[CALIBK12] 4th grade reading and prison facilities - why many are illiterate

Fri Mar 14 09:35:12 PDT 2008

When I shared this with my staff, one made an interesting observation:
"Maybe this is why students will happily copy notes off a power point in
a dimly lit room, but will not be able to copy the same notes off the
white board in normal lighting.  Very interesting!"

Jan Oonchitti

Workman HS

City of Industry, CA

________________________________

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
[mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of ladewig
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:31 PM
To: CALIB POST
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] 4th grade reading and prison facilities - why
many are illiterate

Diane and everybody,

Several years a go I had to do some research on prison illiteracy and a
big part of the problem is that many of these prisoners (especially the
repeat offenders) have ADD/ADHD - at least 25% of the population on
average, some estimates (in some prisons) go as high as 40% *(1). This
boils down to two things - one, they should have gotten some kind of
help (medication, bio-feedback, better nutrition, additional reading
help, counseling - whatever) as very young children when first learning
to read AND they should have been followed-up and followed through on to
adulthood. Often their school records indicate that they did have some
sort of medication in school, but either parents ended it at puberty, or
had dropped it for other reasons (cost, concerns about side effects,
etc.). Once in prison, they may not get the medication they need because
of the potential for abuse (selling it, not taking it on schedule,
etc.). These boys (and sometimes girls) are often the ones who become
the "daredevils" and "juvenile delinquents" in their teen and early
twenties. Many of them did poorly in school (especially in reading, so
everything may also be difficult) and because of the ADHD they do not
have the ability (or it is abnormally diminished) to understand the
seriousness of and possible consequences (no "common sense") of their
actions, which are often done on the spur of the moment. The Nike slogan
fits them to a "T" - "Just do it!" It probably wouldn't surprise you
that children with ADD/ADHD end up far more often in the emergency room
with broken bones!

While some people don't believe that ADD/ADHD exists ("Boys will be
boys! Let them be!") we all know there are children (and not just boys)
who cannot sit still and/or cannot stay focused. Recent advances in
brain scan technology show that the brains of children with ADD/ADHD
react differently than "normal" brains. One doctor "mapped" the brains
of such children (he was a specialist) and found seven different,
distinct brain patterns of ADD/ADHD children. Some of it is no doubt,
genetic - we see it "run" in families; in other children it may be the
result of parental smoking*(2)/drug/alcohol use/abuse during
conception/pregnancy, or even poor prenatal nutrition. The lack of a
certain chemicals (especially DHA) in some baby formula was also shown
to contribute to poor brain and eye development.
<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/98964.php> (This is a
commercially sponsored site but the information is available in other
places as well, and it does a good job of summarizing the information.)
How do you "fix" this problem later in life?

Some observers of children note that TV, computers, and Fluorescent
lighting can exacerbate it (ADD/ADHD) in children - the almost
imperceptible "flicker" aggravates the brains of susceptible children.
Up until the mid-60s we had standard lighting in classrooms (remember? I
do). Then fluorescents became more popular because they were more
cost-effective (i.e. cheaper!) to use in the long run. A teacher friend
of mine observed that when she gave children free range of the classroom
and turned off half the overhead lights, students with difficulties in
reading/behavior tended to do better (behavior-wise) and naturally
gravitated to the dimmer-lit area of the room. Interesting observation,
isn't it? Another teacher I met (she was a science teacher at a middle
school) said she never used the overhead lights. She brought
incandescent lamps from home and used those. She told me she didn't have
problems with kids misbehaving due to ADHD. 

In the late 70s and early 80s computer games became all the rage, so
many more children were exposed (and at closer range) to flickering
screens. Thankfully, monitors today have much less "flicker" than
earlier models. Think it doesn't matter? Go back a few years to Japan
when a new TV show for children was put on the air with some sort of
rapidly flashing patterns - very young children who viewed it actually
went into convulsions and several children died! It was quickly pulled
from the Japanese airwaves. Some people find that fluorescent lighting
(especially if the bulb is flickering abnormally) will set off a
migraine.

Okay, I know I've jumped around a lot, but the reality is that no amount
of books or reading can "fix" ADD/ADHD. Children with ADD/ADHD are far
more likely to have difficulty learning to read or to read well enough
to be considered "functionally literate." They are more than likely to
do poorly in school, are not likely to do well in employment situations
unless they can find jobs where they can move about frequently and don't
have to deal with lots of information, high reading levels, or extended
concentration. They are likely to act before thinking things through.
Thus, they are far more likely to end up in prison. Because ADD/ADHT is
related to the LACK of proper brain chemistry, without medication, these
people may be much more susceptible to addictive behaviors such as
smoking, drugs or alcohol - not just to get away from their problems,
but because the addictive chemical "fills in" the gap chemically for
them. Oddly, some stimulents (like caffeine) have the opposite effect on
them - instead of "speeding them up" it actually helps them slow down.
Some children actually drink a small amount of highly caffeinated soda
(I think it was Mountain Dew) and function better.

If we are serious about reducing the prison population, then we must
address ADD/ADHD. We must find better answers for those with it already,
and we must find better methods of prevention.

*1 And as some prison librarians wrote to me back then that other
prisoners have unattended eye problems and/or glasses that are not their
current prescription, or no glasses at all, another contributor to
illiteracy.

*2 A least one recent study indicated that a woman who smoked during
pregnancy may be affecting the ova of her future GRANDchild - while the
children she bears may be normal, her daughters may have had genetic
damage to their ova during their gestation. If this is true, what other
harm can smoking do to developing infants?

Joanne Ladewig  (A.K.A. "Library Lady")

Library Media Tech

Lawrence Elementary, GGUSD

Garden Grove, California

shatz at verizon.net

Comments are my own and may not represent the views of GGUSD

________________________________

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
[mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Diane & Wayne
Oestreich
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:41 PM
To: Barbara Duffy; calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] 4th grade reading and prison facilities

I don't have a copy of The Read Aloud Handbook at school so I can't find
out his references for the info, but this is from Jim Trelease's web
page:

The basis for that formula is firmly established: poverty and illiteracy
are related - they are the parents of desperation and imprisonment.

*	82 percent of prison inmates are school dropouts.
*	Inmates are twice as likely to be ranked in the bottom levels of
literacy as is the general population.
*	60 percent of inmates are illiterate.
*	63 percent of inmates are repeat offenders.

Why are such students failing and dropping out of school? Because they
cannot read - which affects the entire report card. Change the
graduation rate and you change the prison population - which changes the
entire climate of America. The higher a state's high school graduation
rate, the smaller its prison population.

So common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon -
destroying ignorance, poverty, and despair before they can destroy us. A
nation that doesn't read much doesn't know much. And a nation that
doesn't know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the
marketplace, the jury box, and the voting booth. And those decisions
ultimately affect an entire nation - the literate and the illiterate.

The challenge therefore is to convince future generations of children
that carrying books is more rewarding than carrying guns.

Barbara Duffy <BJDuffy at lbusd.k12.ca.us> wrote:

If you haven't seen this - scroll down to Milton Chen's article What I
Learned as Principal for a Day. 
Toward the last he comments on prison officials checking how many 4th
graders are failing Reading so they can plan adequate prison facilities.

Barbara

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