Laura Fogg— “Travelling Blind”

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The ways different creatures, especially us humans, use our senses to guide ourselves through life has long attracted my curiosity. I’ve often wondered how blind people seem able to orient themselves, and also wondered about their dreams.

From time to time, over the years, I would see an attentive woman walk past my office window next to a young person of student age. They would walk together talk, and the young person almost always carried a white cane with a red tip. Laura Fogg is this woman, the author of “Traveling Blind: Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers,” and our guest in this archive edition of Radio Curious.

Laura Fogg worked as a Mobility and Orientation Instructor for the Blind in Mendocino County for over 35 years beginning 1971. She pioneered the use of the red tipped white cane with very young blind students some of whom had multiple impairments. She traveled long distances over the rather spectacular back roads of Mendocino County to work with each student his or her home.

When she visited the studios of Radio Curious on December 1, 2008, I asked her about the lessons that she learned that have changed her life.

The book Laura Fogg recommends is “My Year of Meats,” by Ruth Ozeki. Published in 1999.

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Michael Gurian– “A Look at The Wonder of Boys, Ten Years Later”

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Originally Broadcast: October 10, 2006

The Wonder of Boys, 10th Anniversary Edition

We explored the difficulties that boys have growing up in American society ten years ago, in a two-part interview with Michael Gurian, author of, “The Wonder of Boys: What Parents, Mentors and Educators can do to Shape Boys into Exceptional Men.” A tenth anniversary edition of, “The Wonder of Boys,” was released in 2006, and I spoke with Michael Gurian about his ideas and thoughts of what has occurred in the past ten years in relation to boys. The trend setting pressures of commercial advertising control the content distributed to boys and often are able to overwhelm the job of the parents to nurture the social development of children. In this interview with Michael Gurian, who lives in Spokane, Washington and recorded in mid-October 2006, we discuss the effects of media on the developing boy, content of what boys listen to when they have earphones on, the substitution of what comes from the earphones for what a boy would get in a relationship with parents, grandparents, or other meaningful people in a boys life.

www.gurianinstitute.com

Michael Gurian recommends, “The Collected Poems of Mary Oliver,” by Mary Oliver.

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Gordon Neufeld– “Hold On to Your Kids”

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Hold On to Your Kids, Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers

The economic and cultural changes that have occurred in North American society in the past fifty or so years have resulted in today’s children looking to and associating with their peers instead of their parents, for direction, for a sense of right and wrong and for values, identity and codes of behavior. This peer orientation works to undermine family cohesion. It interferes with healthy development and fosters a sexualized youth culture in which children lose their individuality and tend to become conformist, desensitized and alienated. These concepts and what to do about them to develop strong families and emotionally healthy children are explained in “Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers, “ by Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D. and Gabor Mate, M.D. When I spoke with Dr. Gordon Neufeld from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia we began our conversation with a discussion of the importance of the development of an attachment between the adult caregiver and the child, beginning at infancy.

www.GordonNeufeld.com

Gordon Neufeld recommends “The Anatomy of Dependence,” Takeo Doi.

Originally Broadcast: October 25, 2005

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Juliet Schor– “Selling (to) Our Children”

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Born To Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture

In the past 50 years, the advent of television as a medium for advertising has had significant effects on the buying habits of everyone, and especially on children. MRI scans on the brain, and the development of neuro-marketing are used to determine more receptive ways to market a myriad of products to all of us. Studies that follow the behavior of children show that the more involved a child is in the consumer culture, the more likelihood that the child will be depressed, be more anxious, have frequent headaches and/or stomach aches. And, the most heavily advertised products are more likely to be addictive to the users of those products. “Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and New Consumer Culture” by Professor Juliet Schor, of Boston College, presents a detailed discussion of these changes in the commercialized market place that is brought into almost every home and school.

Juliet Schor recommends “For Her Own Good,” by Barbara Ehreneich and Diedre English.

Originally Broadcast: December 14, 2004

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Dr. Sally Shaywitz – “How to Identify and Overcome Dyslexia”

This episode was first broadcasted on August 5, 2003.

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Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level

Approximately one child in five suffers from dyslexia, a condition that makes learning to read difficult and in some cases seemingly impossible. In this edition of Radio Curious, originally broadcast in August of 2003, we visit with Dr. Sally Shaywitz, a Professor of Pediatrics at Yale University and the co-director of the Yale justify for the Study of Learning and Attention. She discusses early diagnosis of dyslexia in young children, older children, and in adults, and what can be done to assist people who suffer from this disability. In her book, “Overcoming Dyslexia,” Dr. Shaywitz describes how current research, including new brain imaging studies, are uncovering the mechanics underlying this problem, and have led to effective treatments.

Dr. Sally Shaywitz recommends “Emperor of Ocean Park,” by Stephen Carter & “Samaritan,” by Richard Price.

Janna Malamud Smith – “Why Mothers Worry About Their Children”

A Potent Spell: Mother Love and the Power of Fear

Is the concept of “mother blame” a method to control women? Is motherhood a really a fearsome job?  Will a mother’s mistake or inattention damage a child?  Is this different from the fear that fathers have about the safety of their children?

“A Potent Spell:  Mother Love and the Power of Fear” is a recent book written by Janna Malamud Smith, a clinical psychotherapist and daughter of writer Bernard Malamud.

Smith argues that the motherhood fear of losing a child is central to motherhood, and mostly overlooked as a historical force that has induced mothers throughout time to shape their own lives to better shelter their young,  the expense of their own future.

I spoke with Dr. Janna Malamud Smith from her home in Massachusetts, and asked her to begin by discussing the different level of feat that fathers and mothers have toward their children.

The book Janna Malamud Smith recommends is “Biography of Samuel Pepys” by Clair Tomilin.
Originally Broadcast: February 18, 2003

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Dr. Dana Chidekel, “You or Your Kid?”

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Parents in Charge, Setting Healthy, Loving Boundaries for You and Your Child

Children are too often seen and treated as small adults, too often dressed as adults, and too often have their lives planned out for them to be as busy as adults. Treating children as people older than they are overlooks the child’s cognitive abilities, and can lead to unsatisfying and sometimes traumatic relationships. “Parents in Charge, Setting Healthy, Loving Boundaries for You and Your Child” is a book by Dr. Dana Chidekel, a child psychologist near Los Angeles. She asserts that the developing brain of toddlers does not give them the capacity to respond to being placed on equal ground with their parents, and encourages parents to assume their rightful role of authority.

Dr. Dana Chidekel recommends “Seabiscuit,” by Laura Hillenbrand.

Originally Broadcast: March 12, 2002

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“Dr. Jane M. Healy – Children Versus Television”

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Endangered Minds & Failure to Connect

It used to be that children would play with objects, be told or read stories, or perhaps listen to the radio during a significant portion of their early years. With the advent of television, videos and computers, that tactile and oral world is often left behind. Children who are frequently exposed to television, videos and computer games in the first seven years of life have been found to develop pathways in the brain that later are significantly deficient in reading, studying and socialization skills. Dr. Jane M Healy is an educational psychologist with expertise in developmental psychology, and specialist in the brain development of young children. Her recent books, “Endangered Minds,” and “Failure to Connect,” discuss how television, videos and computers affect the minds of children.

Dr. Jane M. Healy recommends “The Goddess in Older Women,” by Jean Bolden.

Originally Broadcast: May 9, 2001

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Neufeld, Dr. Gordon: Hold On to Your Kids

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The economic and cultural changes that have occurred in North American society in the past fifty years have resulted in today’s children looking to their peers, instead of their parents, for direction; for a sense of right and wrong; and for values, identity and codes of behavior. This peer orientation works to undermine family cohesion. It interferes with healthy development and fosters a sexualized youth culture in which children lose their individuality and tend to become conformist, desensitized and alienated.

These concepts—and what to do about them to develop strong families and emotionally healthy children—are explained in the book “Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers,“ by Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D. and Gabor Mate, M.D.

When I spoke with Dr. Gordon Neufeld from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia, we began our conversation with a discussion of the importance of developing an attachment between the adult caregiver and the child, beginning at infancy.

The book Dr. Neufeld recommends is “The Anatomy of Dependence,”  by Takeo Doi. More information about Dr. Neufeld’s work may be found on his website.

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Golden,Victoria: An Orphan Train Survivor

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Between 1854 and 1930, it is estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 children were involuntarily put on Orphan Trains, and “placed out” in the southern and western United States. Both protections for the health and safety of these children and record keeping of who they were, where they went and accounts of what happened to them are sketchy at best.

William Delos Vansteenburgh was one of the last of the “placed out” children on an Orphan Train. At age four, he and his slightly older brother with whom he virtually lost contact, were “placed out” from Pennsylvania, after their mother died in 1930. William had clear memories of being loved and treated well until then. After a long train ride he was removed from a station platform in Gallup, New Mexico, by Henry and Eleanor Walters, a childless couple. They gave him their last name, repeatedly abused him and treated him in a most wretched manner for five years. He successfully ran away at age nine and was then free to create a unique adventure and life for himself until he died in Santa Rosa, California, in 2017.

Victoria Golden, (https://www.victoriagoldenauthor.com/) our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, met William Walters in 2012. Intrigued by his story and keen memory for details, they met most every week for the next four years. Golden recreated his story into a memoir: A Last Survivor of the Orphan Trains. Told in the first person, each page of Golden’s book could be a stand-alone short read.

Victoria Golden, also of Ukiah, California, visited the Radio Curious studios on July 24, 2018. We began our conversation when I asked her to describe the kind of person that William Walters was.

The book she recommends is Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover.

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