Educate Your Special Needs Child

Educating your special-needs child is extremely important, if they are to ever grow up and participate in the real world. There are many learning disabilities that children will grow out of, and they will be able to overcome in order to live normal lives, active lives, and participate fine in society. Of course, there are some things which are almost impossible to predict, which just goes to prove that your special-needs child's education never really stops.

The other day I was discussing this with a very nice couple whose special need teen was not really cut out to go to college, and they didn't graduate HS in the regular class, nevertheless they got the appropriate education for their particular child, and they would have to continually work with their offspring to prepare them for the real world. Luckily, there are other social services available to help them through this process, but life will always be somewhat of a challenge.

There was an interesting piece not long ago, on FOX News titled; "TSA Admits 'Bad Judgment' After Disabled Man Subjected to Airport Pat-Down" which was published on June 10, 2011. The news segment noted;

"A Detroit father told FOX that the TSA singled out his special-needs son for a pat-down while the family was headed to Disney World. The TSA admitted was a case of bad judgment. The Detroit Metro Airport took his son Drew, 29, and asked him about the padding underneath his pants, which turned out to be adult diapers. Drew, who is severely mentally disabled, had trouble understanding the agents' orders because his family said he has the mental capacity of a 2-year-old."

When the father intervened to explain, the TSA folks said to step back, let them do their job, they knew what they were doing, and not to interfere. Perhaps, you can understand how difficult this was for the family, but it gets back to my main point, and that is; just because your child can understand how to perhaps count money, dress themselves, do limited cooking, and perhaps live on their own, doesn't mean they are prepared for all the things that might occur in their lives.

In this case it turned out to be quite an event, and perhaps a traumatic one for the mentally disabled individual. Maybe the biggest problem here is that many people in our society do not understand how tough it is, but maybe some good will come out of this story in the news, and remind us all, that these special needs folks are also members of our society, and we need to look out for them as well. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Writing News Pieces

The intro of a news story should not be more than 25 words. It should be powerful enough to get the eyes of the reader. It is very important that the intro should gain the reader's attention so that the reader will want to read the news story. The intro should be in a problem/ solution combination. It should contain a brief highlighted problem with a brief solution in the news story. For example, thousands of asthma patients can have a relief after the new drug has been approved by the NHS.

The second and third paragraphs of the news story must contain a lot of key facts such as What, When, How, Why, Who, etc.

The fourth and fifth paragraphs should contain a quote from the major part of the story. These paragraphs should contain an opinion or a comment. It should not contain any factual quote from the main source of the story. For example, Mr. John said; "This is outrageous. They are ruining this highway. They should clean it up right away."

Then comes the secondary quotes, it should be quoted in long news pieces. This will give a balance to the story. For an example, if you making a news story about a new asthma drug that has been launched in the market, you should include the voices from a variety of sources which can include, scientists, patients, GP's, drug companies, etc. The quotes from these sources can be directly or indirectly. Direct quotes can be for example Mr. John said:".....................". Indirect quotes are for example -Mr. John said the drug is very effective against asthma and has been tested to give fruitful results. Indirect quotes are the lines which the reporter paraphrases the lines of the source as if they have told them.

All these rules are followed by people writing on websites like Forestlaneshul, which has made it extremely popular to people searching for news from the world of entertainment, technology etc.

Education Reform May Provide Better Incentives For Those With Education Degrees

Students in education degree programs might enter professions that, in the long run, are the most important to a successful economy. That's at least how President Barack Obama, interviewed by Matt Lauer for the Today Show in September, described teachers. Students who are working toward education degrees might also enter a field that's very different by the time they graduate.

The difference has to do with education reform. Last year, the federal government announced a $4 billion "Race to the Top" program designed to award $4 billion in grants to states that encourage education reform. Much of the news with regard to education these days has to do with enhanced college and university readiness and improved science and math education. Students in education degree programs might learn that America's K-12 students lag behind other countries in these subject areas particularly.

The American Federation of Teachers is on board with education reform. Math and science, many say, can enhance innovation, help the economy and help the country retain its role as a world leader. But where Obama in the Today Show interview announced plans to recruit thousands of science and math teachers over the coming two years, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in an opinion piece on AOL News suggested that training and retaining teachers, as they do in Finland, might benefit the education system.

BBC World News America earlier this year reported on how representatives from throughout the world visited Finland to determine what makes the country$27s schools so successful. Finland's schools rank- highly on a worldwide scale, even though students there spend some of the least amount of time in class, according to the BBC article. The article explained about when students start school there and when they move to different schools and teachers. Among other things, the BBC World News article mentioned immigration and additional teachers who fill highly respected roles.