Presentations: Day 4

Well I thought today's presentations were particularly interesting. Lindsay's presentation on racial gaps was really informative. I'm sure a lot of people in class didn't know what the SATs and/or the ACTs tested for because I was surely not aware either. It really showed how unfortunate it is that there are gaps in testing and upper level education when the people that on average do better on these tests don't even know what they are measuring. As for Brittany's presentation, I think it's really awesome that disabled kids get a chance to interact with the world in different ways, even if it is with animals and not particularly people. I was really interested in the information she gave about how the kids do better with different kinds of therapy. It was enlightening. As for Jessica's presentation, I also thought it was really interesting. I'm also doing my paper about deaf individuals, although our focuses are different from one another. I really don't have as much knowledge as she does on deaf culture, I'm sure of that, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the class says about our different pieces of information that we've gathered as well as our use of the information.

4/23

All the presentations today were very well done and interesting as well. The topic of using animal therapy was very interesting in my opinion. I knew that dogs were used in hospitals to make the patients feel better, but I didn't know they were also used for autistic therapy. There was a girl in my school who was autistic and was on the same gymnastics team as me, and it was hard for her to communicate with the other members of the team. She didn't know how to be involved. I think using animal therapy is a great way in which to help children with autism. I think this idea is a neat way to include education in non conventional ways because education is everywhere. Jessica's presentation on deaf culture and mainstream schools was a fascinating topic. I think that there should be more schools in which deaf children can go to school because I think that kids don't understand children with disabilities and that makes it hard for those children to make any friends. I was surprised in Lindsay's presentation that the ACT/SAT measure your expected college grades. I think racism is still a big problem and that it really affects how these students perform due to the environment they are put into.

4/23 Presentations

Wow, todays topics were all very interesting. The topic that was the most intriguing to me was that of deaf education. I really never thought about how deaf people interact differently in public schools. It just seemed so unfortunate how much going to a mainstream school can have a negative effect on social skills and how few deaf schools there are. That can be one paper on its own. Deaf schools definitely need to be more prevalent. Overall, great topic. I am sure that paper will be great, especially since Jessica has such personal experience with it.

April 23rd Presentations

Achievement gap:
It was really interesting that you incorporated how SAT scores are monitored and reviewed in the collegiate applications. I also thought it was interesting that it was stated that there is a large gap in sciences and people claiming that minorities do worse on the ACT because its based (45%?) on science related topics.

Autistic Children - Animals therapy:
The only reason I know anything about this topic is because it was included in the Nicholas Sparks book, "Dear John". I thought that it was really interesting that you included a variety of different therapeutic techniques that can be utilized. I think that they really strengthened your topic, and the variety provided alternative options.

Deaf Culture:
I liked how you opened with the question and signing. Overall your presentation was probably one of the best so far. You made it so much more interesting because of your clear enthusiasm and knowledge for/about the topic. But because of your previous involvement its probably important that, in your paper, you avoid sounding too biased.

April 21st Presentations

I thought that the presentation on ADHD was very enlightening. I had no idea that children with ADHD had such a problem focusing. I was only aware of kids with ADD who are prescribed Adderal, which leads to over diagnosis because of the affects of adderal on focusing. Many students abuse the drug, buying and using it to complete tasks. So I think its really interesting that the focus was on how parents and teachers can help these kids, and she didn't focus on how medications can help the students. Over medicating is problematic and if the focus is shifted away from medication to specific activities and teachings, I think we'd be better off as a society.

Response to April 21st's Oral Presentations

Lauren's presentation on ADD and ADHD is probably one of the most controversial of today. Not only are there plenty of mis-diagnoses but there are plenty real cases of it as well. I would like to see her discuss how the mis-diagnoses not only take away from the children who are actually struggling with the disease but also the effects of the drugs on those mis-diagnoses. It would be really interesting to see the effects on both those real cases and the ones who don't need the drugs.

Malika's presentation is another huge controversy of today. Many Americans are not education on current events around the world. I'm not so sure this is completely the teacher's fault though. Some students needs to take it upon themselves to maybe read a paper or watch the news once in awhile even if it is just "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report". After all, adults do not have the schooling that we do, and for them to be educated on current events the have to take it upon themselves. Maybe Malika could discuss the amount of news available to the students who may or not be knowledgeable on the subject.

On the holistic vs. Waldorf education I would like to see post schooling studies. You can't tell much from the studies during schooling. If you look at the kids in their college or post college life that is how you tell if their education foundation was better.

3rd Presentations

I forgot what order people presented in so im just gonna talk about them sporadically. I know that ADHD and ADD are supposedly over diagnosed because its most doctors approach to just medicate someone when the parents claim theres a problem and demand a solution. I would like to see if there are any studies out there showing the long term effects ADHD and ADD medication have on young children. Such as future drug use and depression as well as dependency.
I agree that the genocide in Darfur has been forgotten by the media for the past 2 years but why haven't the UN or some other global organization tried to actually intervene? As horrible as this may sound, its not the US's responsibility to stop it. Besides no matter what we do we will be criticized for our decision. If we take no action then history will look back and say that the current world power let crimes against humanity take place while in a position to stop it. However if do step in it will only worsen current US sentiment in other countries. People will claim that we are trying to be the hero and point out everything that goes wrong as we try to stop the genocide.
Finally I know very little about Holistic education. But I would agree that traditional education is not right for everyone. Some people just respond better to a different learning environment and I do believe that while grades and performance matter, that they should be introduced later in school so as to try and relieve pressure from kids who don't perform well in classroom because everyone is different.