Couric's attempt to break the glass ceiling shatters

Instead of posting, I have been busy on other stuff including -- watching how Gail Shister's Philadelphia Inquirer column on Katie Couric's woes has played out in the media. Thanks GDAEman for commenting and noting my continuing frustration. I think that the Tribune article that appeared that same Sunday should have had a little more play, as it was her first public quotation about the plagairism issue. But the more sensational Shister column gets the press.

During the last week, the Couric case has also been discussed on WGN radio. She was interviewed later in the week by a sympathetic friend, dj Steve Cochran, as a promo for doing the news from Chicago and then appearing at a major cancer benefit on Friday. She said that she thought it was important to continue to do "good journalism" on her newscast and that that will attract viewers. She said something like "people still need someone to sort out all the news that's going on and to drill down into news stories beyond the short headlines that you get in many places." This is not a direct quote, just a paraphrase as I remember it. Anyway, how much can even a good television reporter 'drill down' (a phrase she did use) during a 22 minute newscast? Isn't that more of the role of newspapers, magazines, and now the infinite depth of the internet?

Curiously, she was joined on the interview with her new producer who was more long winded and who Couric cut off a few times, taking the conversation in a different track.

Susan Estrich also had a nasty column on Fox concerning Couric and about how women should not attack women who break through the glass ceiling. You know what? I think that women should be held to the same standards as men because only then will we have truly broken through the glass ceiling. When we are given passes because we're-women-(or minorities)-and-they-need-us-for-affirmative-action-or-related-window-dressing, then we haven't really broken through. Guys know this. Smart women know this, too.

I am beginning to think that Couric was given a wide pass on the plagairism issue because she is a woman. If she was a guy, perhaps she would have been raked over the coals. But CBS needs its peacock showcase woman and they don't think it's appropriate for the Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News to defend or apologize for mistakes on the newcast. The Managing Editor, consequently, has been demoted to a perky Talking Head.

More media players write about Katie Couric's problems

Over the weekend, media writers for the Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer the analyzed the Katie Couric problem at CBS. The results were divergent and fascinating. Phil Rosenthal at the Tribune is the first person that I can tell that has interviewed Couric since the plagiarism incident. Her comments seem to have made a sidebar but they don't say too much. Rosenthal's column is mainly Couric speaking to Rosenthal in rather general terms about the difficulties of finding her way at CBS. (it's also at PopMatters, in case you don't want to go through the Tribune's website.)

Here's just the Rosenthal side bar for those of you who don't want to be members at the Tribune.
NEW YORK -- CBS News chief Sean McManus is vowing reforms for CBSNews.com after Katie Couric's Notebook on the site included a plagiarized commentary, mostly written by a since-fired Web producer.

"People have the right to expect, if your name is on a product, that you wrote that," McManus said.

Couric does five commentaries a week with help from a staff.

"I'll usually edit it or I'll say I don't feel comfortable with this or I don't like the way this ends," she said. "So this was a very unfortunate incident because the person who did this is a lovely person, but clearly inexperienced about the tenets of basic journalism."

Couric said her own memories were incorporated, but the fired producer copied mostly from a Wall Street Journal piece.

Couric also contributes to a blog on the CBS News site, which she says she writes on her own.

"The blog can and should be much, much better," McManus said. "It's a great opportunity for Katie to express herself, and I'm not sure any of us have spent enough time focusing on that. It's an area we need to make better and we will."


Two points trouble me about what Couric said . 1) "this was a very unfortunate incident because the person who did this is a lovely person, but clearly inexperienced about the tenets of basic journalism." How could a woman who is 32 years old, has a bachelor's from Wesleyan and a master's degree from Columbia (in journalism? not sure) and who has worked at CNN, and the New York Times and is going to be teaching a class at Media Bistro not be experienced? Altho she looks like Anne Hathaway in a photo, this woman was not the young, naive girl from Devil Wears Prada, but it sounds like that's the angle CBS is taking. If that is the angle, what does it say about CBS News? (ok, and how could Hathaway's character be so naive anyway. she had a journalism degree, too.)

2) " Couric also contributes to a blog on the CBS News site, which she says she writes on her own." One of the areas that seem disputed is what she is contributing to the blog. It looked to me that the blog post was usually the same as her videocast.

Read Gail Shister's Sunday column in the Philadelphia Inquirer for a different angle. Shister, a long-time media columnist, connects the dots with the problems at the CBS Evening News. The plagairism incident is only one of many problems.

Karen Von Hahn, in the Toronto Globe and Mail, sees the CBS plagarisim issue as part of a bigger problem of attribution in her column in Saturday's issue.

Hamilton Nolan writing in PR News on April 17 posted the essay "Halfway approach to blog was CBS' error." He ends the piece this way: " "The ethical implcations of Couric's secondhand commenatries are murky - people understand that news anchors have writers - but the blogosphere is about forging a more personal connection. A Couric-branded blog should either feature her very own thoughts, or take her name and picture of the masthead."

When the public relations community has problems with plagairism, then you know you have problems.

The only writer that I have found that links how children use libraries with the CBS case has been Gary Rotstein, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in his April 19 article "By the book." He writes: "The association's annual study said the number of visits to public libraries increased 61 percent between 1994 and 2004, to nearly 2 billion." The complete American Library Association report "State of America's Libraries 2007" can be found at the ALA site.

A few pullouts from the press release: "Overall circulation at public libraries in the U.S. rose by 28 percent during the decade, partly driven by significant growth in circulation of children's materials, which grew by 44 percent. Attendance in library programs for children was also up 42 percent for this same period." ... 'The 2007 State of America's Libraries reports that while use of libraries continues to increase and while the general public supports strong funding for libraries, many school library media centers are experiencing budget cuts resulting in staffing reductions, shortened hours, and even closures. The new federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act are cited most frequently as the reasons for these funding cuts."

So, in the end, children are using libraries a lot more and they are reading books. Unfortunately, they may not be able to do this as much as they used at their own school libraries. Maybe Laura Bush, who's advocated for libraries, should see how school libraries fit into the mix of No Child Left Behind.

Finally, here are a few more links to a variety of comments on the plagairism case.
Will Femla on the MSCNBC site.
LibrarySupportStaff.org, who had to read about the Couric plagarism at Drudge (!)
Violet Blue's post on blog "Tiny Nibbles," which can usually get more steamier.
And the website Plagiarism.org. It doesn't mention this case, but sums up what plagiarism is all about.

Hope all the colors on this page aren't too much. Thanks for reading!

Reflections on the Virginia Tech massacre

Even though I saw the news unfolding, I found it difficult to stay focused on it at that time. I just didn’t want to follow it closely at first, as I used to do when I worked at newspapers. The Virginia Tech story comes too close and its reverberations echo in my community.

A few years ago while on a journey East, we decided to stop for the night at in Kent, Ohio, the home of Kent State University. We were ready to find a motel and we have had good experiences staying in college towns as there are usually lots of motels, good places to eat, and something interesting happening. It is hard not to think of the killing of four students May 4, 1970 when you are there. But when we visited the campus, we couldn’t find too much that memorialized the students. Maybe things have changed. But we had such an empty feeling as a result. At least, the campus has memorials and observances each May 4. Still, we just wanted some way to pay our respect and reflect better than talking about it in a rather sterile motel room later.

The community of Virginia Tech will probably handle its memorial events differently as Tuesday’s tragedy reflects a different kind of tumult in society. Our culture has changed in how we react to these extraordinary tragedies and perhaps that's particularly positive. Whenever I hear Neil Young sing “four dead in Ohio” I cringe with sadness. To transpose those lyrics to “thirty-two dead in Virginia” is extraordinarily sad and disheartening. I pray for the families and the university and that some positive windows can open somehow.

As a high tech parent, the discussion of how to contact students in the age of cell phones and email is enlightening. Blacksburg is trying to be one of the most connected communities in the U.S., so the VT' administration's inability to understand that the easiest way to contact students is through text messaging to phones seems rather sad. If this community that is quite high tech still had problems, what does it say about how technology could work for the rest of us? The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article probing this question, “Texting when there’s trouble.”

Universities need to rethink security issues as well. Parents and students (and maybe even faculty and staff) have different expectations concerning safety than just ten years ago. We know technology exists to enable only electronic passholders to enter dorms or any building on campus. We know that high schools use metal detectors, but rarely see them in colleges. We know cameras exist all over highways, but are they on campuses in appropriate places?

Even though Hope College is near a somewhat unsafe neighborhood, when I stayed in a dorm for a conference a few summers ago, I felt particularly safe. The reason: to get into every dorm and many other buildings on campus everyone had to have an electronic pass card. I couldn’t even get into the main library until I asked for special clearance. I think this is in the future for colleges and universities.

Twins plagiarizing. Fired CBS producer's twin did same.

The CBS plagiarism story continues in a weird twist and commentators continue the dialogue. First, the CBS producer who was fired for plagiarizing has a twin sister who was also caught plagiarizing. The New York Post reports her sister “as canned from Woman's World after being caught plagiarizing from Self magazine in January, a source told the Post.” Whoa. Did they both think they could get away with it? They are both 32 and are graduates of Wesleyan University and have master's degrees from Columbia University, according to the Post and other bios.

Second, a few media commentators are weighing in that CBS Evening News shouldn't be left off the hook so easily. Scott Collins, in his column Channel Island at the LA Times, writes about the seriousness of the CBS Evening News plagiarism case.

Broadcasting & Cable magazine has an op-ed about the problems with plagiarism in broadcasting

“Katie Couric Must Share Blame in Plagiarism Case, Says Media Ethicist Bob Steele '69”
from DePauw University news bureau. Steele works for the Poynter Institute.

The Deeper Fakery of Couric’s Plagiarism from Slate by Timothy Noah.
Note: I disagree with Timothy Noah about Jeff Zaslow’s writing. One of the reasons the Couric piece stuck in my head was because Zaslow’s plagiarized writing was clever and intriguing. Noah gets somewhat off track.

Putting Words in Her Mouth, from the Weekly Standard. This is my husband's preferred interpretation.

Thanks to Beth Kujawski's blog for pointing out the New York Post article and the LA Times.

I am beginning to have trouble spelling plagiarizing.

Couric's friends? + CBS changing Couric's incorrect Obama essay

So far only one of Katie Couric's friends, and this one is anonymous, has supported her on the web in regard to her plagiairsm case. Read the tip on Media Bistro about someone how heard from a "dear friend and former colleague" that Katie did write the first line from her April 4 video essay "I remember my first trip to the library..." This post, only so far seen on TV Newser on Media Bistro, seems like a very weak support of Couric.

Also...CBS's significant changes to Katie Couric's April 11 video essay about Barack Obama is just starting to surface. Television news never really has had an ombudsman, like print newspapers have, so they never really have to confess to mistakes. From a media observer's point, I'm finding it curious that CBS is now in the print business and has had to correct print mistakes, something they probably would never have to do in radio or print reports. Clearly they're uncomfortable about it.
Here are a few links: Huffington Post: More Katie Couric Trouble: Updates Notebook Again After Spreading Debunked Obama Rumor
Couric's "Notebook" rehashed debunked Obama rumors
Wizbangblog on initial problems with the Obama essay spreading material that was proven false.
The GDAEman blog has been following the story closely. I love the graphs from Technorati showing the posts on Katie Couric vs. Don Imus.

Plus, read Couric's January 27 video essay in which she debunks the Obama rumors and says "Obama was never enrolled in a madrassa." She ends with "Let's resist the temptation to repeat unsourced gossip. Let's fact-check first and broadcast second." Yet, on April 11 she said "That background sparked rumors that he had studied in a radical madrasa, or Koranic school – rumors later disproved . Obama is now a practicing Christian." (this is the changed version) So she is not really following her own advice.


On a ligher and more fun note (away from plagiarism and taxes) ... last night we saw The Decemberists in concert with My Brightest Diamond opening. The first band was ethereal and beautiful: like a cross between Bjork, Jane Siberry, Tori Amos and her own original concept.

The Decemberists are fabulous! Funny, creative, curiously inventive. Rather dark, too, with lyrical long songs about butchers, chimbley sweeps, and pistols. They just don't do a rock concert, they put on a show, complete with a person-eating whale at the end.

Let's just hope the hungry whale isn't a metaphor for things to com.

Couric's Obama podcast altered in web version

Katie Couric's April 11 podcast essay about whether the U.S. is ready for Barack Obama because he has prayed in a mosque has been significantly altered on the website version. The changes that were made are noted in bold. The text was edited by Greg Kandra, a seasoned writer and producer at CBS News who is now the editor of Couric & Co.

The controversial Obama essay aired the same day that the news was widely distributed that Katie Couric and her staff had plagiarized her April 4 notebook podcast.

Here is the piece as it now appears on the web. I have put the original text in orange. The orange text does not appear on the web.

CORRECTED NOTEBOOK: Changes in bold

Is America ready to elect a President whose connections with Islam were the subject of rumor and innuendo? who grew up praying in a mosque?

Barack Obama has arguably the most diverse religious background of any candidate, ever. He was raised in Indonesia by a Christian mother and Muslim stepfather, and attended a Catholic school, but while growing up, also studied Islam. That background sparked rumors that he had studied in a radical madrasa, or Koranic school – later disproved . Obama is now a practicing Christian. rumors that his campaign denied declaring that Obama is now a practicing Christian. l

Last month, the Los Angeles Times interviewed a person people who grew up with Obama. In the LA Times article he said, "We prayed in the mosque, but not seriously," noting that Obama also prayed with his Catholic schoolmates. In a later Chicago Tribune article, however, the source said he was not certain whether they prayed together. this sentence was not aired

It's too soon to know what America will decide about Barack Obama or his background.

But it's not too soon to wonder if America will see that background as an asset...or a liability.

Also note that the website is now handling the podcasts differently. Before April 4, the complete text of the podcast was posted. After that, the only podcast post that has the complete text is the one from April 11 with the corrections.

Is CBS scared that more people will check the text of Katie Couric's podcast with other materials? Kind of weird. This action seems to reflect the rather weak and defensive action CBS has taken throughout this problem.

Couric does not admit essay was plagiarized

The way the Katie Couric plagiarism issue has been playing out is fascinating. Pundits are ready to spear Don Imus, but at least he has acknowledged and apologized for his vile comments. Couric is the managing editor of her program, but she has yet to say that anyone on her staff has done anything wrong. She has not acknowledged that she didn't have the 'thoughts' she was supposed to have when she read her notebook video blog, "In the Stacks," on April 4. She is completely silent. Maybe this is how CBS thinks the story will be buried.

A few women bloggers have thought that reporting Couric's plagiarism is symptomatic of a male dominated culture going after the first woman who has anchored the evening news. This is not true. Couric is a journalist and should be held up to a journalist's ethical standards, which are the same for men and women. I think women who hide behind that kind of feminism don't quite get it.

Why didn't other people who are interested in books, libraries, and children wonder where Couric got her information? Radio and TV journalists know that their stories evaporate into the media ether the moment they're aired -- for most of the people listening. So maybe no one else thought to check out her facts. Wouldn't a librarian somewhere -- even at the American Library Association -- want to at least read the study so they could be prepared respond to it?

My husband says that no one cared to bother to check out Couric because everyone is just listening and reading their own stuff. Okay, we're all guilty of that. But was no one else in this case curious about where information is coming from, who is gathering it, and who is interpreting it? That is a bigger issue here.

Also, did the CBS producer think that she could get away with plagiarizing because the Couric video blog is not aired on national network television? Instead, it's sent out to affiliates and plays on some radio stations as well. Those of us in the heart of the heart of the country only count when it comes to ratings..?

When I was editing an alumni magazine, we had to spend hours proofreading and checking material. It's critical that no one's name is misspelled. But occassionaly there was some grammar error by mistake. On a rare occassion, I'd hear from an older alumni who would call me to task for that error. Maybe all those eagle-eyed readers are fading and being replaced by hecklers, rather than thoughtful critics or curious media consumers.

My experience on print publications is that people rarely ever write to praise articles in an issue. Praise would be nice, too.

So, I'll commend Couric for pursuing the network anchor position. I just wish she had the journalist's sensibility and writing ability that I once thought was part of the job description.

Couric's library piece sounded odd to me

Katie Couric’s "In the Stacks" notebook commentary from April 4 about children and libraries intrigued me, since I’m interested in children reading, public libraries, and technology. After hearing the piece on the First Light radio program early in the morning, the commentary stuck with me while I was more awake. I try to keep up on information about these topics as a library advocate and patron, high tech parent, and reviewer of children’s books. Since I was not familiar with the study she mentioned, I wanted to find Couric’s source. I checked the web looking for it. After viewing the video on the CBS website, I noticed she didn’t cite a specific study. In further research, I found Jeff Zaslow’s column, "Of the Places You'll Go, Is the Library Still One of Them?" which mentioned similar material.

For his Wall Street Journal’s online Career Journal.com column, Zaslow interviewed several people and referred to sources to back up his claim that children are using libraries less for books and more for technologies, but that they’re buying more books. I emailed him for the exact source connecting children, libraries and technology. He responded quickly with the materials.

I’m not in complete agreement with how Zaslow interprets the library focus group study cited in his column. But that’s ok. There’s another study that is a more solid report on how people are using libraries, which is even more revealing. Check out Households’ Use of Public and Other Types of Libraries: 2002 published by the National Center for Education Statistics out of the U.S. Department of Education published in January 2007. I hope to comment on it in another post.

Zaslow is a well-known reporter. His piece was on the Wall Street Journal website, not some obscure publication by an unknown writer. So it’s particularly odd that those who are putting together the CBS Evening News believed no one would see the connection between what they wrote for Couric and what Zaslow wrote. To be fair, since I never saw the written version of Couric’s piece until today, I didn’t completely comprehend how word-for-word it was. Just that it seemed quite similar.

Zaslow and WSJ have been gracious about noting the plagiarism, which is professional and impressive.

When I was a college journalism professor, I emphasized the serious nature of plagiarism to my students. Unfortunately, some of the students learned the hard lesson that I do take it seriously. I hope they were saved from worse problems later in life, like the one the unnamed producer is learning. I hope that person can recover with grace.

I am surprised at how much Couric, listed as the program's managing editor, trusts her staff.

Why isn’t an editor checking over producers’ stories? Someone should have asked the producer the source of the information. There are no definite sources mentioned, which was what clicked with me in the first place. I know the commentary is just over a minute, but that’s enough time to cite a source.

I appreciate how Katie Couric seems to be growing into her job at CBS. But this offense is both sad and revealing about Couric and the staff at the evening news. Maybe they’re short staffed. Maybe they’re not following up really well. I hope they can solve the problems. I want to support a woman anchor on the evening news.

Here's perhaps the most complete story on the Couric issue as reported in Newsweek/MSNBC.

Check out the "Finding My Voice" blog with a good perspective on why the CBS Evening News has a real problem.

Taxes

Doing taxes involves mostly organizing. Even though I spent several months following the Fly Lady lifestyle, I am still not very organized. So the initial part of gathering everything together for taxes is hard. This year I'm back with TurboTax, which makes the math part and the forms issues much easier. Also, for the first time there's a program that calculates cost basis for stocks. Yeah! (my enthusiasm probably qualifies me for a finance geek...now I just need to make lots of money) Also, every time I open another one of the Important Tax Documents I am struck that the envelope has a direction on how to open it. Taxes are hard enough, so why do so many companies put extremely important information into oddly shaped envelopes which require a three-step process just to open them? I realize that these things save money and trees and are easier for printers. But who cares about the people who use the information? I am always terrified that I am going to tear a W-2 and have to send it in with lots of tape. Not red tape. Just tape, kind of like a Frankenstein W-2 with lots of seams that are fixed.

So I pull here, tear there, and then run my finger under another seam. Sometimes, then I cut myself and have to find a bandage. Who writes these directions? Who opens these things?

The Roots Below & Perfect Eggs

Last week, I spent some time preparing for the school's science night. This year, the parents decided to present many easy science experiments for the students to try out, instead of having kids do poster displays. This ended up being more fun and educational for the students than last year's pairing of older kids who took over the science projects from their younger partners. I am not so sure the current trend of partnering kids from lower and higher grades in school works as well as the educational experts and media are touting. I can list at least five examples where it didn't work for several students during the last year.

Other parents did projects on litmus paper, paper airplanes, mobius strips, water on pennies, gloppy stuff, bacteria from ears grown for a week, and more.

I put together a table on plants and herbs. Children and adults were impressed with the length and detail of the roots of two-week old bean plants. It's always a revelation to see what you've only sort of imagined. They all also took pleasure in smelling the 10 herbs I brought from my garden (which were growing even tho the temperatures have been below freezing). I found it interesting to talk with Japanese and Indian parents about their culinary experiences with some of the herbs, particularly Chinese garlic, lemon balm, and mint. One mother suggested lemon balm could possibly be substituted for lemon grass in recipes. That would be helpful as this herb that smells like extremely strong Lemon Pledge to me is growing somewhat like a weed in the yard. Lots of plants are growing weedy. Gardening is about controlling nature.

In my attempt to control cooking, I have found that using the Eggsact Eggtimer is the only way I have ever been able to get great (maybe not perfect) hard boiled eggs. I should have written about this before Easter. But thought I would put this in today for future reference. The egg shaped thing goes in with the eggs when you start cooking them. It gets a darker colorer as the eggs are cooked longer and the water gets warmer. When it has completely changed color, the eggs are ready. I also learned last week that putting salt in the water prevents the eggs from seeping too much, if they do crack while boiling. We had fun color Easter eggs. It was the first time my son figured out how to make two-colored eggs. He made a U.S. patriotic red, white and blue egg and a Mexican flag colored egg, too.

Nashville Skyline

For spring break, we traveled to Nashville for a conference and to explore, to shop, to enjoy the warmer weather. Nashville is fun every time we visit. The weird combination of universities, music producers, musicians, bankers, Christian book publishers, good food, and New South sensibility makes it interesting.

We had to visit the Frist Art Museum, which is one of our favorites. We love the Art Quest area upstairs where children, adults, grandparents get to make art that's somewhat influenced by the lead exhibit. The current exhibit (Matisse, Picasso, and the School of Paris) is Impressionist art from the Cone Collection in the Baltimore Museum of Art. We made cubist collages, prints, paintings, drawings to music, sketches, still lifes. Sometimes I think we spend as much time in Art Quest as we do in the exhibits. This is a beautiful space and one of the most impressive hands-on art areas in any museum we've visited. The photo is of the sketch area.

The Adventure Science Center was a favorite of the youngest family member. He particularly liked the seven-story climbing area, the laser fight between the white blood cells and the germs, the lever that lets you lift a car, the instruments to play on. The climbing area leads up to a dome where the adventurers can have a wonderful view of the Nashville skyline.

Since we spent much of last spring studying about Greece, we were interested in seeing the replica of the Parthenon. While the original is in Athens, the one in Nashville is probably more like it was when it was built. Built for a World's Fair, the temporary structure was designed to be an exact replica. Now reinforced as a permanent museum, this building also houses plaster molds of the Elgin marbles as well. But the most impressive part is the 47-foot scupture of Athena that is now covered in gold.

My husband particularly likes to go to The Great Escape, which we have discovered is right off the I-65 interstate at the Broadway exit. That's in the middle of the music area. Besides great CD's, DVD's, we also somehow managed to pick up a few more Star Wars guys. Gee, I wonder why.

Visual Literacy & Art Museums

Visual literacy is a critical skill, especially for anyone interested in new media and technology, but it's often misunderstood as simplistic. When speaking, we get most of our communication clues visually. As we travel, negotiate space, watch television, surf the web -- we use our visual literacy skills. Unfortunately, the concept of teaching and enhancing visual literacy is often disregarded. Still, I have been championing and even teaching courses in visual literacy and media literacy during the last ten years.

One of the reasons we spend so much time in art museums as a family is because my husband and I understand the importance of visual literacy and the extraordinary impact of visual and design sense within our culture. We have been taking our son to art museums since he was just a few months old. For years, he toured museums from the comfortable vantage point of a stroller. Now he strolls through museums as we all go around somewhat independently and somewhat as a group. I strongly believe that most children can be taken to museums when they are young and can continue to go throughout their teen-age years. But both parents and museums need to work on socializing children on how to handle the experience. Some museums are better than others. Going to your local children's museum is a good place to start. But that shouldn't be where you stop.

Parents who want advice on helping children with understanding art will find many books that will help them learn about specific artists, some art museums, and how to talk about art. Here are a few:
How to Talk to Children about Art by FranCoise Barbe-Gall. a good guide for parents to read before visiting an art museum and answers to common children's questions.
Faces, Places and Inner Space by Jean Sousa Using the Art Institute of Chicago's collection, this book helps children understand art through a cultural perspective.
Seen Art? by Jon Scieszka. About a boy wandering around the Museum of Modern Art.
Babar's Museum of Art. by Laurent De Brunoff. Uses Babar the elephant as a guide through art in this pleasant over-sized picturebook.
The Smart About Art series has books about specific artists including Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, Kahlo and Monet.
Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children by Gladys Blizzard. This book encourages looking at details about specific paintings. It is part of the Come Look with Me series.
Museum ABC from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The Art Institute of Chicago has several online lesson plans for teachers that parents might also find useful. Check out the thoughtful ideas for lesson plans about the nude in art, which is something you have to deal with when taking children to art museums.

I'm writing this entry about art in part as a response to a comment on my previous post about renting audio tours. The commentor has an interesting blog about his weekly visits to the Art Institute with many images from the Cezanne to Picasso show. I wanted to add a context for my reasons for recommending the audio tours. While it is wonderful to wander museums at any age, visiting a big, highly promoted, blockbuster-style exhibit like this one seems to demand a different style of viewing. First, most people have paid extra for the tickets so they feel they should get a higher quality experience, i.e. no screaming children. Second, my son, like most younger children will have difficulty reading the annotations on the walls, yet often wants me to read them outloud. One of the unwritten rules seems to be no talking around great art, so when I read aloud people find it rude. These kind of exhibits in general demand a different style of behavior. That's why renting an audio tour seems to work so well because it helps my son hear what he cannot read, it helps him be quiet among older adults (he was one of 5 kids when we were in the show), it causes him to look intently at the images and as a result he is given a respectful, and closer, viewing of the paintings by the older adults, and it helps him learn something about the art. Consequently, we were able to spend a good 1 1/2 hours in a show while we saw another boy slightly older than our son be fidgety and force his father to run through the show.

In general, taking children to art museums, or any museum, can be a wonderful learning experience. But it needs to be set within a context and everyone needs to consider how children and their parents together can have an interesting visit.

Yes, the Chicago River is dyed green.

Once I thought it was a myth that the Chicago River was dyed green on St. Patrick's Day. But I have seen it several times and still find it rather amazing, odd, funny, and weirdly patriotic that Chicagoans dump some kind of coloring into the major river through downtown to make it a bright emerald green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. (This is also the river that's engineered to flow backward.) The darkness in the photo is from the shadows of the buildings nearby. You can also see the people (even the most jaded) on the Michigan Avenue bridge looking at the color.

We went to Chicago for a spring outing and thankfully the weather was sunny, not six inches of snow like in Washington, D.C. again. We tried taking photos of the food we ate, like the great Swedish food at Ann Sather's. But we are finding these close up photos more difficult than we thought. Still, the food is great at Ann Sather's and we enjoyed the Swedish American Museum nearby. We are trying to get our son acclimated to the museum atmosphere, and he seems to like them! The Swedish Museum has a great play area on the third floor with a Viking ship, a steamboat, and cabins. Good for children from 2 to about 10.

Here's a high tech parent tip: We have learned to purchase the headphones and recorded messages at museum exhibits. We rented one of the headsets for our son when we saw the fabulous show at the Art Institute on Cezanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard Patron of the Avant Garde. Just seeing a roomful of beautiful Van Goghs is worth the ticket. Our son loved punching in the buttons on the machine and listening to each recorded message. He seemed as intrigued as the older patrons. Yes, he has been to many art exhibits, but I think even inexperienced kids would enjoy their own headsets and would help them behave. They would also learn something in the exhibit. And they stay quiet. More on our trip later.

This flu is made for reading

For a moment there, I thought I had a heart attack. My fear was fueled by propaganda from the recent February Women’s Heart month. Women frequently miss the signs of heart attacks. Those red dress pins and symptoms listed on grocery bags make me concerned. And then, I was feeling achy from the flu virus that has brought down everyone in the house to lethargic, coughing, and complaining creatures. Or maybe it was just my computer arm muscles upset from over use. Thank goodness I did not have a heart attack, but just the flu aches and pains. However, now everyone is laughing mildly about my moment of worry; the new in joke is about my weirdness during sickness. At least we can all laugh together!

I am posting yesterday’s photo of our garden frog. Two weeks ago it was covered in snow, and a week later it was poking its head out. Now it looks like spring.

While in this fog of illness, I have been thinking of ideas to blog. I am trying to focus on just writing about parenting, kids culture & stuff, and how these intersect with technology

The only book I have been interested in while sick is How Children Learn to Write. [see link on side list] Perhaps this flu is a good thing: it makes one read informative books! I am trying to figure out how learning writing works. It is more difficult than reading. Speaking comes relatively naturally to all children. Reading is a about deciphering codes, and quite difficult as well. But writing also involves eye-hand coordination, hand movement, and a very structured way of communication. In order to write, writers must have an idea and then be able to organize their thoughts coherently, rather than the loose way of speaking. (The only person I knew who deliberately spoke in complete sentences was a high school English teacher and I found it annoying.) More on writing later.

Intersecting writing with technology, I find it interesting that my son is trying to learn keyboarding, sort of bypassing one kind of hand movement for another. I think many children must be doing this. He’s taking a keyboarding short class in school, so we’ll see how this goes.
One tech issue that bugs me is that my Bluetooth mouse from Rad Technology doesn’t work as well as I thought. It does not connect consistently and I have to keep reinstalling the software. My brother said he had some problem with his Bluetooth mouse. So I am wondering if Bluetooth technology is more buggy than I thought.

And, hello to my brother out in Microsoft land who emailed that he’s read this blog, which is great! But now I can’t say anything bad about the xBox he gave to his nephew for his birthday last summer! Actually, the xBox is a lot of fun, but a little addicting. It has made our son rather popular among his friends. I particularly like how the hard drive saves games. That has made playing Lego Star Wars II, with characters from the earlier game, more fun.

Finally, on technology…does anyone know of a good sponge mop for cleaning floors? I have yet to find one that doesn’t fall apart in some way. Or, when I want to purchase sponge replacements, they’re not available because the mop model is outdated.

Engineering Open house

Once again we have had a great time at the University of Illinois's Engineering Open House. If you want your children to be engineers, take them to such an event. When I was growing up, I thought engineers were good, kind men. But engineering didn't seem the kind of profession I wanted to enter. When we go to the UofI's engineering events, the college students make all their practical application experiments seem fun and interesting. These students are enthusiastic about showing everyone, whether young or old, what they're doing. What's pleasing is the cheerfulness seems to run through the wide diversity of students, men and women.

The photo is of concrete balls that float. There's a floating concrete boat contest every year that engineering students enter. They have to figure out how to make concrete lightweight, using special light material, and then make a canoe that is fast enough to win the race. The American Society of Civil Engineers is holding the 20th annual National Concrete Canoe Competition.


Clearly engineers like to compete. We cheered on the computerized robot competition. We saw a small remote-controlled plane for another competition.

We saw computer games using the new Wii controller, which was harder to use than we thought. We built a small rocket and shot it off. We made lipgloss, cement coaster, a kind of silly putty, and glow-in-the-dark bracelets. We learned about differences in brain sizes, shape and uses from the Beckman Institute's Center for Healthy Minds. (what a great name for a place to work). There were lots of ideas for science projects. Of course, I loved the computer geeky stuff and seeing all the Macs in use.


We have all had a weird flu virus that has mostly made us lethargic and complaining. So we were thrilled to get out to the open house in warmer weather!

Where would we be without Star Wars?

For several years, our son was into pirates. This was before Pirates of the Caribbean. We played with Playmobil pirate guys and pirate ships. He had several pirate costumes, including a great one from Gymboree. Pirate books. Pirate toys from Imaginext. Pirate maps. Pirate activity books. A pirate bath mit, to keep you clean. Pirate jokes.

I learned how using one topic that appeals to your child, and hopefully you, the educational appeal is endless. We are still somewhat fascinated by pirates. The pirates of childhood are more silly than mean, altho they do have disagreements.

Currently, we are in a Star Wars phase. My husband has realized that he has to read more of the Star Wars books that our son reads just so we can keep up. Boba Fett rules. If that Lego guy gets lost, the whole house is turned upside.

We are also enjoying playing Lego Star Wars I and II on xBox. Thanks to my brother for the xBox, which has made his nephew really popular among certain friends. These two xbox games are some of the best that we have played. The second one is a vast improvement over the first, which was great. The second one has even more little puzzles, games, and character switches to make it more fun. One of the great aspects to the xBox is that it has a hard drive, so we can bring in characters from the first game into the second. It's cool to watch Darth Vadar battle his younger self.

Check out Gamer Dad, in the Media list on the side, for reviews of games with a sense of what's appropriate for family members.

Praise and where it takes you

I have been mulling over the ideas in a recent cover article in New York magazine, by Po Bronson, titled "How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The Inverse Power of Praise." This is a rather long article, but the gist of it is that children seem to respond a lot better to praise that is specific. They want to know exactly not what they have done correct, not that they are good kids. Because, the research thinking goes, if they think they're good and smart then 1) they can't figure out the exact effort that got them to that point and 2) if they're so good why should they try harder. Sincerity of praise is also important.

Bronson admits at the end that he's a praise junkie and that it's harder for him to stop abstractly praising than he thought it would be. He writes, "I’d thought “praise junkie” was just an expression—but suddenly, it seemed as if I could be setting up my son’s brain for an actual chemical need for constant reward." Earlier in the article he writes, "After reading Carol Dweck’s research, I began to alter how I praised him, but not completely. I suppose my hesitation was that the mind-set Dweck wants students to have—a firm belief that the way to bounce back from failure is to work harder—sounds awfully clichéd: Try, try again.But it turns out that the ability to repeatedly respond to failure by exerting more effort—instead of simply giving up—is a trait well studied in psychology. People with this trait, persistence, rebound well and can sustain their motivation through long periods of delayed gratification."

Researchers learned that kids who were taught that the brain is a muscle and that the more you worked it, like any muscle, the better it performed, performed better in school and in homework than those who were not taught how the brain worked. They could understand the logic of the idea of keeping trying to get their brain at its peak performance levels. They could see a reason for homework and did it better.

Self-esteem by itself is not as great as it's been proposed. Failure leads to the abililty to figure out how to not fail and then how to succeed. A recent study shows that college students are quite narcissistic. There has been some commentary and some research about the current group of people who are in their twenties who even admit to being coddled too much. We'll see. One thing is for sure...parenting makes you realize that you can make mistakes, but you have to keep trying.

Thankfully, we have the humor of British writers to have developed the genre of Bad Mothers Club literature. Unlike Americans who take things far too seriously, the British are usually able to swallow their pride and publish self-deprecating, but funny, realizations in slightly smart books. Check out the Bad Mothers Club (incorporate Bad Dads) website.

iPod accessories

I've owned an iPod for more than a year and am still figuring out which accessories I need, like, or simply desire. We love our iDog because it's cute and trendy. But the speakers are not very loud. I have a lot of trouble using a tiny Phillips screwdriver to open up the battery section, which I seem to need to do more often than I like. We ooh and awww over the latest variations: iCat, iFish, etc. But if you get it, don't be suprised that it's not as functional as you hoped. Also, the dog keeps barking on its own even though it's not cute five minutes later. I want it to stop barking sooner than it does. Very annoying to hear the electronic dog barking in the kitchen while we're eating. Still, the design is spiffy.

Recently, I bought an iLive speaker set from Kohl's. Okay, it's somewhat embarrassing to buy electronics from Kohl's, but I had noticed it was on sale before Christmas and then never saw that price again until before Valentine's Day, when I bought it. The speakers are small, but pack a lot of punch. They don't sound distorted and have a nice range. I can also hook up my tiny radio for AM/FM listening. (I could hook up the speakers and iPod to the TV, but haven't.) The iLive also recharges the iPod. I bought it for kitchen listening and have found it serves that purpose quite well. I'm glad that I didn't miss the sale. And now I can listen to my podcasts, including Creative Mom Podcast, while cooking and cleaning and dancing around.

I continue to be mystified by all the accessories for the iPod, as some make a lot of sense and some don't. The iPod seems so much designed to be listened to individually that listening to it without headphones seems to be an afterthought.

I have found a lot of help and reviews for iPod paraphenalia at iLounge.com, but it's almost too detailed.

Nature vs. Nurture?

The Washington Post parenting blog has a relatively civil exchange about the age-old question of nature vs. nurture. Are boys really more likely to be interested in guns? Are girls more likely to be girly and wear fluffy clothes? It's an intriguing question. Before my life with children, I thought it was a lot more nature. I couldn't really fathom how boys could be so filled with a certain kind of energy and curiosity that they would be continually fascinated by guns, destruction, and, well, fart sounds using their arms. I have now rethought this.

I remember reading Dr. Dobson comment on this within the last several years. He wrote that even if you don't give boys guns, they'll make them out of peanut butter sandwiches. I am not really a fan of Dobson, although I am thankful he has mellowed with age and the influence of his adult children. But that image has stuck in my mind.

My husband asks "What about life before guns?" My answer was that boys would still have that impulse for destruction, for curiosity, for those fart sounds. That's what the anthropologist seemed to conclude in the comments. It's more nature.

Well, I'm going to stop this because we're watching Buckaroo Banzai again. Wherever you go, there you are.

Handwriting and typing help

My son has been enjoying learning how to type with the SpongeBob Typing CD. I bought this several months ago and he liked it, but then found it frustrating. Now he is motivated to learn how to type because he is using the computer more at home and school, so he wants to use the keyboard. And he has better hand-eye coordination after piano lessons. So much seems to be having things in the house ready for him when he's ready...and I'm not always sure when that is.

He is quite intrigued by anything SpongeBob and this CD is very much in the upbeat, slightly silly SpongeBob style. There's a keyboard on the screen that he uses to help him find the keys as he types the words on the screen. He is up to 8 words a minute. (Edited later: He eventually clocked in at 11 words at minute and now must type even faster on his own while typing on Club Penguin.) We have tried other typing programs for younger kids, but this one seems both better and more sophisticated. Definitely worth checking out for a high tech parent.

(Additional: Check out this review chart of Top Ten Typing Programs for Kids: http://typing-for-kids-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ ) We use MacBooks at home, so our options were somewhat limited on which typing software to purchase. Still, I think that the SpongeBob works.

Another benefit to consider for those debating about their child learning to type: Typing using both hands. This is a good way to develop both sides of the brain and to get muscles going for playing the piano or other musical instruments. I am pretty sure that because I played the piano and learned to type in sixth grade, that I have more ambidextrous confidence.

After examining numerous workbooks and ideas on handwriting, we have found that the handwriting program that worked best for him is Handwriting without Tears. This program using an up-and-down, rather than slanted, style. The style is not filled with lavish curliques that make little sense for today's handwriters. Still, it flows together nicely and the results are pleasant and easy to read.

The workbooks are relatively inexpensive, nicely designed, and kid friendly. The program starts with activities for kindergartners and moves on up. I like that there are workbooks for printing and cursive improvement in fourth and fifth grade levels.

We found that going through the books was easily manageable in one to three pages at at time. We also bought the lined paper, which is different than the standard, three-lined learning tablets. The two-line paper is innovative but quite helpful. I would highly recommend the entire program.

Before we got into the HWT program, he practiced cursive handwriting using School-Rite's handwriting instruction guides. I bought these on sale at Kid's Palette (noted on side list) and was skeptical. But they seem to be working for him as he needs to feel the movement of cursive handwriting. The guides make letters that fit into paper lines that are about one inch, so this is large. Every letter has arrow directing the writer. We have both the uppercase and lowercase instruction guides, which I would recommend. The guides are heavy plastic that seem quite sturdy.

Edited in later: The guides don't follow the HWT modified style. In retrospect, the guides seemed like a good idea. But the HWT workbooks are the best and proved better in the long run.