Woodstock CT Café

Thirteen years ago in the spring of 1994, I was driving on Route 80 somewhere west of Cheyenne on my monthly jaunt from the Air Force Academy (a place where I did not like to be) to the warmth of Palo Alto CA (where I loved being). I had to go back and forth between Colorado Springs and California because of some work I was doing on the bio-effects of high energy laser pulses (the reason why soldiers in the battlefield have to wear laser light-filtered goggles). As I enjoyed the beauty of the Wyoming terrain I found myself listening to an interview of Thomas West about his new book entitled “In the Mind’s Eye” about visual thinkers, people with dyslexia and other learning difficulties.

I was so captivated by the discussion that I could not shed these thoughts for the remaining 20 hours of the trip and I read his book while sitting in the Printers Inc, my favorite coffee house in Palo Alto. If mothers or fathers want to know what might be possible for their struggling children (in school), they might get a feel for what to do and what might be possible by reading this book (if anyone wants my copy, stop by).

The author was talking about the role of the two sides of the brain in learning and creative thinking, sometimes referred to as ‘left-brain’ and ‘right-brain’ dominance in ‘learning’ or ‘thinking’. I prefer to speak about this concept using these phrases metaphorically because I am in no way a neurophysiologist, nor do I have any real expertise in learning theory. The only expertise that I have is my own experience and observations in life. But for sure, hearing someone talk about left-brain learning (or ‘textual thinking’) versus right-brain learning (or ‘visual thinking’), helped me to answer some long-standing questions about myself and my family. West was saying that a majority or people emphasize the left brain in their learning process while the right-brain learners struggle in their youth to learn. This is because historically teaching in schools was geared more to left-brain learners rather than those whose right-brain skills were more developed or dominant. Read the rest of this entry »

The most honest answer that I can give you is that I have been dilligently reading many posts here (both current and in the archives). I simply haven’t been able to grasp which side is correct yet beyond a reasonable doubt. I see dueling figures from both sides quoted in here. One side stating that there is indeed room in the BOE budget for more cuts. Or at the very least, many feel there ‘may’ be room for more cuts but the public hasn’t been privy to the numbers to determine this. The other side, in support of the BOE, seems to feel that there is more room for openess of the “books” to the public, but that K-8 has been fiscally conservative thus far.

I lean from an emotional standpoint toward accepting the word that I hear in the halls at WES; that if we had more money we could do this or that. Admittedly though, I am hearing that much less since money not needed for WA tuition was put back into K-8. My general impression (and this is strictly my personal opinion) is that while every school is generally underfunded and could always benefit from more funding, I would not state that K-8 is starving as much as it was a year or two ago, per se. My feeling is that they are managing with what they have and doing a great job while they’re at it. I think it only fair to say that while there may not be a boatload of room for further cuts, most budgets usually have some room nevertheless. I assume that this same principle would apply to WA as well, and even the town’s overall budget. Read the rest of this entry »