Reading and children

I just heard this fascinating National Public Radio (US) story about reading and a child's brain. Lots in there, about how kids who struggle with reading have different brain pathways - but they can be rewired with intensive reading classes. And a quick mention of how playing a musical instrument also builds these pathways.

My sister is on NPR!

My sister, Rebekah Kowal, who is a dance history professor at the University of Iowa, is in a Morning Edition story on NPR on Fri 10/6. She attended a Barack Obama event and was interviewed by David Greene.

Becky is interviewed at the end of the story - and isn't she articulate! She would be a lucky find for any reporter, because she reads, she can express herself, and she's an educated, undecided voter (deciding between Obama and Hillary) in Iowa.

I have been thinking positively about Hillary, but this story changed my mind a little bit: that is, why shouldn't we vote for hope, instead of voting for a political sledgehammer?

Of course I can't be sure, but if Obama wins the Dem nomination, I don't think there are enough people/racists who would view his blackness as a more definitive quality than his ability to solve the trainwreck left behind by our current president.