Current View (original) (raw)
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:
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.
Does anyone know of a source for the full daily and weekly text of the New York Times in an audio format?
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.
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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 thesequel 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.
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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.
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In reply to a letter I have giventhe history and future plans for the Janissaries series of novels. I have also done a mild revision to the Works In Progress page.
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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.
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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.