P age
F ebruary
B4
If The Mule Ain’t Going Blind,
What Took Him So Long?
BV P rof . M< K ix ttv B lR l
You know how it goes by now
About once or twice a year 1 write
on o f those "different" articles like
the one here last week. “ The Cara­
van Rolls On” . Am 1 trying to see
w ho's awake, w ho's paying atten­
tion or if the editor read my column
that particular week?
As a rule I am prompted by
some unusual event, or the sudden
recall o f a mental gem (in my opin­
ion ) that I w ish to pass on to the
reader. It was a combination of just
such events that set off my little
excursion in mathematics. For one
thing, there was a report on CNN
stating that Head Start" and anoth­
er early-childhood program were
suffering because o f an inadequate
pay scale for staff; the inference
being that the situation prevented
the hiring o f qualified teachers -
and increased turnover.
These exhortations about pend­
ing gloom and doom are often to be
taken with a grain o f salt for they
may simply presage a new grant
request Hy steria is not warranted,
though, in these times o f "Republi­
can Contracts", reasonable vigi­
lance is indicated. In any case I got
out a number o f faxes to former
students o f mine around the coun-
substituting any kind o f object or
concept w hether a hat, coat, or shoe
(1.2,3) or pencil, cup or tie (4,5,6).
A parent or teacher should read
"N umber Words and N umber Sym­
bols: A Cultural History o f Num­
bers" by Karl Menninger, The MIT
Press, 1977 (Numbers are not real?).
Having sort o f ‘renewed my
faith in m yself as if it were I've
found it easy to get around the de­
tractors, blockers and the hopeless­
ly incompetent or uncomprehend­
ing. Whereas 1 never get calls from
the Portland School district any­
more, 1 stayed busy last year tutor­
ing the small grandchildren o f fel­
low members o f the Association o f
Oregon Industries as well as groups
o f ’homes schoolers'.
This year I will be making pre­
sentations in Bend, Seattle (7 year-
olds learn algebra geometry with
African Golden Section).
To others who are d e v e lo p ­
ing concepts, 1 can only say that
as usual every thing seem s to take
too long a tim e. A W ashington
S tate softw are d e v e lo p e r sent
dow n a re p re se n ta tiv e to b a r­
gain about a c o m p u terized c u r­
riculum . My law yer w ants to
b rin g in a copyright and lic e n s­
ing sp ecialist. But I sta rte d this
in 1966. W hat took so long?
try who work in the educational com­
ponents of such programs 1 wish to
conduct a thorough evaluation o f the
replies before reaching any conclu­
sions.
The other unusual event was that
1 got a phone call from the director of
a Montessori school, a person 1 had
not heard from in years: “(Designing
curriculum for teaching mathemat­
ics in preschools and early grades)?
“We heard you were doing some
interesting th ings over in southwest.”
Some o f you may remember that
years ago The Oregonian newspaper
described the computerized algo­
rithms 1 had designed for teaching
children - and another piece de­
scribing a curriculum set' for the
Lake Oswego Montessori School (a
scientist on-the-hill’ had read the
article and directed me to his wife
w ho was the director o f the school)
(Photo at back o f my book).
Unfortunately, there is not the
same type and scope o f response
from the African American commu­
nity. Make an exception for the
"B lack Education C en ter” from
which I get requests to make presen­
tations. This is where, over a decade
ago, 1 began the development o f my
idea o f familiarizing small children
with the real nature o f numbers -
taking away the mystery and fear by
Ms. Kay Toran, D irectorofChil-
dren’s Services Division ol Oregon,
will address how the faith communi-
tv and Children's Division can work
together to prev ent alcohol, tobacco,
andò, t drug abuse. Neighborhood
violence and corrections (adult &
juvenile) are issues o f concern as
well. Also, what direction does Ms.
Toran see CSD going in light o f our
new state administration? There are
Cocaine And
Heroin Seized
a multitude o f questions to be asked
so please come and enjoy a time ot
stimulating exchange.
This event is being hosted by the
Regional Drug Initiative's SPIRIT
committee. The SP1RII Committee
works with the faith community to
create and promote and environment
for health and spiritual wholeness
through awareness, prevention, and
planned change.
l
tTltc ^lortlani» (Ohsevuer celebrates its
25th Anniversary beginning Jan. 11, 1995
with our Martin Luther King Jr. edition.
P ortland O bserver
A.J. Congress Urges Supreme Court To
Strike Down Two-Tier Welfare Benefit
System In California
Claiming that it penalized the
right o f Americans to travel freely,
the American J ewish Congress urged
the Supreme Court to strike down a
California law limiting welfare ben­
efits received by new residents dur­
ing the first year to the amount they
would have received in the states
they left.
The AJCongress noted that in
some cases benefits to migrant fam­
ilies are 80 percent lower than to
California residents, even though the
cost of liv ing for those individuals is
no less than for other Californians.
Ina friend o f the court brief filed
December 13, AJCongress joined
Catholic Charities USA and the N a­
tional Council o f the Churches o f
Christ in the USA in support o f three
California mothers and their chil­
dren who challenged the state be­
cause they were adversely affected
by the lower benefit rate.
In response to attempts by Cal­
ifornia officials to justify the lower
benefits by saying that private groups
could make up the difference, the
three organizations declared that 're­
sources o f private charitable and re­
ligious organizations are already
stretched thin and would be over­
whelmed as a result o f unfair and
unconstitutional reductions in public
assistance benefits to the indigent."
In explaining its particular role
in the case, AJCongress noted that
efforts to restrict movement o f citi­
zens have special meaning for Jews.
The organization underscored its
long-standing commitment to the
proposition that "all Americans, in­
cluding the poorest members o f our
society, must be free to live where
they will The right to travel has
special resonance for Jews, most of
whose ancestors fled countries wh ich
restricted or discouraged their free
movement and choice o f residence.
The three re lig io u s o rg a n i­
zatio n s declared that "alth o u g h
C a lifo rn ia claim s that the sole
p u rpose behind the tw o -tie r b e n ­
efit statute is to save m oney, the
reco rd am ply d e m o n stra te s that
C a lifo rn ia 's real p u rp o se is to
d e te r m igration into the state.
The b rie f was p re p a re d by
D aniel M arcus and A llison C.
G iles o f the W ashington law firm
W ilm e r, C u tle r & P ic k e rin g ,
counsel for the three re lig io u s
org an izatio n s.
C J C
AUTO SALES
Police News
Children’s Services Director To
Discuss Community Issues
1, 1995 • T he
Ç, w / / A / T a ? at
Christian J. Camp
“Credit Problems Come See Me ”
Portland police recently seized
almost two kilograms o f cocaine and
one half pound o f heroin worth an
estimated $65,000. Two people were
also arrested.
The drugs were recovered after
a person was arrested for drug pos­
session in the area ofN orthw est 26th
Avenue and Thurman Street.
More arrests were made at an
apartment in southeast Portland found
empty o f furniture and used simply to
store drugs, cash and weapons.
Tw o handguns and about $7.000
in cash was also confiscated.
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