| Thursday,
April 5, 2007 QUERY:
As you may remember, my father is 86 years of age. He
is hale and healthy and remains articulate and, as is often said, in full
control of his faculties. However, he's been gradually losing his vision as
a result of macular degeneration. He has, for more than 70 years read
several daily newspapers, including the New York Times, and the Wall Street
Journal.
Unfortunately last weekend he had a retinal occlusion and lost all vision in
his good eye. Thus, the time is upon us where he can no longer read the
newspaper.
Several questions for your readers:
1) Is anyone familiar with the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind
Reader? Does it work? Is it worth the $4,000? I've read some praise for it,
but many say the technology is primitive and of poor quality. Are there any
other suggestions for him? He is quite computer literate and had been using
his iMac for several years.
2) Does anyone know of a source for the full daily and weekly text of the
New York Times in an audio format?
3) Any other suggestions for me?
Thanks, and I am sorry to impose upon you for such a personal matter.
I think this is a matter of general interest. Thanks. I will be posting
replies in mail.
============
This has been a week in which most of my psychic
energy has been divided between fiction and just keeping things going. My
apologies, but these things do happen. My thanks to those who have
responded, particularly those who chose now as the time to subscribe.
Nothing is badly awry. It is the case that the column -- but not the
letters column -- has been delayed this week. I could have prevented that by
writing a thousand words of blather; many columnists do that, and it's
usually easy to tell then they did.
It's also true that I haven't had a lot in View this week, for the same
reasons, but I again point out that I have kept the mail section up, and
that does have a good bit of commentary; and I will continue to assert that
Chaos Manor Mail and the mailbag at Chaos Manor Reviews are among the best
mail discussions on the Internet, and far better than a lot of blogs because
while I try to present some balance on matters of importance, there isn't a
plethora of commentary that adds little to understanding.
As to the future, Niven and I concluded that we have no more than seven
chapters to the end. When books get to that phase, they tend to absorb all
of one's energies, and there isn't a lot I can do about that. On the other
hand, we ought to be done by the end of the month, God willing and the taxes
aren't too difficult to compute.
Once that's done I'll be coming up for air, and we can decide on a more
long term plan before I plunge back into fiction with the
sequel to Janissaries.
Most of my mail has said in essence, do what you have to do. One letter
says, reasonably, that subscribers expect SOMETHING every week. To those who
feel that way, let me say: I agree, and I'll try to do better, but once in a
while I just may not make that. It won't happen often.
It has been suggested that I go back to what I used to do: write a
monthly column that gets divided up into weekly segments. I may do something
like that, but more likely I will do a two-week segment every two weeks and
chop that. I doubt you'll notice. Chaos Manor Reviews mail will continue as
before.
As to this place, don't expect any large changes. This page has always
been somewhat whim driven; lately the whims have been tempered by the need
to put in time on books. For those feeling deprived, I assure you, there is
always a minimum irrepressible urge to lecture -- pontificate, educate,
inform, discuss, choose the word you like -- that always remains, but
sometimes life overwhelms that and we go through spells of short shrift and
fewer whimsical essays. This place has always been run this way. Usually
it's not quite so noticeable.
==============
Education and Immigration
Today's papers have articles about skilled immigrants and the need to
expand the importation of people with particular skills that citizens can't
do.
This raises some important questions about our education system. We spend
more money per child on education now than we ever did, but all that efforts
seems futile: we can't teach our kids enough to let them fill the technical
jobs, and we have to import people to fill those, nor do we have large and
well organized apprenticeship programs that might mitigate the failure of
the school systems to fill the demands.
Why is this?
I suggest that it is largely due to a well meant but wrong headed
sentiment that puts equality in education as the first priority.
I have been reading The Crazyladies of Pearl Street, the last
novel of Travanian -- my old friend Rod Whittaker who died last year. The
book is fictionalized autobiography (I suppose all autobiography is somewhat
fictionalized) and Travanian's best work. It's long. I'll have a review in
this month's column. Travanian tells of growing up in the depths of the
Depression. He writes as a mature man but in the voice of a nine year old
bright but mostly self-educated boy. The public schools were awful.
"Mother said she wanted to send me to a Catholic school where my
energies, abilities, and talents had a better chance of being recognized. It
is true that more was expected of us at Our Lady of Angels, and its greater
discipline produced an atmosphere more conducive to learning. Those
stunningly plain, no-nonsense nuns nurtured their brighter students while
they dealt efficiently with the mediocre and gently with the backward, but
they did not tolerate those who disrupted the calm of the classroom, neither
the recalcitrant dummies nor the precocious show-offs."
This is precisely how I remember my education in Catholic schools (grades
1-3 and high school); but to some extent it applied as well to Capleville
regional with its two grades to a room. There was perhaps less dedication
from the teachers in Capleville than from the nuns at St. Anne's in Normal,
but not a lot less.
I have to dress and go for my walk now, but I invite you to consider this
as a better formula than "No Child Left Behind."
So long as we insist that we live in Lake Wobegon where all the children
are above average, and insist on equality of outcomes, we will be required
to import skilled workers to do the work Americans can't do.
I put it to you that importing the unskilled who will work for wages
citizens can't live on, while running public schools that don't produce
workers with the skills needed by a First World economy, is a formula for
disaster.
I invite discussion.
=========
In reply to a letter I have given
the history and future plans for
the Janissaries series of novels. I have also done a mild revision to
the Works In Progress page.
====
The personality disorder
discharges debate continues.
And I have a draft column out to the advisors. It will be posted
tomorrow, to Chaos Manor Reviews, so I have not missed a week. Just late.
===
Regarding the readers for the blind, it may not have been clear that this
was a letter from a friend and subscriber. My father died in 1964. I will
have the letter and replies in Chaos Manor Reviews, and I may have a special
page on the subject to make it easier for people to find. I have been
getting a lot of good information on this.
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