This month’s feature articles:

Regular monthly features:

"I teach in a self-contained gifted education program at a small middle school. About 30% of the students in our program are identified as gifted while the others are highly talented. We had an incident this past year and I know it will come this year if something is not done, in which some of the "talented" students were really jerked around. There was no contract in place stating how one gets into our program and how they are taken out.
Last year, some of our students who were "talented" but not gifted, were taken out of our program because another student in the school had higher test scores on our state-mandated proficiency exam. These were not students identified as gifted, but seemed to be "more talented" based on this test. This caused a lot of heartache among our students and parents of the "almost-gifted" students. Some of these students who were taken out were later put back into our gifted education program as test scores changed. I was deeply hurt to see the students huddling around the ones coming back into our program and hearing statements like, ‘We're so glad that you're gifted again.’"
O.S. Comment: This problem shows the importance of school board documentation and agreement on the criteria for students entering and leaving gifted programs. Demission, in my opinion, should be only at the request of students and their parents – except under very unusual circumstances. Giftedness is a way of life not a label. The differences between the needs of gifted and talented students are often very different. Many school boards have chosen the "separate programs" approach – for the academically gifted and for students who are highly talented in the arts or sports. To congregate gifted and talented students and then create a revolving door re entry and demission does a disservice to all concerned and can result in the serious problems indicated in the letter.

Halloween Then and Now
(References: historychannel.com and Catholic Register newspaper)

Halloween (Hallowed Evening or Holy Evening), technically, is a religious feast day. It is the evening of All Saints Day, which was instituted by the Catholic Church to honour all the saints and martyrs by Pope Gregory III (years 731-741) who declared Nov 1 as the day. Evidence shows that Christians celebrated the feast of the saints as early as the fourth century. It is widely believed today that the pope tried to replace a Celtic festival of the dead with a church approved holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

November 2^nd is also important as a church feast day as it commemorates All the Faithful Departed. People pray for the wellbeing of the souls of those who have died. November becomes a month in which we are reminded to think about our own mortality and our place in the group of saints.

Today, Halloween has been secularized and has become a major industry. It is the second biggest money making season in our economy, just replacing Easter. Christmas is first. Back to school shopping is third.

There is great debate about whether children should be involved with the occult and spiritual in what is sometimes seen as a disrespectful way. Children gathering and eating great piles of candy, other sweets and fatty foods also brings about worries of tooth decay, cavities and maintaining health.

The industry puts about $1.5 billion into the economy through the purchase of costumes, treats and special decorations.

First Monday – World Habitat Day

Oct 4 – Jewish Rosh Hashanah

Oct 5 - Islamic Ramadan begins

Oct 5 – World Teachers’ Day

Oct 9 – World Post Day

Second Wednesday – International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction

Oct 10 – Thanksgiving Day

Oct 13 – Jewish Yom Kippur

Oct 16 – World Food Day

Oct 17 – Full Moon tonight

Oct 17 – International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Oct 18 – Jewish First day of Sukkot

Oct 23 – Daylight Savings Time Ends

Oct 24 – United Nations Day

Oct 24 – World Development Information Day

Oct 26 – Jewish Simchat Torah

Oct 31 – Halloween

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• a Los Angeles company sells different styles of pimp and "ho" Halloween costumes for kids. They are going to come out with a new line for infants and toddlers. The company explains that it is just part of the rap and hip-hop scene; get over it.
• "Ok" is the most recognized word in the world. "Coca-Cola" is second.
• McDonalds restaurants in the US use about 1.6 million eggs each day.
• Japanese eat the most eggs – average is 6.6/week/person.
• The first advertising jingle on the radio was for Pepsi-Cola.
• In 1954 RC Cola was the first soda pop to be sold in a metal can.
• There are about 950,000 horses in Canada.
• In an average year, about 5,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water from melting ice escapes through the Arctic archipelego and the Fram Strait between Greenland and Spitsbergen Islands of Norway into the Nordic seas and North Atlantic.
• It takes 33 hours to listen to the world’s longest symphony, Victory At Sea, by Richard Rodgers.
• The largest group of emergency room users in Canada are teens and young adults. – Statistics Canada.
• The first novel ever written on a typewriter was "Tom Sawyer."

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Using the "Normal" Window: As you create a document with major headings and sub-headings of different sizes and fonts, you can coordinate the whole document by using the styles in the small window that usually reads "Normal" – top left in MS Word. This will let you make all titles uniform. Highlight a document title and open the "Normal" window. Select the style of title and it is applied to those words.

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Do you have a passion for the music of world cultures? Besides collecting and recording the music of the past and present all over the world, you will be involved in defining and analyzing it. How was the music used and why did it survive or not?

A music degree is obviously a good place to start for a career such as this. Studying history, linguistics, ethnology would also add depth to the learning.

There are also other interesting versions of the career such as zoomusicologist, a person who studies the music of animals.

Scholars and educators use the findings of linguistics and related sciences in identifying and addressing language-related problems and researching. Engage in research, teacher education, analysis and dissemination of information, design and development of instructional materials, technical writing or speaking assistance, conference planning, program evaluation, and policy analysis.

Linguists include translators, interpreters, and language tutors.

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Colours in Your World
(based on an article in the Toronto Star)

Colour affects human behaviour, consciously and subconsciously. Tests in hospitals, casinos, colleges, subway systems, prisons, lottery offices suggest that colours affect people in the following ways:

Blue – calms, good for meditation, prayer and relaxation, counteract nerves.

Red – stimulates, use where you want lively conversation, stimulates the appetite, increases heart rate, body temperature goes up.

Yellow – best mood enhancer, stimulates brain activity to highest levels, perfect for studying, makes you feel happy, increases bile production, too much can make you feel sick.

Orange – cheers up, gets you out of a bad mood, good colour for restaurants or dining rooms.

White – triggers burn-out, equals stimulation, headaches, in a white room one feels like one is spending more time there, you are more disorganized in a white room.

Green – nurturing, balances, healing colour, stimulate the lazy, calm the overexcited, good for people with heart problems, causes you to underestimate time.

Brown – calms, creates a feeling of roots, use in fabrics and decorations but never on walls, associated with bodily functions.

Purple – mystical, helps the artistic, eccentric and spiritual, those who aren’t afraid to be out of the group like this colour.

Black – absorbs everything, liked by people who are against society generally, keeps you in a bad mood, gray is the most toxic because it lowers brain activity and the value of an experience, energy draining colour, makes you want to do nothing with your life.

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(based on an article by Gerry Kelly, The Catholic Register)

South Africa had many at the end of apartheid. Australians have one each year. What? National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like this all around the world. People could gather in centres, basements, city squares and just get to know each other. Cultural divides would be crossed and people would heal with each other.

In Australia, they had their first National Sorry Day held on May 26, 1998. The community acknowledged the impact they had on aboriginal peoples and the pain that was caused. They were forced from their lands and their children ripped from families and placed in residential schools. It continues to grow as people recognize their hunger for reconciling with these people they have hurt. The deep grief and pain suffered by individuals and communities is not alleviated by court justice and monetary compensation. People need to heal at a personal level.

In Canada and the USA, there have been great injustices to native peoples over the centuries that have never been dealt with fully and meaningfully. The reason is that litigation and legal actions insulate people from their responsibilities, produce a sense of powerlessness. Average people are sidelined and unconnected from the realities by legal systems. Lawyers fight openly for something called justice and monetary awards. But is that what people really want? Dialogue and direct interpersonal communication and resolution on a personal level are not part of the process. Apologies and forgiveness are not part of the process. There is no effort to address and heal the inner person in the process.

Openly admitting personal ownership and acknowledging responsibility and then discussing and atoning with real people on a face-to-face level should be the objective in all efforts to restore community. Perhaps a National Healing and Reconciliation Day could get people moving in that direction and we could reduce the suffering of those who are wronged in our society.

This is not just about large groups of strangers. It is also about family, friends, neighbours and others who have been hurt, maybe even by you. Have a look at these websites and perhaps support the effort.

ZEN for Those who Care
(in an email from a friend)

1. A day without sunshine is like, night.
2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.
3. 99 Percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
4. I feel like I’m diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
5. Hone if you love peace and quiet.
6. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
7. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
8. I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol.
9. Support bacteria. They’re the only culture some people have.
10. Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7 of your week.
11. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
12. Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
13. Get a new car for your spouse. It’ll be a great trade.
14. Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.
15. Always try to be modest and be proud of it.
16. How many of you believe in psychokinesis? Raise my hand.
17. How do you tell when you’re out of invisible ink?
18. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
19. Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
20. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don’t have film.
21. Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
22. I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.
23. Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.
24. Just remember – If the world did not suck, we would all fall off.
25. Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear brighter until you hear them speak.
26. Don’t take life too seriously…nobody gets out alive.

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right decision, the next best thing is the wrong decision and the worst thing you can do is nothing." – Teddy Roosevelt

"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business." – Henry Ford

"You know you are getting old when all the names in your black book have M.D. after them." – Harrison Ford

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under.

Every calendar's days are numbered.
A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd dye.
Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
Acupuncture is a jab well done.

Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat.
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Johnny was working at a fish plant when he accidentally cut off all ten of his fingers. He went to the emergency room and when he got there the doctor looked at Johnny and said "Let's have the fingers and I'll see what I can do."

Johnny said, "I haven't got the fingers."

"What do you mean, you haven't got the fingers? It's 2005! We’ve got microsurgery and all kinds of incredible techniques. I could have put them back on and made you like new! Why didn't you bring the fingers?"

Johnny says ... (Are you ready for this?????)

"How was I supposed to pick them up??"

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