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Post by booboobrewer on Feb 1, 2007 1:02:24 GMT -5
I think it's more that Claudia WOULDN'T do anything. I remember when I did Art in school, something like 30% of the subject was Art History, which involved essay writing. Has Claudia ever mentioned Art History, or at least an appreciation of it? Do they touch on it as part of the subject in US schools? Yeah, I would have liked to have seen more of that addressed. I'm sure I read in one book that she says she not only loves creating and viewing art, but also reading about it. I suppose she did have an appreciation of some art history if she was reading books about it. Oh, I think it was in Claudia and the Mystery at the Museum - she impresses Janine by talking about Brancusi. And there's that part in Christmas Chiller when she's discussing art with Ethan and talks about the "juxtaposition" of colors or something.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2007 10:23:27 GMT -5
Juxtaposition- I would have liked to see her try and spell that!
The thing about Claudia is that I *wanted* to believe she had a learning disability. It would have made a lot more sense. But they mention that she's been tested, and she hasn't got one. Yet a 9 year old kid WITH dyslexia has to help her with her spelling? Come on. It could have spawned a few interesting plots too.
Instead she just comes across as if she's too good for decent spelling and grammar, and just can't be bothered. I remember in one book she says she thinks everything should be spelled like it's pronounced- like choklit and chezcak. WTF?
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Post by aln1982 on Feb 4, 2007 0:54:14 GMT -5
Also wasnt it mentioned that Claudia reads other books- Kristy said Claudia read some of the books she was told to read by her parents and liked some of them...but ND was her favourite books. And she mentions reading one of John Brookes books in Stacey- match maker! Speaking of Nancy Drew- I've looked through this book...I refuse to buy the fact that this is targeted at 8/9 year olds- surely it's too hard for them to read? But then I'm speaking as someone who has had to look in the dictionary when reading H.Potter and apparently thats targeted at 10 yr olds. Agree about Nancy Drew. And the thing they never take into account with books is maturity and content. Like last week my 10 year old (very immature) cousin's teacher assigned "To Kill a Mockingbird" to her. When I told her parents what the book was about, they said "no way!" The teacher just said okay read another book but... There is NO way my cousin would have understood the content even if she could read the words. Now me at 10 would have been different ... As for Claud, I'm convinced most of her problems are from her attitude of "Janine is super smart, I can't be as good as her, so I'm not going to try at all. Better to do that than try and fall short of her success." Just my take on it.
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wanderingfrog
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Post by wanderingfrog on Feb 4, 2007 14:00:17 GMT -5
In my little mind, although Claudia was tested for a learning disability but not diagnosed with one, it doesn't mean she doesn't have one. That kind of thing really does happen all the time, specialists missing obvious learning disabilities. It's especially likely if she's only been tested once, and also considering that this testing was supposed to have happened back sometime in the early '90s or late '80s. It would be less likely to be missed nowadays.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2007 14:28:52 GMT -5
i thought it would be fun to go through and find all of my favourite claudia misspellings. since i realized that that would take WAY more time than i possibly have, here are all of them from super specials 2-9. keep in mind that i've excluded all of the "who are you" crap, and also the really long words that i doubt she would know as just a normal, stupid thirteen year old. i've only put in words that she should know, like her friends' names and the days of the week and things like that.
SS #2 - saturday as "satruday" (pg. 26); mary anne as "mary ann" (pg. 98), stoneybrook as "stoneybrooke" (pg. 242. claudia, you have lived there your entire life and you can't even spell it?)
SS #3 - wednesday as "winsday", ashley as "ahsley" (pg. 127); friday as "firday" (pg. 188)
SS #4 - saturday as "satruday", mary anne as "mary ann" (pg. 40); sunday as "sundy" (pg. 93); monday as "mondy" (twice on pgs. 142 & 171 and once on pg. 188)
SS #5 - bradford (as in her STREET NAME, things that even little children know) as "bardford" (pg. 61)
SS #6 - connecticut as "conneticut" (pg. 1; i mean, come ON. you can't even spell the state you're living in?); mallory as "malory" (pg. 59 & 176); wednesday as "wensesday" (pg. 115); wednesday as "wensday" (pg. 176); friday as "firday" (pg. 224); just on a side note, i love how one of the last lines in the book is claudia saying that "mom even thought my speling had imporved" referring to the diary. is her mom on crack? your 13 year old daughter can't even spell the state she lives in or the days of the week. wtf?
SS #7 - on one line, it's "myria" and on the next line, it's "mariah" (in reference to myriah perkins, pg. 13); thursday as "thrusday" (pg. 109); on pg. 164, she actually manages to spell "disappearance" correctly. she can't spell "how" or "what", but she can spell disappearance???
SS #8 - the infamous andrew as "andrea" (and that page is MISSING in my book! so sad.); saturday as "satruday" (pg. 142)
SS #9 - friday as "firday", kristy as "kirsty" (pg. 67 & 194); jessi as "jessy" (pg. 67). oh, and also, she says "stace wanted to be in the play but she did not whant to be sam's husbend." um, sam's HUSBAND? yeah.
i also noticed that sometimes she capitalizes names and nouns and sometimes she doesn't. i think we learned that in elementary school. (and yes, i realize that irony in the fact that my entire post is in all lowercase, but that's just pure laziness on my part.)
but i'd say, just from judging the errors above and the many, many, many, MANY other errors in the books, that she would DEFINITELY be considered dyslexic, or at least have some sort of learning disability. how we're supposed to realistically believe she made it to eighth grade is beyond me.
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ktag
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Post by ktag on Mar 4, 2007 18:14:03 GMT -5
Stacey probably freaked when she read that.
Did they actually test her for learning disabilities? I mean, I know they say sometimes in the chapter twos that they did, and she doesn't have any. However, in her portrait book, Mrs. Kishi says that they probably would have her tested and then looked upset. But they never did! Claudia just took those evaulations to go to the special school. No mention of LD tests. And if they didn't do it then, when would they?
I wonder how many fundamental things Claudia missed out on learning while she was at the special school. It's the same thing with her 7th grade experiment. She goes backwards for a chunk of time, and then gets sent back even though she's missed everything the other students had learned in the meantime. Maybe it doesn't matter though. It's not like repeating the 8th grade 10 times helped her.
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Post by booboobrewer on Mar 4, 2007 20:50:29 GMT -5
Ha, oh god, the Andrew-Andrea thing. They SIT for a girl named Andrea. She doesn't hear the differences in the names. Right.
And the fact that she can spell things like "disappearance" and not "Sunday", "the", or the names of her friends bugs me to no end. Arrgh.
"And tehn Eethin and me talkd abowt teh juk jucks juxtuh aranjemint plasing of cuhlors in teh painteng. Stasy wasnt hear two help me spel taht!"
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 5, 2007 0:54:08 GMT -5
My favorite spelling was her explanation of "Farrow" with that "sneaky double r" that she was so proud of. What book was that?
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ktag
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Post by ktag on Mar 5, 2007 4:53:44 GMT -5
^Claudia and the New Girl, I believe.
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 5, 2007 8:47:27 GMT -5
Thanks. I love that one anyway and will have to reread. Just saw some great samples of Claudia spelling in the preview of Claudia and the Perfect Guy that is included in Stacey and the Cheerleeders. It was so good that I left it open for my mom to read this morning so she could get a laugh.
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Post by sotypical42483 on Mar 5, 2007 13:46:53 GMT -5
oh my god. looking at all those mistakes put together like that... wow! I usually skip Claud's notebook entries/post cards because they hurt my head. How on earth can she be making mistakes like "kirsty" "firday", etc, where she's just switching around letters and NOT be dyslexic?! God I hate how stupid they made her.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2007 20:47:27 GMT -5
they just could have presented it in such a better way. they show her as just a dumbass who can't spell. if she was someone with dyslexia or another learning disorder, maybe children with learning disorders could relate and feel like they weren't alone or whatever. but she was just dumb.
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 9, 2007 0:30:23 GMT -5
I totally agree. I never believed that she didn't have a learning disability or thought that if she really didn't, she must be being dumb on purpose. That just makes me mad!
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wanderingfrog
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Post by wanderingfrog on Mar 9, 2007 23:53:13 GMT -5
My favorite spelling was her explanation of "Farrow" with that "sneaky double r" that she was so proud of. Actually, the reason I love that is because it's so d**n logical. Usually Claudia just tries to spell things phonetically (although she even screws that up), but here she realizes that English spelling has some really screwed-up rules, and what she winds up is something that has more letters than her original idea, "faro," but still manages to be something that, when you read it, you would pronounce in the exact same way as you would pronounce "pharaoh." Which is, by the way, kind of a hard word to spell.
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 22, 2007 15:53:26 GMT -5
In the Chapt. 2 description in Dawn and the Big Sleepover, Dawn says that Claudia isn't good in school maybe because she feels she can't compete with Janine, even though she is smart. I think (if forced to accept the fact that she doesn't have a learning disability) this is her exact problem. "I can't be as good as Janine so school is stupid and trying is pointless" mentality.
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