operate in the house next to my husband’s family home (where I also hold my special ed sessions). The neighbors were contacted if they were in favor of having the preschool opened. They were promised that traffic congestion will be arranged, roads will get fixed, especially where the preschool is located (because the street there tends to be all bumpy and full of potholes after heavy rains), blah, blah, blah. The homeowners I think didn’t approve but what can they do, the preschool has already gotten a permit from the Education Dept. The preschool is now a thriving business. Ironically, those who disapproved of it at first had their (grand)children enrolled there. Vehicular congestion can be felt because we stay next to the preschool (well not really next because there is a vacant lot in between). There are times that we could not park in front of the house because cars are parked there.Preschool business in this part of the world tends to be a dime-in-a dozen. They are like mushrooms sprouting everywhere, on every available corner and maybe within a one-kilometer zone, you can find a preschool or two. They can be had within gated and high-end residential areas as well as along busy highways/streets. Sometimes I think the operators do not take into consideration the dangers that await their students in choosing areas where they will put up their preschools. I think their business philosophy is, as long as there are lots of people/families in an area, they can just build their own preschool there.

In the preschool where I taught as one of their pioneer teachers, they had a different strategy. They bought adjacent lots until they had a big compound. They built high fences and parking lots for cars who will stay there waiting for the children. That way, there is no vehicular congestion on the streets.

Anyway, this article is another matter. People are concerned about zoning, noise and other legal regulations.

Here in our country, people are more concerned about having schools nearby for convenience. This is true, knowing that for some, travel to and fro their school can be long and taxing. My daughter is being fetched by the school bus at 6am but classes start at 730am. It even seems that one of the requirements these days is distance/travel time in identifying which school will best suit one’s child(ren). Any school will do as long as its nearby, its convenient. I don’t buy that attitude.

Posted by julie @ 6:55 am
By: Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities (1997)Becoming aware of the warning signs of learning disabilities and getting children the necessary help early on can be key to a child’s future.

Learning disabilities affect one in seven people according to the National Institutes of Health. Parents, therefore, need to be familiar with the early indicators of a learning disability in order to get the right help as soon as possible.

The earlier a learning disability is detected, the better chance a child will have of succeeding in school and in life. Parents are encouraged to understand the warning signs of a learning disability from as early as pre-school. The first years in school are especially crucial for a young child.

The most common learning disability is difficulty with language and reading. A recent National Institutes of Health study showed that 67 percent of young students identified as being at risk for reading difficulties were able to achieve average or above average reading ability when they received help early. continue reading this entry »

Posted by julie @ 7:34 am
Yesterday, I was at the We Speak Specialized Intervention Center where I have a part-time (second job) of teaching children with special needs. My “teaching station” was the yellow room. which was next to the red room. At the time I was having my individualized session, I can hear another teacher, my friend Pearl (a speech-language therapist) in the red room. She was in a roomful of children, my son Julian included, ages between 3-6. I think there were about 8 or 9 children in there. They were having their Language Gym class. I always encourage Julian to sit with them although he doesn’t particularly like it. For reasons I can’t disclose, I will just say that the boys in the class there have speech and/or communication and/or behavioral problems.Anyway, from what I was hearing, there seemed to be a ruckus. I think someone did something that the therapists did not find okay. They were asking that particular child to apologize to someone for what he did before he gets back to his chair so that they can continue with what they were doing. I heard Pearl commented, “Naku, parang walang nangyari, tignan mo, parang no remorse siya” (Its as if nothing happened and he didn’t feel any remorse). When I heard her say that, the first thing that came to my mind was the televised court proceedings of the trial regarding a family who was massacred during the early 90s. Prime suspect was the son of a politician. When the verdict was read that he was guilty, his face showed no expression. It was as if he knows what the verdict was going to be. Pearl and I agreed then that it was as if he felt no remorse for what he has done.
What exactly is remorse? Click here for a definition.
Posted by julie @ 7:57 am
Shelved under Bits and Pieces, In the News

Yeap, dirty laundry, as in, all those secrets, skeletons in the closet being out in the open for everyone to perused, gossip about, speculate and give their own interpretation. Most of us love to hear “juicy” tidbits or snippets of information regarding celebrities, politicians or high-society people. What makes these issues exciting? It is perhaps the knowledge that no matter the situation in life one person is in, we are all vulnerable. We make mistakes, we have “wrong” decisions, we gamble with stakes that may be too high or too low.

One of the worst airing of dirty laundry done in public is that of family squabbles over financial issues. Its ugly. Its nasty. Its downright shameful that the teeny tiny details are being read or talked about by people they hardly know or care about. Like for instance the Astor Family.

This is tragic. Were the mother not rich, perhaps such wouldn’t have happened. Famous names like that of Annette de la Renta, Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller are involved in the case. To give you an idea of what the fuss is all about and who is Brooke Astor, read below a part of the article in the link above.

“The founder of the Astor family … was America’s first millionaire at the time when the world millionaire had just been invented,” Kaplan said. “[Brooke] is the last Astor, at least in the sense of social and financial prominence.”

Posted by julie @ 11:31 pm
Shelved under Bits and Pieces, Books
Kay Scarpetta
If you are wondering who she is, Kay Scarpetta is a female heroine in some of Patricia Cornwell’s books. Click here to know the books where she is the heroine. In more ways than one, she is almost human, not just a character in books.You can either love her or not. She has endearing characteristics that may make you want her to be your friend. But if circumstances are turned, you wouldn’t want her to be your enemy. She is a caring and no-nonsense forensic pathologist. She is after all the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia. And she consults with the FBI. She feels for her patients, meaning the dead bodies in the morgue that she investigates or works on. She is thorough and will leave no stones unturned so to speak, to be able to check details that will lead to the identity of whoever caused the death of the person she is working on. She is perceptive. She has quit smoking. She fights with her sister. She loves her niece, Lucy, who is a computer genius. She works during unholy hours and wouldn’t stop unless there is some kind of a closure. Her buddy is a police officer named Pete Marino fighting obesity and excessive smoking and accused as not being culturally diversed (read: redneck). She is having a secret affair (aren’t they all supposed to be secret) with Benton Wesley, a very intelligent FBI profiler who is married to his wife for 25 years.

These, more or less, appear in the novels where she is the heroine.

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