The parents of Rhode Island high school student Eric Duquette were told their son would end up in an institution.

Instead, Duquette went on to become salutatorian of his high school class — and was accepted at every college to which he applied, ABC News reports.

Duquette was diagnosed with autism at an early age and didn’t talk until he was five. His mother worked with him to learn to talk, even teaching him sign language. Today, Duquette speaks English and Spanish.

And addressing his classmates this week, Duquette inspired his peers with wise words.

“Daniel Webster wrote that ‘if my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest,’” Duquette said. “For me, learning to communicate did mean regaining all the rest.”

Duquette will start at Rhode Island College in the fall.

[Via - HuffingtonPost]

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According to the Food and Drug Administration, some of the products included in the recall may contain a higher concentration of active ingredient than specified; others contain inactive ingredients that may not meet internal testing requirements; and others may contain tiny particles.

“We want to be certain that consumers discontinue using these products and that they know what to do if they have concerns about a specific product,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. “While the potential for serious health problems is remote, Americans deserve medications that are safe, effective and of the highest quality. We are investigating the products and facilities associated with this recall and will provide updates as we learn more.”

This is McNeil’s second major recall of children medication. In September the company recalled 21 types of infants’ and children’s liquid Tylenol because it may have been contaminated with bacteria.

The recalled medicine should not be used. Concerned consumers can contact the company at 1-888-222-6036 and also at www.mcneilproductrecall.com. The FDA advises parents and caregivers who are not sure about alternative pediatric health treatment options to talk to their doctor or pharmacist and reminds them not to give drug products to infants and children that are not intended for those age groups as this could result in serious harm.

Our take: Tylenol’s response to the adulteration case in 1982, in which seven people in the Chicago area died, became a business school example of good corporate behavior. But with two big recalls in less than a year, something has gone awry. Good corporate behavior seems to have been supplanted by bad manufacturing processes and a lack of quality control. We look forward to seeing the results of the FDA’s investigation.

[Via - Consumer Reports]

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Dietary supplements are a great way to boost your calcium intake, but you’re better off getting the bone-building nutrient from your diet. Here’s how:

• Eat your veggies. Certain leafy greens, like bok choy, kale, spinach, and collard greens, are high in calcium.
• Watch the soda. Studies have shown the phosphorus in soft drinks may interfere with calcium absorption.
• Skip the salt. A diet high in sodium can increase the loss of calcium, so cut back on your salt intake.
• Opt for skim. Skim milk has about as much calcium as whole milk, roughly 300 milligrams per 8-ounce glass, but fewer calories.
• Get juicing. An 8-ounce glass of calcium-fortified orange juice has nearly as much calcium as milk, great if you’re lactose intolerant.

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Although quite chatty now, our daughter wasn’t an early talker. I clearly remember the worry I felt when her doctor expressed mild concern over her lack of words. As a parent, it’s hard not to obsess over such developmental milestones, and you do what you can to help your child learn and grow.

One tool many parents turn to are educational DVDs for babies and toddlers, some of which focus on language. However, a new study suggests that such tools do not actually help young children learn new words or improve their overall language skills. The study focused on the Baby Wordsworth DVD, which is part of the Baby Einstein series.

Ninety-six children aged 12 months to 24 months participated in the study, and half watched the DVD regularly for six weeks. Parents were told to use the DVD as they would any other type of children’s media, allowing them to decide whether they would watch the DVD with their child.

Every couple of weeks, the researchers tested both groups’ knowledge of the 30 words featured in the DVD by showing the children pairs of pictures and asking them to point to the one showing the word. The parents were also interviewed about their child’s use and understanding of these words.

At the end of the study, there were no differences between the groups in overall language skills, or in the numbers of words understood, words said, or pictures identified.

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Degree is (almost) essential for making a living. The current education system in most countries, including India and the United States helps you get a degree and make a living. What about education? Perhaps, a better question is, “What is education?” Education is accumulation of knowledge. I don’t think that the education system I am used to encourages knowledge accumulation.

I follow Karl Denninger for his insights on financial markets and economic outlook. I have a few areas of disagreements with him. However, as an educator, I couldn’t agree more on the basic premise of his latest piece on Education (Our Educational System’s Primary Failure). It’s all about being curious and learning things on our own! Excerpts:

To succeed a young person needs to be able to do three things – read, write, and understand mathematics.  The fourth ingredient is that the innate desire to learn must not be destroyed in their first few years of school.

All children start life wanting to learn.  Ever watch a baby?  It’s a curious being, is it not?  It reaches, it fondles, it touches, it experiments.  We put plastic caps in our electrical outlets because one of the experiments a significant number of babies and toddlers will perform is inserting a kitchen fork into said outlet, with bad results.

So how do we go from that to a surly vegetative kid at the age of 9, 10 or 12?

We do it by failing in the essential purpose of education – giving our children the foundational understanding they need, and then getting the hell out of their way!

We want to mold educational experience.  To teach “as we want them to learn”, instead of “as they wish to synthesize.”

We’re fools.  You, I, our school systems.  All of us.

I have one piece of advise to parents with young children. Encourage your children to be curious and learn things on their own, and to pursue what they are passionate about. Don’t force your wishes on to them. To demonstrate to you that I know what I am talking about, I will give you one personal example. In February 2003, when space shuttle Columbia blew-up in the atmosphere during reentry, I was watching TV with my son. I said a couple of things I knew about the space shuttle. He picked up from there and said a whole lot more about the space shuttles – how they are made, launched into orbit, docked in space, re-enter earth, transported from California to Florida as a piggy-back ride on Boeing 747 etc etc. I was not aware of a lot of details he said.

Even though I am a proud father, I do not want to take credit for his knowledge, which he gained on his own. However, some credit is due to my wife and myself, for, we clearly did some things right. When all this happened, none of that stuff about space shuttles was in any of his classes. My son was just 9 year old.

If this sounds like I am bragging about my son, ABSOLUTELY! [I am sure he or his sister will give me a hard time when he sees this. That's OK.]

I also have one advise to those of you who are young and open minded enough to take and use a good piece of advise. Be on continuous quest for knowledge. Knowledge is vast and almost infinite. How much knowledge you can accumulate and about what? My answer: as much as you can and about the things that interest you and you are passionate about. Some of those things that SHOULD interest you is about yourself, your family, your past and your heritage. i.e. history!

Seeking knowledge is like going to a huge lake with a bucket. The maximum you can get is what the bucket can hold. The practical maximum is what you can carry. What is shameful is, returning with an empty bucket from a trip you only get to take once! That’s why they say, the mind is a terrible thing to waste.

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[Via - ConsumerReports]

At the same time that the Food and Drug Administration announced a significant shift in its view on the potential health risks posed by Bisphenol A, the Department of Health and Human Services said that it is investing $30 million in human and animal studies over the next two years to yield further information about BPA’s health effects. BPA is a chemical used in the linings of most food and beverage cans as well as in many clear plastic containers.

Shepherding this crucial research effort is Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS),  a federal research center based in North Carolina. The center’s mission, as defined on its Web site,  is  “… understanding how the environment influences the development and progression of human disease.”  Birnbaum, an award-winning microbiologist and toxicologist, has served as a federal scientist for nearly three decades. During that time, her research has focused on the health effects of environmental pollutants such as dioxin, which like BPA is thought to be an endocrine-disrupting chemical.

I interviewed Dr. Birnbaum just a few days before the FDA’s policy change was announced.  Excerpts from that interview in the Q&A below address the challenges that lie ahead in assessing the safety of one of the highest-volume chemicals in the world: At least 7 billion pounds of BPA are produced annually for use in products ranging from dental sealants to medical equipment to coatings on cash-register receipts, as well as food containers and packaging.—Andrea Rock

Q: What do you think the most important unanswered questions are?  In this $30 million of research what would be at the top of your list?
A: I think there are a couple that are really important.  We really have to understand the severity of effects that can be caused.  How important really are the effects that are being reported at very low levels of BPA?  And there’s a multitude of effects.  Some of the analyses or the evaluations have focused, for example, on the effects on the developing reproductive system or the developing  nervous system.  Well, there’s evidence that it also affects the immune system .  There is evidence that it affects the cardiovascular system . And I think it’s very important that we have a better understanding of the overall nature of the effects.

The other thing we really have to understand is how much of the BPA is needed to cause these effects?  And what are the critical times of exposure in people?  Are the critical windows in utereo?   Are the critical windows in infants?  What about puberty? There are now several new studies that have come out showing effects in adults. When you do cross-sectional studies, which are what these new studies are,  and you look at a single point of time in people,  you don’t  really know if the effects you are seeing are caused by the current exposure to BPA or whether it was the history of  exposure that led to that effect.  Those are still some major questions

Major issues that I think other groups are looking at are trying to get a better handle on where is BPA in our environment. It’s not just in linings of cans, it’s not just in the polycarbonate bottles. Many of those sources are now being removed from the market. Industry has responded very responsibly and said we’re looking for alternatives. But where else is the BPA and how are we really being exposed?  Is some of the BPA  in the indoor air, is some of the BPA in dust,  where it’s coming out of different consumer products?  So we don’t understand. You really need to understand how we’re really being exposed eventually if we want to prevent exposure from happening.

Q: Do you believe there is enough uncertainty about  BPA’s safety to caution people  to avoid it in all food contact items?
A: I think we don’t really know where it is in many cases.  Your study, Concern over canned foods, very clearly showed that in two cans of the same brand,  some had a lot of BPA and some had very little.

Q: But I’d read that you did say that was your belief,  that there was enough uncertainty to caution consumers to avoid BPA in food contact items?
A: I think people have to do what makes sense to them and follow their own conscience and what they think and if people find that there’s something that they have concerns about and they have alternatives, then it’s their decision to choose.

Q: In your personal life have you made  those kind of decisions?
A: Let’s just say I’m a pragmatist and I do things that make sense to me.

Q: Like cutting back  on canned food use and not microwaving in plastic containers?
A: I’ve never been a canned food user. I buy fresh vegetables as much as possible and I’ve done that  for years. And I will say I stopped microwaving in plastic about 15 years ago, not because of concerns for BPA but just because of the lack of necessity to do that.

Q: Do you advocate  our government following the precautionary principle?
A: I’m a believer in the precautionary principle. It doesn’t say that you act when you have no information, but you act in the presence of concerning information even if you don’t have certainty.  Science is rarely 100 percent certain. So if you follow the precautionary principle,  you look at all the evidence and you say maybe we don’t know everything,  but there’s enough to suggest that we might want to be cautious. That’s the appropriate use of the precautionary principle.

[Read More]

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[Via - ConsumerReports]

When you bought that impressive new flat-panel TV to replace your old CRT model, what did you do with the clunker? If, like many Americans, you moved it to another room and set it atop a dresser or bureau, you may have inadvertently created a death trap.

From 2000 though 2006, 134 children ages five and younger were reported crushed by falling furniture, appliances, and TVs, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (PDF). In our tests, we found that smaller cathode-ray TVs placed on top of unsturdy furniture posed a greater risk than larger LCD and plasma sets.

Today, Consumers Union (our nonprofit publisher) teamed up with Janet DiFiore,  the district attorney of Westchester County, New York, in an effort to increase awareness of TV tipovers (including the demonstration in the video above) and offer some simple prevention tips (PDF):

• Place televisions on furniture that is sturdy and appropriate for the size of the TV.
• Furniture holding the TV should be anchored to the floor or wall using brackets, screws or braces.  It is best to use hardware provided by manufacturers.
• Avoid placing TVs on dressers and chests, as children may be tempted to use the drawers to climb and may cause the furniture or TV to topple
  Make sure that the TV does not hang over the edge of the furniture base and that it is positioned as far back as possible
• Place electrical cords out of a child’s reach, and teach children not to play with the cords
• Keep items that might be attractive to children, such as toys and remote controls, away from the top of the TV or TV stand.

[Full Story]

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Broadcast date on TeluguOne Radio: 2008-08-08.

Callers/e-Mailers:

Madan Mohan, Kanaka Prasad, Chennasri, Veni, Nagesh, Anjani, Vamsi, Madhavi, Lakshmi and Hema

Download/smart phone link: Mulpuri on Primary Education 1 of 3

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