Bal Taschit and Tikkun Olam: Jewish Environmental Ethics

Today is blog action day.

And although its late already, we thought we'd get in on the action.

So first, a story:

When G-d was creating space and time, G-d formed many universes, but each one was not quite what G-d had intended and so G-d recycled the materials for another go at it. Finally, G-d made a universe that was just what G-d had wanted, and in that universe, our universe, in the outer third of the spiral arm of a rather ordinary galaxy, G-d put a lovely blue planet. And then G-d formed Adam (the human being) from the Adama (the red earth) and breathed into Adam the breath of life. And G-d placed the human being on this garden planet, lush and full of all good things to work with it and to protect it (lit: l'avda u'lshamra). And G-d said to the humans: "Remember, I made you human from the humus (soil) and you belong to this land. The land is your mother. Take care then to protect and care for her, and do not destroy her, for if you do destroy then who will make her whole for you again?" (A Midrash on Genesis 2: Gan Ayden--translated and retold by Elisheva).

From this we learn that we are placed on this earth as part of creation. We did not create the earth and we cannot remake her should we destroy her. As humans beings, we are unique in creation in that we have "eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and we therefore can choose between good and evil. We cannot claim the role of innocent bystanders to whatever happens on our lovely blue planet because we literally know better.

In Judaism, we have numerous laws and ethical requirements toward animals and nature. Here at Ragamuffin Studies, we have decided to focus on two of them. They are Bal Taschit--do not destroy--and Tikkun Olam--repair of the world.

Bal Taschit and Tikkun Olam by N

Bal Taschit is a commandment from Torah:

"When in your war against a city you have to beseige it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy (bal taschit) the trees, laying the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field like a human that can withdraw before you into the beseiged city?" (Devarim, Parashat Shoftim--Deuteronomy 20:19)

This pasuk is about how to treat trees during a war, but in the Talmud our rabbis expanded the meaning of Bal Taschit to mean that you may not destroy anything that G-d has made just because you want to destroy it. You can kill animals to eat them, but you must not waste them just to get the best parts or because you want to show what a great hunter you are. You can cut down trees for the wood to make your house, but you must not waste anything. Even throwing paper away and not recycling it would be to break the commandment not to destroy. I think what our rabbis meant was that the earth is not ours to do whatever we want to it. It belongs to the One who gave life to everything that lives here. We are part of the earth and not above it. So we have to find ways to "walk more lightly" on the earth as Tom Brown says.

Tikkun Olam means to repair the world. Mom will tell you the story of these words. I will tell you what I think it means. As I said above, G-d made the earth and it belongs to G-d not to human beings. But G-d did put us here to do more than just stop destroying things. We are also creative, like G-d is, since the story of creation says that we are "b'tselem Adonai". That means that we are in the image of G-d. And G-d is creative. So it is our job to fix up the world and make it better. We are creative when we find new ways to live on the earth, like inventing PV (photovoltaics) so that we can catch the sun's energy directly to make our electricity or use the sun to heat our water for showers and baths.

At our house, we do Bal Taschit by turning off lights we are not using, recycling more than we throw away, using a set-back thermostat for our heater, heating most of the house with a pellet stove, and by being very careful with water. Mom and Bruce are always saying things like "Turn off the water while you brush your teeth. We live in a desert, you know!" We also try to consolidate our errands when we go into to town so that we do not have to drive in as often. And whenever we can, we take the Focus instead of Henry the Big Red Truck.

We are also doing Tikkun Olam. For one thing, we take care of our trees on our acre by taking care of deadfall and thinning them so that they get the most sunlight and put more oxygen into the air. We also take a bag with us when we walk so that we can pick up litter. You'd be surprised at how many people litter in the mountains. We have even found old coke bottles that have filled with dirt! We went to the Solar Fiesta right after Rosh Hashanah because we are getting more creative. Mom and Bruce and I are going to install a PV system so that we can use the sun for some of our electricity and put some back in the grid. Mom is talking about rainwater harvesting for some of our fresh water and compost toilets to save water, too. So we are doing some things right now to help the environment and we are working on doing more. And it is kind of neat that some of the Tikkun Olam that we are doing will also help us with Bal Taschit. For example, to use PV for electricity, Bruce says that you have to get very good at not wasting any of it either.

Back to you, Mom!

It looks like N. has explained things very thouroughly. As he promised, I will tell the story of the words Tikkun Olam.

In the Jewish mystical tradition it is written that G-d first created light and then created vessels to contain that light. But when G-d poured the light into the vessels, they were too weak to contain it. The vessels shattered and the shards make up the material world that we commonly experience. But everywhere in the material world are hidden sparks of light. They are within you and me, plants and animals, rocks and earth. It is our job to gather these sparks and raise them up whenever we find them, bringing the material world closer and closer to the world of Holiness and Oneness. This job of gathering sparks is called Tikkun Olam--the repair of the world.

There are many meanings to this story, as is true of all good stories. But I think the one important for today is that everything in the world contains sparks of holiness. We just don't see it because we notice only the broken shards. When we look beyond only the material, we uncover the beauty and the spirit in everything. And we want to preserve and protect, "tend and till," and fulfill our role as creative stewards of Creation.

Jews believe that Creation itself is the sign of a covenant between G-d and all of the universe. We are not responsible only for ourselves alone, but for the care and protection of all of creation. When we learned of the knowledge of good and evil, and of life and death, we were pushed out of the womb of creation and born into a role of responsibility as stewards of creation. We have a duty to maintain the covenant of creation itself.

And if we do destroy our birthright wantonly, then who will make whole again?

'Cesar Says:' Training Lily on Autumn Walks

Even though I've never met him, Cesar Millan is taking over my life.
And it's a good thing. Really.

We have two dogs. Both are rescue dogs. Zoey, the white mutt with black spots is my dog. We've had her seven years and she is my dog. She has always been a calm and submissive dog in general, and now, at about 8 or 9 years old--we're not really sure-- she is really, really calm.



Lily, the tri-color dog that the pound called a harrier cross, is N.'s dog. And she is another story altogether. When we went to the pound to see her, she was a bundle of energy. She still is. She learns rapidly, which is a good thing, or she would have been returned to the pound after the first exciting week at our house. However, being responsible people, we felt we couldn't abandon her, so we had to set about training her. She is great with us, but she dislikes other dogs, men in ties, and strangers who come to the door. We got her to a level that we were happy with until she took off after a real-estate agent one day when she escaped. He was very nice about the whole thing since he wasn't hurt and is not lawsuit happy, but we realized that Lily needs more discipline. There are others in our neighborhood who might sue at the drop of a hat. And besides, we'd like to enjoy our walks and be friendly with everyone. I mean, talking with our neighbors is a lot more fun than dragging a fearful, barking dog away from them. And Lily deserves a calmer life, too.

MLC watches a National Geographic Channel program called the Dog Whisperer when she stays with her college friends in town several times a week, and she took over the training first. She runs with Lily and taught us how to use the choke-collar correctly, as well as how to correct Lily when she starts after something or gets excited, but before she starts barking. So far, so good. Lily can now run past another neighborhood dog, Buddy the Dachshound (he thinks he's a Rottie), who does not like anyone. But since N. brought home Cesar's book, Cesar's Way, we began to realize that there was a lot more to it.

Training Lily has become one of N.'s homeschool projects. Um...actually...it's not training Lily, it's training us. We've made just about every mistake in the book with Lily. Thank goodness she's a fast learner and pretty forgiving. But now when I am dealing with the dogs, N. is around, book in hand to give us the low down on what we should be doing.

"Cesar says..." he'll announce as he corrects all of our mistakes. It takes a lot of motherly love and forbearance, not to mention a good deal of humility (a virtue I am convinced I was sent here to work on) to try it Cesar's way.

But it is working. The dogs are happier. I am happier. N. is in his element.

"See that guy?" He'll say as we are walking in the meadow, sans dogs. "Look how he's got three dogs straining at the lead? They're pulling him. He's not being the pack leader." He says it loudly enough for the passing guy to hear. Well, tact is not exactly an AS characteristic.


Enter the autumn walks.
N. told me a few weeks ago that I am doing one thing right with the dogs. (Thanks, N. Or should I say 'Thanks' to Cesar?) Anyway, I walk the dogs for a good 50 to 60 minutes each morning before breakfast. So I'm a good dog mommy. Oops. "Cesar says you're not supposed to think of the dogs as your kids," according to N. Well, anyway.


"Cesar says" also that the dogs need lots of exercise and that we must "master the walk."
And the weather is absolutely perfect for doing some exploring in our mountains. So, since Sukkot began, we are also taking the dogs on long walks in the moutains several times a week.

As we walk, we practice being the pack leader, correcting Lily--and occasionally, Zoey, when they get fixated on squirrels or whatever. But they don't get to correct Mom when she stops to sniff out a good picture! There are many great advantages to being pack leader. Above is a picture of the mountain path just below the saddle between Rancho Verde Moutain and Five Hills to the west. Look at those colors. Too bad we can't bottle them!


Here is a picture from the side of Rancho Verde Mountain, just above and east of the saddle. I was looking northwest to the Sandia Mountain front. If I had been looking south, I would have seen the ridges and valleys of Juan Tomas.

We passed a man walking his dog on the saddle just before I took this picture. N. brought Lily in close to the heel, and then corrected her with an almost inperceptible upward tug on the leash as he said "psssht!" It was quiet and I doubt the man noticed.
But Lily's attention was immediately focussed on N. and she walked past the man and his dog without as much as a whimper.


We walked on around the mountain and down an animal trail to a clearing near the bottom of the hill, almost in the valley between Rancho Verde and Juan Tomas. There we stopped to eat some lunch.

After giving the dogs water, we had a good drink. Lily sat right smartly to N.'s command, and then he said: "Cesar says, first exercise, then discipline and then affection."
And he proceeded to give Lily the last.

Zoey was lounging near my feet as I stretched out and ate some nuts and an apple. No begging was allowed from the canine contingent. And they didn't do it. Did I say there are advantages to being the pack leader? Yep.


After several hours and about five miles up and down hill, we made our way home.

Here Lily rests in the shade of the porch garden while N. is getting the cats rounded up inside. She was tuckered out. Zoey was beyond tuckered, and after having a drink, she stretched out on the dining room floor and refused to move.

We had a snack and rested for an hour and then did our library run and a shopping trip for N.'s campout.

As I write, N. is at Herron Lake with the Boy Scouts, fly fishing and I hope, having a great time.

I have noticed that my energy is increasing and my muscles are becoming more defined. Today, Bruce and I took a shorter walk through the woods before breakfast.

Since Cesar Millan started taking over my life, the dogs have been happier, N. has been developing a new passion, and I am getting into better shape. And I am getting a bird's eye view of autumn in the Sandia Mountains.

Homeschooling. It's a dog's life.

Update Machon: Something New in Religious Ed

As some of you know, we have had some great difficulties with the Machon program of religious education at our synagogue. In the past few years, there were several big problems that finally caused us to take N. out of the program for the second semester last year.

But we were not totally comfortable with having him out of the program, either. As members of a minority religion, one important aspect of keeping him in a program is to continue to instill the culture and values of Judaism in a social environment. It is true that we are more committed than many families to the practice of Judaism in the home, but at its best, Judaism is a social religion, meant to be practiced within a community of Jews, and handed-down from generation to generation from a community. Although there is a strong home-based component, Jewish sensibilities are best handed on through the group.

So with a certain hope in my heart, I went to the parent meeting about the program for this year. Now, given the difficulties we have had in the past, and sense of being marginalized due to N.'s disability, that hope was a little guarded. But it was definitely a choice of giving it a try or looking for another synagogue. The latter might be easy in New York, Chicago, L.A. or Houston, but it is not so easy here near Cowtown, U.S.A.

This time, I was not disappointed. I had been told by the rabbi early last summer that special needs would not be addressed for the kids any time soon. It was just too much. But when I arrived at the meeting in September, I was introduced to the new "special needs coordinator," who happened to be a person who worked extensively with N. through the Hebrew School years, and really knows what she is doing.

Secondly, the congregation has brought in a consultant for the Religious Education program. He is Joel Lurie Grishaver of Torah Aura Publications, a respected expert in Jewish Education, and IMHO, someone who understands teens better than they understand themselves. With his help, the Education committee and teachers have done much more work on the Teen Program--Machon--than they had originally thought they would do.

Here is how the program is being organized this year. Machon covers grades 7 - 10. With the exception of grade 10, the confirmation program, all of the classes have been split up so that there are 12 - 15 students in a group. Each class will rotate through four 8-week units of study, each with a different teacher. They will alternate two units in the fall and two in the spring, so that teachers only teach their units twice and then are done for the year. That prevents teacher burn-out. This year, N., who is enrolled in 8th grade, is currently studying ethics with Morah D. through a program called Ma La'Asot: What Should I Do? During the second eight weeks of this semester, his group will trade with the other half of the eight grade, and study Comparitive Judaism with Morah H. In the spring, the two groups with alternate studying the Shoah (Holocaust) and Medinat Yisrael ( the modern Israeli state) with two new teachers.

For N. there are several benefits to this schedule. The first is that the groups are small, and the teachers will have a better chance to interact with each child. Also, there is a defined unit of study for each session with materials provided. This provides a definitative structure so that N. knows exactly what will happen each week and can be prepared for it. The materials are age appropriate and provide differentiation for different learners. The teachers will not be relying on lecture only, and do not have to re-invent the wheel each week. Also, if there is a poor fit between teacher and student, Morah C., the special needs coordinator is there to help.

Of course, there are also some problem areas with this schedule. One is that neither of the two boys that N. is closest to are in his group. I have heard some minor grousing about that! It is nice to know that he has some friends that he'd like to be with in Machon--that's the positive side. We are now hoping that he will make friends with one or two other kids who are in his present group. And we carpool with the first two boys every week, so he sees them even if he is not in class with them. The second problem will be with transitions between one teacher and subject and the next. N. gets enormously attached to situations--even bad ones. For him, "the devil you know" is the best of two evils. Still, we will work with the teachers and Morah C. to smooth out the difficulty that changes like this represent.

So far, after two classes--the Holy Days plays havoc with the Machon Schedule, too!--it's looking good. I sent the Interim Education Coordinator a detailed discussion of Aspergers and N.'s particular needs and strengths. She shared that with Morah D., his first teacher. I received a phone call from the teacher, in which she asked me to tell her what my goals for N. were for the year and how best to accommodate his difficulties. N. has come home energetic (last year it was melt-downs and tears) and he was able to discuss with me the particular issue and ethical consideration that they had learned and discussed in class. So he is learning! Last year, he could not articulate what was lectured about at all.

I am still nervous about how the transitions will go. I also have concerns about how the other teachers will handle N.'s almost absolute refusal to write at Machon. Last year the students were required to take detailed, handwritten notes and were then tested on them the next week. The lectures were fast paced, and N. could not keep up with taking notes. Since he also has difficulty with auditory processing he got nothing from the notes and could not pick up on the powerpoint since he was too busy trying to take notes. Needless to say, he did poorly on every test. This was one reason for the melt-downs and tears. He was put in a no-win situation, andd he has responded by an outright refusal to write down anything for Machon. He writes NOTHING. Not even his name. Morah D., his current teacher understands this and does not ask him to write. I hope all of the rest of his teachers will be as cooperative. Perhaps, as he sees that he will not be forced to write or placed in a no-win situation, he will come around. At least a little. We'll see.

However, all-in-all, I feel like progress has been made. After being told we would not be listened to at all, the parents of the special needs kids got a surprise. We do have a special needs coordinator. There is an accessible curriculum. And after years of sending in modifications sheets and detailed explanations of our children's needs, they are actually being read and followed. We are being consulted. This is progress. Great progress.

Maybe the rabbi finally "got it" that this is a matter of ethics and morality. One does not put a stumbling block in front of the blind. Rather, according to Jewish law, one must smooth the way and provide help to all kids in accessing their Judaism. In the Hagaddah of Passover we are taught how to teach four kinds of kids: the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who does not know how to ask.

Maybe the rabbi finally sat down and read Ma La'Asot:What Should I Do?

AS and the Problem with Language: Response to a Great Comment

I was going to get on and do a quick blog about something else, but I will save that topic for another day. I got and excellent and detailed comment from Rebecca on my post, Writing for Visual Thinkers, that I want to discuss further here because my response will need some elaboration. For the entire comment, check out the post and comments.



In my original post, I spent a few sentences discussing generalizations. Rebecca wrote this about my short discussion.



First she quotes what I wrote.

"In the auditory-sequential world, generalizations are understood as shorthand, but in the visual world they are seen as incomplete at best, and at worst, they are lies."



Rebecca then wrote:

"I was going to quote Ayn Rand, but we sold the book. This is an interesting point, though -- that is what the study of linguistics is about, how we use words -- not just generalizations, but all words -- as symbols for concrete and abstract realities and manipulate words as a means to categorize, analyze, and express thoughts about those realities. What I don't understand is, if generalizations are inferior and inaccurate, why the use of so much jargon? Jargon is merely specialized language. Jargon, more than generalizations, IS shorthand, a means of saying with one word an idea, process, or concept which would otherwise require a lengthy explanation."



And here is what I want to say about generalizations and jargon.



First, I don't think that generalizations are inferior and inaccurate. What I did say is that to a certain part of the population they come across that way. Generalizations are a good way to organize and categorize knowledge. In much of Gifted Education, we focus on increasing the ability of our students to make meaningful generalizations because this develops a person's ability to think about complex issues.



However, people with Autism Spectrum Disorders have a great deal of difficulty with generalizations. Remember that all the ASD share the characteristic of being, in part, a social-communication disorder. Part of the challenge for people with ASD is that they do not easily understand figurative language and they do not perceive the body language that would help with this. There are several areas of the brain that may be involved with this, such as the superior temporal sulcus in the temporal lobe, and possibly visual-motor centers in the superior colliculus. But wherever the problem may manifest in the brain (and it is likely that it involves different areas and the communication between them), but upshot of it is a lack of sophistication with language, which is processed by the brain through the auditory sensory processing systems downstream of the primary auditory system, even when it is written.



For example, when N. was younger, I used to say things to him like:

"Would you like to put that dirty plate by the sink?" Although posed as a question, intonation and body language, as well as an understanding of my role as the mother, would give most children the idea that this was a command disguised as a question for politeness. But N. would not see the body language, hear the intonation, or take not of my social role in the situation. He would take the question absolutely literally and respond with his actual desire, thus: "No, I don't want to do that." Now, I quickly figured out, using all the skills that N. did not have, that he was taking my question literally, and I learned to pose my commands directly and concisely in order to get the desired behavior. It worked quite well if I merely said; "Please put the dirty plate by the sink." N. was not being oppositional, he was merely being literal. The problem is that many adults jump immediately to the conclusion that literal children are, in fact, oppositional--and this is where many kids with Aspergers (AS) get into trouble in the wide world beyond the family.



Generalizations are a sophisticated juxtoposition of concepts with reality. They do not directly map onto reality, and when we use them, most of us are aware of the difference. For example, I can make the following generalization: "Christians believe in orignial sin, and therefore..." using the generalization to get on to the actual idea about Christians that I want to present. But beware if you are dealing with someone with AS (or even someone with the broader autistic phenotype). Such a person will immediately call up every counter-example of your statement and derail the conversation into a discussion of the branches of Christianity that do not accept the doctrine of original sin. People with AS and other ASD must be taught directly to understand use of language that goes beyond the literal, such as figures of speech, metaphors, and generalizations.



Another fascinating and wonderful characteristic of the ASD, is that of detail orientation. One area that we see this is in the visual thinking skills that so many people on the spectrum have. Certain kinds of visual tests show that people with ASD are able to process and remember the details of visual input whereas neurotypical people forget the details and retain the gestalt, which is the big picture. There are several ideas currently being investigated about the origins of this skill. But one thing that we do know, people on the spectrum tend to pay attention to the parts rather than the whole. They can perseverate on the parts endlessly, and miss the "big picture."



Generalizations are the verbal counterpart to the big picture. A person making a generalization is doing so in order to get past each detail and present an overall concept for consideration. But to the person with AS, and to those who think almost exclusively in pictures, the generalization seems woefully undetailed and therefore incomplete or even untrue. They have great difficulty with generalizations and can perseverate on the problems they pose, thus missing what comes next. When it comes to writing this is a real problem, since we must make generalizations in order to write concisely about ideas.



Think about all of the generalizations I have made thus far about people with AS, ASD and neurotypicals. I did not do it because I believe that in each individual case what I am talking about applies in exactly the same way, but in order to get across to you an idea about communication and AS.



And now, a word about jargon.



I do understand that in any field, jargon, or technical language is necessary to convey concepts concisely. When I, as a scientist, use certain terms with other scientists, they do not mean the same thing as when I use them in general company. For example, when I taught genetics, I used the term evolution to mean "a change in gene frequencies over time within a population." Any biologist hearing me in context knew exactly what I was saying. Our educations provide us with an agreed upon meaning for the use of the term. But in the general population, the word evolution means something very different. As it is often used, it means change over time leading to some kind of improvement. Directionality (a teleological concept) is not part of what biologists mean. Thus, we get all sorts of amusing (at least to me) controversy over the term.



But as we become more and more specialized, jargon quickly becomes a problem. When scientists within different branches of the same field cannot communicate because they do not understand the technical differences in meaning, well...to quote the warden in Cool Hand Luke: "What we have here is a failure to communicate."



Although I do think that jargon is sometimes used to obfuscate, I do not think that it is always so. To make a generalization (:)), I think that many scientists, especially those who are primarily visual thinkers, overuse jargon because they have not developed the ability to use ordinary language in a sophisticated enough manner to communicate to the general public or even to scientists outside their fields. And in my experience with reading and writing as a scientist, I believe that the way we teach or do not teach writing in graduate schools of science has weakened such skills further. Many times, the use of an apt figure or speech, a metaphor, a generalization, or a homely example would clarify a point and make it more understandable to the reader.



Please do not misunderstand my generalizations here to mean that scientists are all autistic. Only some of us are. And some of the rest of us do have the broader autistic phenotype showing in how we communicate. And neither are all scientists visual thinkers. But a lot of us are. And for some of us, so much so that communicating in words is a difficulty we'd rather forgo.



And as for our students with ASD, I believe it is important to understand their difficulties with the use of generalizations. For if we can understand what the problem is then we are much more likely to be able to teach them how get beyond it. It is so much better than throwing our hands up in the air and calling these kids lazy and intransigent.



Oh, and one more idea: I just realized that generalizations are so useful in writing because language is auditory in nature. Since our auditory working memory can hold, on average, only about seven bits, we generally resort to chunking. For example, if I want to remember a four digit number, such as 1,492, I am very likely to repeat it as "fourteen ninety-two." I have chunked it into two numbers instead of four. Generalizations are a way of chunking a lot of detail into an overall concept, freeing up processing space for manipulating the concept intead of spending an inordinate and impossible amount of energy sorting out every detail.



Anyway, thanks for the comment, Rebecca!

As you can see, it was a very fruitful source of thinking for me!

Oh! And I'd love to know what the quote by Ayn Rand was. I read every one of her books several times as a teenager.

When Real Life Happens: COH #93

I've been talking about getting back to "real life" lately.

And we homeschoolers are amazingly good at having a real life.

And now The Tutor over at Apollos Academy has posted this week's Carnival of Homeschooling--The Real Life edition. She shows us that neither rain, storms, viral bugs, or web hosting problems can keep homeschoolers from their appointed rounds! (With apologies to my letter carrier).

So in between those car problems, melt-downs, and impossible fractions, I am looking forward to some down-time over at Apollos Academy, where we can have a cuppa, and laugh in the face of REAL LIFE!

Back to Normal-- Sort Of: Floors, Chores, Math, and SET!

Yesterday, after a full lunar month of fitting life in around the holidays, we felt we had finally got back to normal.

Since Bruce is working on the living room floor now--or is that again?--anyway, my living room is partially in our bedroom sitting room. So I set up in there, sitting in the recliner, working on my presentation for NAGC, reading a paper for Psychology, and another for Neurophysiology.

Aren't the roses pretty?
Bruce splurged on them for Shabbat.

But of course, the whole day I had planned of normality--that is enjoying getting some needed work done was not to be. The phone rang. Seems that Bruce had promised to pick up beds for the Interfaith Hospitality Network--Congregation Albert is hosting this week--and then we had completely forgotten it.


So it was grab the keys, run the brush through my hair, and we were off to the synagogue, in Henry, of course. It was not us they wanted--it was Henry, the Big Red Truck. We were just along to drive.

Two trips from Montgomery Church of Christ to Congregation Albert, and we had delivered all the beds but one. Seems a new family was starting the IHN program that day, and we needed one more bed. So another trip was in order--this time to the network office, to get the extra bed. It was pleasant--a cool but sunny fall day, nice conversation with the volunteers at Montgomery Church and at CA and at IHN office down at the First Congregational Church. N. came along, too, and he was a big help loading and unloading with Bruce. All I had to do was drive.



After a stop at the store, where Bruce ran into an old colleague, it was home again, home again, jiggety jig!

On the way into the house, we saw this amazing Orb Web Spider on the porch. She moved as I snapped this picture. I'll post another shot later. N. moved her off into the bushes so that no one would step on her.





Three hours had passed from the time we left, so I went to the kitchen to start dinner. Bruce finished closing up the cooler for our side of the house, and then did a little floor work in the living room.

He's got a bit laid out--almost half--but he did not get to gluing this weekend. It may be next weekend before that gets done!

Here he is, deciding on how to lay out the boards. He has a spread sheet to make sure that he doesn't end up with too many boards of one size at the end of the room. The Geek!




While I made a salad, N. relaxed on the couch--that part of the living room is currently in the dining room. He is reading Peterson's Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. He has become quite a reader in the past year--it is no longer a scheduled chore, but something to do at every opportunity. I consider it part of our homeschooling time--even on Sunday.

This morning, I got up just before sunrise, and was out with the dogs as the first light turned south mountain a wonderful pink. We had our first freeze last night--it was 31.7 F when I left the house. I enjoyed my breakfast with the newspaper and got some housework done before it was time to wake and feed N.


N. has arranged with me to work on Math on Monday and Wednesday mornings--and now that the holidays are passed, we finally got back to our regular schedule. I am afraid math has taken a back seat to other learning during most of the past month!

N. is up to Introductory Fractions with his Teaching Company Course--Basic Math. The DVD segment goes over several concepts for fractions very quickly, and N. felt he wasn't getting it. He was frustrated with himself. When asked, I suggested that we go over each concept separately, watching only that part of the video, and then work on the problems for that concept in the workbook. So today, we worked on finding the unknown in equivalent proportions. (That's where you have something like 7/8 = X/24 and you have to figure out that X=21). I showed him the quick and dirty way to cross-multiply--the DVD does not teach that, but it is so much easier! He liked that. Then, at his request, we went on to work on resolving improper fractions to mixed numbers.


After the math, we had agreed that we would work on some reasoning together, which we did by hauling out my old SET! game. I last used it two years ago when I taught an elementary school gifted program. In SET! there are cards that are combinations of three different shapes, three different numbers of the shape on a card, three different shading patterns and three different colors. The object is to pick out a set of three cards in which three of the four parameters are either the same or different. N. beat me hands down, of course! But the cool thing about this game is that he has to hold all of the parameters in his working memory while he decides whether a particular combination is a set or not.


Here he is with a set: same shape, same color, same number, different shading.

Warning: This game is addictive! We kept saying to each other; "Just a few more rounds and then we'll stop!" We played for over an hour. N. has a much greater tolerance for this kind of learning than he does for slogging through math problems.

However, I was proud of him. He chose the math course because he set a goal for himself. When he got frustrated, he sought out help. And today he worked on two different math concepts before he was ready to call it a day and play SET!

Back to normal. Yeah!

Writing for Visual Thinkers

I have been thinking about writing lately.
The issue of clear, organized and thoughtful writing is an issue for me in two areas of my life, my doctoral studies and my role as a homeschooling mother of a child with Aspergers Syndrome.

At the university, the effect of poor writing has become apparent to me as I struggle to understand a series of weekly papers that are required as part of my Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology course. Each week, we read one or two papers that document current research in areas related to the physiology that is covered in lecture. For example, just recently we have been discussing reflex feedback that affects propioception. Differences in how the nervous system deals with reflexes become important when an animal has to couple voluntary motor responses with reflex responses to stimuli. Writing neatly when the pen is jarred would be one example. And our nervous systems deal with these problems in amazing ways, using the neurocircuitry and neurotransmitters to increase and decrease reflexive responses based on the perception of where body parts are within a cycle of movement.

But speaking of writing, what I am noticing is how uniformly poorly written many of the published papers are. And these are papers by respected scientists in good journals. The last paper we read was so dense with jargon, and so poorly structured that it was particularly easy to miss the point, although once I got it (after three readings), it was interesting and important.

As I was contemplating the relatively uniformly low standards for clarity of prose in scientific writing, I was also thinking about where we are with N.'s writing skills. He is getting better at sequencing, especially after practicing by re-enacting the sinking of the Titanic. But when detail becomes dense, sequencing is still a problem. N. tends to become overwhelmed by the details and has difficulty figuring out how to elaborate with them in a sensible and understandable order.

In considering these two different examples of problems with writing, I had a niggling sense that they were somehow related, however, I was unable to put it all together for several days. Finally on Thursday, two conversations I had created the "Aha!" moment I was looking for, and I was able to develop my hypothesis about what was happening. In the first conversation with my professor of Neurophysiology and another student, we noted that the diagrams in the paper were explanatory, but the captions were quite dense and almost unreadable. And we noted that they were misplaced with the text so that the reader had to page back and forth to find the paragraphs where they were discussed. I noted at the time that neuroscientists really like cartoon depictions of processes and maybe this would better help readers access the material. Later that evening, my daughter came home with a stack of posterboard and colored pencils. When I asked if she had presentation, she said that she didn't, but that she needed to draw out the biochemical pathways as they worked in cells in order to really understand them.

MLC then said something curious: "You know, Mom," she said, "My professor is a little weird. When he is explaining a process, he leans his head back so that his nose is in the air and closes his eyes. Strange. It seems like he is kind of stuck up."
"Hmmm," I replied. "It sounds like he has to close his eyes and visualize the process in order to explain it well. He's not stuck up. He's just a little autistic. And look how you have to make a cartoon of the processes as they occur in the cell to really get at what is going on."
"You're right," she said. "Scientists love powerpoints where they can make cartoons. The more animation, the better."

Eureka! There's the connection. Many scientists are visual thinkers. We love pictures, diagrams and graphs. Not only is a picture worth a thousand words, we think of them as replacing words, and we make them do that whenever possible. The same is true for people with ASD. Temple Grandin's book, Thinking in Pictures, rings true for a reason. Many people on the spectrum, and their relatives with the broader autistic phenotype, think primarily in images. According to respected experts in the field of remedial reading, the same is true for those dyslexia.

For the majority of the population in literate countries, sequencing writing comes naturally because they are thinking in words. But for those who think primarily in pictures, sequencing is a problem for translation into verbal and written expression. Think about it: When you call up a picture in your mind, all the detail is apparent at once. The memory used for the storage and recall in visual thinking, the opticoder (a.k.a. the visual sketchpad) can hold a great deal of information--it appears to be almost infinite--and it can be connected and manipulated with lightning speed. Thus, those who think in pictures do not think sequentially, they think by making connections across categories. This is associative thinking--complete, detail-rich, and very fast. It is also considered to be a learning disability in our auditory-sequential dominated educational system.

Now consider what it would take to put ideas gained from visual thinking into words using either verbal or written language. The information must be sequenced and chunked in order to use auditory working memory, which is very limited in scope--holding about 7 bits of information at once. This seems very tedious and extremely limiting to the visual thinker, who is used to manipulating many more bits of information at once. And then there is the problem of where to start. For example, if I close my eyes, I can see the entire room in which I am sitting, with every detail down to the dust motes dancing in the sunlight from the window. There is a tremendous amount of detailed information in the three dimensional picture in my mind's eye. But if I am asked to describe it, I must immediately begin to make decisions. What is important to say? What is safe to leave out? Where should I begin? At the door? Where I am sitting? The middle of the room? In what order should I describe it? Big stuff first, then the small things? Or should it be according to the space the stuff is in? Colors first? How can I choose? Oh, forget it! The choices become overwhelming.

You get the picture. This is why scientific writing tends to be so dense and jargon-laden. To a visual thinker every detail is important, because one never knows how associations will be made. It is hard, very hard, for the visual thinker to eliminate trees in order to discuss the forest. In the auditory-sequential world, generalizations are understood as shorthand, but in the visual world they are seen as incomplete at best, and at worst, they are lies.

And to add insult to injury, the auditory-sequential world cannot understand what the problem is and tends to diagnose the visual-associative thinkers as stupid and lazy. They can't help it--many of them cannot think in pictures at all. They cannot even imagine what the problem is. In fact, for many philosophers of language, human thought must happen in words and language or it is not considered to be thought at all. The visual thinkers would say that such people have limited perspective. If they can find the words.

To make matters even worse, visual-associative thinking is so fast that on the extremes, such thinkers do not develop the alternative pathway. In order to successfully communicate in society, we must choose which pathway to use to process incoming and outgoing information. Sometimes, we use the visual pathways and sometimes we resort verbal pathways. So, in order to help extreme visual thinkers learn to write clearly, we must first help them develop the alternative pathway and then teach them to use it efficiently.

With N., it really helped to start with his strengths in visual-associative thinking and use those to scaffold to auditory-sequential. We started with sequencing pictures, and since he has all of the stereotypies and special interests of a child with AS, we started with the Titanic, since he was watching the movie over and over again. He made some gains, and then moved on to other interests. But where to go from here?

I think the answer for N. and for the scientists with the dense, jargon-laden papers is the same. It is to tranlate ideas from the pictures in the mind to auditory sequential chunks without sequencing every picture. In other words, I think the next step is to give each picture in the sequence a label, and then fade the use of the pictures. Now auditory-sequential thinkers would probably suggest doing this in one fell swoop, by introducing outlines. To them, outlines with all the fancy lettering, numbering and indentations make perfect sense. But to the visual-associative thinker, this may be too big of a leap. For example, N. tends to start to obsess on the exact spacing, on an exact pattern of lettering and numbering, and loses the point in a swamp of detail.

Fortunately, we do not have to re-invent the wheel here. For N., anything is worth doing if he can do it on the computer. And there are some great programs, such as Inspiration, that allow the use of graphic organizers that can then be turned into an outline with the touch of an icon. You can put pictures into your graphic organizer, or you can use text. Or both. And didn't MLC mention PowerPoint as the first love of geeky scientists? You can do the same thing with that program, in a different context.

Here, then, is a plan for what we want to accomplish in writing this year. In the past, N. would dictate and then I would help him organize his thinking. Now it is time for a little more independence. So this year, we can make some goals about learning the use of Inspiration or PowerPoint, or both, if N. chooses. Then I can help him move from his present level of using pictures to sequence a story with limited detail, to using pictures and text to sequence a story of similar detail, and then fade the pictures entirely, using only text to go from graphic organizers to outlines. Once that goal is successfully accomplished, we might want to move to stories with more complexity and do the same thing. Eventually, the goal is to be able to do this with extemely complex stories and processes.

Now I need to set up a time to talk about writing goals for this year, to see what N. wants to do, and how he wants to fit it in with his current focus--Kamana Wilderness Awareness. And this is going to have to be done with some delicacy. Writing is a sore subject for N. He has been called stupid and lazy too many times and will not be pushed too far beyond his comfort zones. The success rate at each step is going to have to be about 80% or he will lose interest.

The way many teachers unthinkingly label kids who think differently creates a real problem. When teachers call their students stupid, lazy, brain-damaged, and trouble-makers simply because the teacher lacks the imagination to see that there are many variations in how people think, they create the resistance to learning that they then so actively punish. People don't like to fail over and over and be blamed for "not trying" to boot!

Variation is a given in human populations. It is not a crime. Uniformity in a population is a weakness that can lead to trouble. We know this now more than ever, as we unfold the mysteries of the human genome. What I don't understand is why our educational systems are becoming more and more fixated on uniformity even as our science discovers the usefulness of variation. Actually, come to think of it, I think I have a hypothesis for this question, too.

But that's another post!