School Technical Ideas

“These schools to be under a visitor, who is annually to chuse the boy, of best genius in the school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools, of which twenty are proposed to be erected in different parts of the country, for teaching Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of numerical arithmetic. Of the boys thus sent in any one year, trial is to be made at the grammar schools one or two years, and the best genius of the whole selected, and continued six years, and the residue dismissed. By this means twenty of the best geniusses will be raked from the rubbish annually, and be instructed, at the public expence, so far as the grammar schools go.” Those are the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson, excerpted from Notes on the State of Virginia. 

Jefferson, it seems, was cognizant that “genius,” as he called it, must be cultivated and developed.  Furthermore, he asserts, that talent is something “nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich …”

These words and ideals, expressed by a founding father, oh, so long ago, form the crux of the ideas embodied in the law of the land, as it pertains to gifted and talented education.  Section § 8-202, of the relevant section of Maryland law unequivocally states, “Gifted and talented students are to be found in youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor. ”

The perceived failure of gifted and talented education to equally identify “genius” from “youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor,” is not a rationale for dismembering gifted and talented education.  Instead, it should gird us with the determination to do it right. 

It is a national shame that we have embarked on a voyage of dismantling the vestiges of a challenging education and replacing it with a soufflé of little substance.  In Montgomery County, Maryland, the exercise has taken the form of replacing middle school honors courses with courses that fail to meet their stated goals. 

For example, Honors Earth Space Systems A/B Grade 8, has been replaced with Investigations in Earth Space Science (IESS).  According to a memorandum issued by the then superintendent Jerry D. Weast, “As part of the Middle School Reform initiative, OCIP staff members have redesigned the middle school science curriculum to create two courses, Investigations in Science 6 and Investigations in Science 7, which lead to Earth Space Systems in Grade 8.”  He goes on to assert, “The courses integrate STEM concepts, technology, research, innovation, and multiple solutions. Students generate questions and develop plans for solving problems and evaluating solutions. They record their findings in design-folios and science journals. Classes analyze progress toward possible solutions throughout each unit and students have multiple opportunities for reflection and revision.” At least in one school, in a co-taught IESS class, teachers don’t seem to have the time to accomplish these objectives

It is time to change course. 

(c) 2012, Kumar Singam.  If you would like to receive email notifications of columns by the DC-Gifted-Examiner please use the “subscribe” button at the top of this article to sign up.

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Jason Wilson-Maki

What is a farrier? What do they do?

A farrier is a skilled tradesman who maintains horses’ feet. Often protective devices (horseshoes) are required to allow a horse to perform his duties; a farrier builds and applies these appliances. The shoes can be as simple as a basic shoe to any apparatus imaginable to support, protect or alter flight and weight bearing in a horse’s foot.

Why does the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) need its own farrier?

My role at the CVM is multifaceted, and ancillary to many of the other equine services. I trim and maintain the horses that are used in the teaching process. I also fill shoeing prescriptions for client horses to help alleviate lameness and am often called upon to create supportive shoes and devices for post-surgical animals. I am involved in teaching laboratories which are aimed at teaching students safe handling of horses’ feet, shoe removal and other physical skills involving the hooves of horses. I am also able to bring a farrier’s perspective to discussions about specific cases and hopefully assist in fostering better veterinarian/farrier relations. The farrier position at the CVM, in my opinion, allows for a more complete educational experience for the students and provides a full service facility for client animals.

Is this a lost skill or is there still a need for farriers?

The demand and need for trained farriers continues to grow. In recent years, through the work of local associations, national organizations such as the American Farriers Association and outreach programs by the American Association of Equine Practitioners and increased communications between individual farriers, the level of knowledge and skill has increased.

What do you like most about this career? 

Whats not to love? I am involved with horses and people on a daily basis. I am in a trade that demands a continual upgrading of skills and knowledge. I also get to fabricate intricate, individual animal-specific appliances from straight stock. I love the physical and mental challenges and the opportunity to help horses and horse owners.  The best component of my private career was the independence the work provided. Currently, the top aspect is the interaction with and education received by working with the veterinarians and other professionals at the CVM.

What kind of training/certifications does one have to go through to become a farrier? 

Wilson-Maki shoes a horse at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.

In a strictly legal sense in the USA, any individual at any time may trim or shoe a horse and claim the title of farrier. However, the American Farriers Association (AFA) has a series of voluntary certification examinations. These range from an intern exam, a Certified Farrier (CF) all the way through Certified Journeyman Farrier (CJF). Testing for Specialty Endorsements is also provided. Many professional farriers attend farrier schools ranging in length from a few days to two years. The AFA examinations are stringent and exacting enough that most farriers who pursue the certifications serve some form of apprenticeship. These range from highly informal help sessions to contractually bound apprenticeships. I would guess that the farrier trade is one of the least regulated, yet complicated crafts in existence.

What equipment/techniques do you use on a daily basis?

Somewhere I saw a T-shirt with an interesting description of a farrier. Paraphrased, it stated: farriers are the masters of sharp knives, biting rasps, cutting tools, horses, hot steel and heavy hammers.

I will utilize multiple knives designed for specific detail work on a horse’s foot. I also work with many different rasps (a big fingernail file) and nippers for clipping feet. Ill use a forge for heating metal and an anvil for shaping or manufacturing various shoes. Myriad tongs for holding different stock dimensions, and more hammers than you would think one person would need. Ill sometimes use band saws, grinders, buffers, a mig welder, a jigsaw, and the list is endless.

The most important technique, in my mind, is using as much information as can be provided and thinking through your goals, options and probable outcomes before diving in: think before you do.

Is there anything that you would like to add about this special career?

Farriery is a mentally challenging, physically demanding trade which requires myriad and disparate skill sets. Knowledge of horses and multiple equine disciplines is required. The willingness to ignore aches and pains to accomplish your goals is paramount. I think communication skills are also important. In order to be successful, one must continually question what he or she is doing and accept failures as readily as successes. The willingness and ability to self-educate is invaluable. One must not only educate their mind, but master and refine their forging and trimming skills. Your hands must be able to produce what your mind dictates. This trade is not for everyone, but for the right people, it is the greatest (and one of the oldest) crafts in the world.

Knewtonians are ravenous readers. From our book club to our book swap, there are a variety of ways to partake in the active literary culture at Knewton.

Heres just a taste of what folks at Knewton have on their shelves these days:

1. by John Kennedy Toole

David Ingber, Master Teacher

I find myself unable to read as many pages in one setting as I used to. Thats why Im almost glad that I ride the subway its at least an hour a day that I cant be distracted by the internet and my phone.

2. by Suzanne Collins

Will Fleiss,  Senior Marketing Associate

If you love gripping young adult novels (think) and muse about the effects of pop culture and entertainment on society, dont miss this story about child gladiators.

3. by David Foster Wallace and  by Hunter Thompson

Jayson Phillips, Software Engineer

“Its (Infinite Jest) a pretty meaty book and makes for a challenging yet enjoyable read.

“From what I gather via conversation and observation the reading culture is pretty alive and very diverse. People seem to be reading all the time and in many different genres/forms.”

4.  by Ben Mezrich

Andy Huang, Content Developer

If you enjoyed Bringing Down the House (the inspiration behind the Kate Bosworth movie 21) be sure to check out what Kevin Spacey calls the next addition to Mezrichs formidable canon of lad lit.

Trevor Smith, Software Engineer

6.  by Candice Millard

Charlie Harrington, Business Development Associate

During the perilous journey chronicled by Millard in this non-fiction thriller, three men died and Roosevelt himself was brought to the brink of suicide. For a taste of this adventure story, check out Charlies favorite quote from the book:

“Far from its outward appearance, the rain forest was not a garden of easy abundance, but precisely the opposite. Its quiet, shaded halls of leafy opulence were not a sanctuary but, rather, the greatest natural battlefield anywhere on the planet, hosting an unremitting and remorseless fight for survival that occupied every single one of its inhabitants, every minute of every day. Though frequently impossible for a casual observer to discern, every inch of space was alive from the black, teeming soil under Roosevelts boots to the top of the canopy far above his head and everything was connected. A long, linked mat of fungi under the soil consumed the dead and fed the living, completing an ever-changing cycle of remarkable life and commonplace death which had throbbed without pause for millions of years and of which Roosevelt and his men, knowingly or not, had now become a part.”

7. by Marcel Proust and by Jonathan Franzen

Hyunjin Kim, Associate Product Manager

Hyunjins two cents on reading in the age of tech:

“I think its becoming increasingly easier to become used to digesting information in smaller bits (from short articles to <140 twitter blasts), which, while useful for certain types of information/communication, often precludes (or make it more difficult to want to seek out) substantial analysis and engagement with thoughts, arguments, and issues.”

8. by Colson Whitehead

Nina Reed, Research Coordinator

Be sure to check out this post-apocalyptic Zombie horror novel, which GQ describes as glory, lyrical and human if brainy thrillers and full-throttle prose are your thing

9. by Dr. Seuss

Eric Garside, Software Engineer

10. The Queer Art of Failure by Judith Halberstam

Christina Yu, Marketing Associate

If you want a serious academic treatment of Little Miss Sunshine, Pixar movies, and Spongebob SquarePants; or if youre ever given serious thought to what it feels like to come in 4th place at the Olympics, check out this witty treatise on the art of failure, forgetting, and passivity.

One of many insightful moments from the book:

For Walter Benjamin the cartoons depict a realistthough not naturalistexpression of the circumstances of modern daily life; the cartoons make clear that even our bodies do not belong to uswe have alienated them in exchange for money, or have given parts of them up in war. The cartoons expose the fact that what parades as civilization is actually barbarism. And the animal-human beasts and spirited things insinuate that humanism is nothing more than an ideology.

HOUSTON – A 9-year old Houston boy can do something even world class professional athletes can’t do.

His talent has gotten the attention of some big names in basketball.

Jalen Howray is special in more than one way. He is autistic, and he has an amazing talent when it comes to basketball.

A superstar let Jalen know just how special he is when he dropped by his school in Galena Park on Tuesday.

“He touches my heart because he spins a basketball like nobody has spun a basketball before,” Harlem Globetrotter Kenny “The Blenda” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez isn’t just being nice. Jalen is really doing something that most people can’t, including professional athletes.

He can spin a ball on his thumb. Most athletes have to start the ball spinning on their finger, and then transfer it to their thumb.

“I think I need to work on that myself to spin the ball right on the thumb instead of transferring from the finger to the thumb,” Rodriguez said. “So I think that’s pretty cool. When I first saw it I was like wow this guy is special. He’s unique. There’s no body on the team that can spin the ball the way Jalen spin’s the ball.”

“The Blenda”, as Rodriguez is called, came by Jalen’s school, Green Valley Elementary, to tell him just how amazing his trick is.

The basketball star put on an interactive show for all 700 students. He gave Jalen a brand new ball and tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters game in Houston on Jan. 28 at Toyota Center.

Jalen’s parents said he developed autism when he was a toddler.

“He was developing like a normal kid; then all of a sudden it just stopped,” Carla Howray said. “When it stopped, we, his parents, saw him regress to nothing. Zero words, zero speech, zero eye contact.”

A year ago, a basketball became more like a magical key, unlocking speech in Jalen and peeling away a layer from him that seemed to have him trapped inside himself.

“All of a sudden, his father was spinning a ball, and he saw it and it was like something just clicked, and he started spinning the ball with him,” Carla said. “So to see him come back, to see everything that was locked in come back, it’s just, I attribute it to God. It’s a miracle.”

“I don’t want to get emotional here on TV,” Wilford Howray added.

All of the attention made more than one little boy’s dream come true.

“I always wanted to be in the basketball spotlight myself,” Wilford said. “I’m 6’7″, almost 6’8″, so to have my son do it for me it’s a big excitement.”

“I think he’s more excited than Jalen is,” Carla said, laughing.

“I’m the happiest father in the world right now,” Wilford said, with tears in his eyes.

The Original Harlem Globetrotters —

FOX 26 Reporter John Donnelly contributed to this report