Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Pseudocompetence (click to read)

 As a person with the Gift of Dyslexia before fully mastering the tools which I now use on a hourly and daily basis, I use to call  Pseudocompetence, "survival".  If I saw an article which I thought would be pertinent to my need to know knowledge, I would show the article to someone and tell them "here read this article I think you would be interested in the topic".  Then later on I would ask them what they thought of the article and then gleam what I could from them without ever reading the article.  But over a period of time what built up is the knowledge the data base I have in my head is totally dependent on others accomplishing what I can't do on my own.  Then once I master this ability my heart is harden to someone else proposing something to me which I should know but it is too much to pick up a book or article and read it to gain the knowledge I need to understand.  Then my sights became more and more narrow.

So now jump forward, Bookshare.org comes into my life from a librarian who advocated me to become a member and today I can read the Wall Street Journal on the way to work for today (not to mention Europe's WSJ, and Asia) or read any New York bestsellers or most books mentioned at conferences.  These tools or the "dyslexic's eyeglasses" which enable me to read have changed my world.  One day I was reflecting with one of my friends, and I was telling him how now with all the right tools I can read almost anything I want and how confident it made me feel, in addition it allowed me to contribute to my work, family life, parenting......  Then he said something which took me time to understand.  He said Davis you know reading has also made you a better Receiver." 


A "Receiver" , I pondered and then it became clear, my defensiveness and at times almost anger has vanished on new subjects.  Why because if I don't know lets take some parenting skills, I can read about it, or develop a new idea then I can read about it.  My knowledge base now comes from my efforts not someone else's, the knowledge gained by reading goes thru my filters, which is the way God created me to be, and why I am where I am, because someone saw those talents.


So now let's jump back to the reason for this List Serv.  You all have students who struggle (as I have and failed)  and as a teacher or advocate you want to make their life better by enabling them to read.  Well all I can offer is my knowledge of the tools I use on a daily basis, which I discovered from my failure and my way to survive in a "real world", 'assistive technology' has contributed to my drive and I want to pass it on to you as an LD Veteran.  

Monday, November 7, 2011

Special font helps dyslexic readers

New 'Font' outside of the walls of education seem a bit too much, what about "assistive technology".

Moments ago I received a 23 page contract from a new Healthcare Provider Network, I have the "Gift of Dyslexia" and I have to read this contract before I put my signature on the agreement.  No special font, I just highlight and copy to ReadPlease 2003 Plus add my footnotes to the document and send it back with my questions in the footnotes and move on.
Or if the contract is too wordy I will then paste the contract into Balabolka because it reads up to 510 words a minute, so I don't lose my comprehension by my mind drifting; most contract contain a lot of fluff.

The key to unlocking the Gift of Dyslexia is to create an environment which enables me or the person with dyslexia the ability to read.  Who wears glasses, this is in someone's world assistive technology.  Who and what gave Stephen Hawking the ability to pour out new insight to the Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics departments at the University of Cambridge and the world?

We are on the edge of the digital age where we can power up all students by advocating technology, but as it stands we are asking students in most academic settings to "power down".  Who can bring it better than those who have mastered it, through achievement.

Bookshare.org is doing such, all should embrace it with passion, and if you want to know the outcome, ask me or visit My travels with the "gift of dyslexia: www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx and my blog at www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com

All who touch a child with the Gift of Dyslexia have the ability to send them to the boardrooms or prison cells, I was blessed with compassionate ears and hearts, so my path has placed me in the boardroom.

"Once I was lost now I am found, once was blind to the written word, now I read."

Sincerely,
Davis W. Graham

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Steve Jobs impressions.

Blogs - Ron Hutchcraft's Blogs
When you're a kid, you're wet cement. Impressions get written so easily - and so deeply. Then they harden into the beliefs - or unbeliefs - of that kid-become-adult. Apparently, Steve Jobs was no exception.

Apple's communications genius/revolutionary, has been described as "intriguing, yet inscrutable." But as he battled cancer, he opened some windows into his mind and soul to the author writing his life story. According to the new biography that bears his name, Steve Jobs studied Zen Buddhism for years. A recent article in USA Today said, "He never went back to church after he saw a photo of starving children on the cover of Life and asked his Sunday school pastor if God knew what would happen to them. He was 13 at the time."

In a separate article, USA Today includes this near-the-end spiritual observation from Steve Jobs' biography: "The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith rather than on living like Jesus or seeing the world as Jesus saw it."

None of us knows exactly where Steve Jobs finally landed in his spiritual journey. But in his words about Jesus is a glimmer of the bedrock truth that answers so many spiritual questions: It's all about Jesus.

Christianity, the religion, never has been the issue - although many have been unable or unwilling to separate Jesus from the religion that is about Him. But Jesus made it all about Him, and Him alone, in the simple two-word invitation He extended over and over again - "Follow Me." Jesus never said "follow My religion" or "follow My followers." And He didn't say "follow My rules" or "follow My leaders." No, the only reason to turn away from Jesus is if you have a problem with Jesus.

As for "seeing the world as Jesus saw it," He saw it broken because people walk past the wounded, absorbed with themselves - as in His story of the Good Samaritan. He saw it cold and lonely and twisted because every man has chosen to ignore the Manufacturer's instructions and become our own god for our life. And that has brought us a world of bleeding families, greedy hoarding that produces global hungering, and an endless drama of people being used, abused and walked on.

And what about those starving children? Jesus said when we reach for them to help them, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me." And, "whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me" (Matthew 25:40 , 45/). Jesus is so personally identified with the hurting people of our world that He takes our treatment of them as our treatment of Him. With eternal consequences.

This Jesus that's it all about came here as "a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering...pierced for our transgressions...crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:3 , 5). This is the God who leaves the Throne to die on the Cross. He's a God you can believe in. A God who stands alone above all the wannabe gods of earth's spiritual pantheon. And ultimately, we find in Jesus the only man of the billions who've lived who has come back from the grave - and promised eternal life to all those who would "follow Me."

Behind all the fog of all the "sophisticated" spiritualities and dueling religions of our world stands one real God. One real Savior. The God who hung on a cross.

USA Today - October 21, 2011, 1B; "Jobs biography pulls back web of privacy;" Rachel Metz, Associated Press.
USA Today - October 25, 2011, 2B; "Jobs lived intriguing, yet inscrutable life;" by Jon Swartz and Scott Martin.