Antique Newel Post
Antique Newel Post
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 SIMPLE ANTIQUE CHESTNUT NEWEL POST ARTS AND CRAFTS  US $130.00
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 ANTIQUE WALNUT NEWEL POST VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGE US $179.00
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 Antique Fir Newel Post US $600.00
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If only our political leaders would read the laws they pass
I was in kindergarten in 1967. That year, Mrs. Bellows taught me how to read. She in fact taught the entire kindergarten class to read. She wrote on slate with big pieces of chalk. We clapped the erasers after class to gain her favor. We didn't have PC's or MAC's in the classroom. What we had was Mrs. Bellows.
In order to learn how to read, we were first presented with the letters of the alphabet. Mrs. Bellows had a ladder depicted on the wall and between each of the rungs was a letter of the alphabet. She stood by the ladder pointing at each of the letters between the rungs. When it was your turn, you were required to stand up and say the letter of the alphabet that Mrs. Bellows was pointing to. She went down the ladder and then back up the ladder. We didn't just learn to say the alphabet, we were learning to recognize the letters. You had to because she pointed them out in both directions so you couldn't just say the letter from memory. When you passed this test, your picture went above the ladder of letters. We all wanted our pictures up there. No child wanted to be left behind : )
The funniest thing happened to me in kindergarten. I learned how to say the alphabet backwards. When it was my turn to stand up, I already knew the drill from the previous day when I'd seen other kids go through this process. So that night, I had my Mom write the letters on a piece of paper and show me how to say them exactly the way Mrs. Bellows would point them out. When it was my turn to stand up in class, I informed Mrs. Bellows that I didn't need to look. She played along and I, completely missing the point of the process, regurgitated the letters frontwards and backwards. She was impressed. She took me to the principle's office (my first time) and had me do it for him. I then got a Red Cross button to wear on my shirt and I didn't even have to pay a nickle for it! I was on cloud-9. And of course my picture made it to the top of the ladder, right next to Tammy Dickinson's (the first girl I ever kissed).
Every kid in our class eventually got his picture posted on the top of the letter ladder - in the order in which we completed the task. Back then, competition was still allowed in the classroom and there was a sense of pride associated with getting this accomplished. It didn't bother me that Tammy Dickinson was up there before me, I admired her for it. I'm not sure when I decided to kiss her but I think that may have brought her down to my level. We continued to be academically competitive but we were pretty good friends too.
The next course was to run through the alphabet and make the sounds that each letter made. We learned vowels first - long-a and short-a. (and e, i, o and u's). We learned all the sounds of the consonants. In all, we learned all 46 sounds that you could make with the 26 letters we learned earlier. Not only that, but we were able to recognize which of those 26 letters were used singly or in combination to make those sounds. (That's when Mrs. Bellows recognized that I couldn't say my s's. I started speech therapy immediately and that would continue through the third grade. No drama, it just was part of the process.)
About mid-year, Mrs. Bellows handed each kid in the class their first book! It was a book about a dog named Spot (figures, I couldn't say my s's). Since we could recognize the letters that made the sounds that made up all the words, it was time to start reading! And we did. For the rest of the year, we each took our turn reading out loud to the class. We read boods about Dick and Jane and their dog Spot. Any then came the grand finale. We were going to put on a play for the rest of the school (and our parents). I very proudly took the part of the Smart Little Pig! We didn't have video cameras or even regular cameras so all I have of that play is a memory. Anyway, that was the year I learned to read.
Mrs. Bellows retired that same year. A more "progressive" teacher took her place. My brother did not reach the same level of reading until the third grade. Phonics was removed from the classroom and replaced with "whole word" reading. From that point on, we were teaching kids not to think. Strangely, someone decided it was easier to sort of remember what a word looks like than it was to learn 26 letters, 46 sounds and some rules on how they are combined. I believe that this is truly where it began to happen - the development of a bunch of non-thinkers.
I can envision a day where someone decides that it's too much hassle to learn to read. And why? We don't need this antiquated form of communication any more. How babies can navigate multimedia stories on a computer before they can walk and talk has already made big news. The Internet is dominated by text but as an internet consultant I have to tell my clients to write "scannable" text. The media sites are already taking over and my advice now is get on the video bandwagon. Google has already announced the ability to index audio with speech to text recognition and will give sites a big bonus for having "rich media". We are moving toward a multi-media driven Internet. In five years, you won't have that ubiquitous keyboard on your phone either, you'll be talking and passing audio messages. We click on You-Tube videos now. The media outlets are the targets and the bumpers and we're the pinballs. And this is how it happens. We just passed a 1000 page bill in the Senate, spent $1,000,000,000,000 dollars and not one of the people that voted for it could have possibly read it.
About the Author
Greg has a 15 year success record working for major corporations including Hercules Inc. and ABB in sales and marketing. He left corporate life in 2005 to start a small internet web design and marketing business. His approach to marketing is practical and creative. Build a web shop is a site teaching ecommerce website owners a simple practical approach to online success.
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SIMPLE ANTIQUE CHESTNUT NEWEL POST ARTS AND CRAFTS US $130.00
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ANTIQUE WALNUT NEWEL POST VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGE US $179.00
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Antique Fir Newel Post US $600.00
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May 1-8, 2010
SATURDAY, May 1Midnight(DIY) Turf War12:30 a.m.(HGTV) Bang for Your Buck — Kansas City basement renovations are evaluated. (CC)1 a.m.(HGTV) House Hunters International — A family is ready to buy a Caribbean vacation home.
Antique English Georgian style carved mahogany 4 post bed
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SIMPLE ANTIQUE CHESTNUT NEWEL POST ARTS AND CRAFTS US $130.00
|
ANTIQUE WALNUT NEWEL POST VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGE US $179.00
|
Antique Fir Newel Post US $600.00
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Antique Newel Post US $225.00
|
ANTIQUE NEWEL POST LAMP BEAUTIFUL WOMEN LIGHTS INDOOR OR OUTDOOR US $5,500.00
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Antique Marble Alabaster Finial Newel Post Banister Knob Top 5 3 4 US $300.00
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Large Oak Newel Post Art Nouveau Vintage Antique US $175.50
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Antique Solid Fir Newel Post Stair Railing Post US $143.54
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Antique Newel Post Stair Staircase Newell Old Wood NY US $150.00
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