Rod Keller wrote:

> Project CALL makes reading fun
> Fort Bend/Southwest Sun (Texas, USA)
> December 15, 2003
> By ANDREA CASHIOLA
>http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10666681&BRD=1914&PAG=461&dept_id=183407&rfi=6
>
> Need help with reading? It is surprising just how many people do, and even
> more shocking is how many of those people are high school graduates.
>
> "There are high school students out there who can't read past a third
> grade level," says Barbara Pariani, director for Project CALL, a fledgling
> literacy center located in Missouri City. "There is a huge literacy
> problem in the area, and we are here to help."
>
> Located in a strip center on Texas Parkway between a movie theatre and a
> soul food restaurant, the small literacy center beckons those who need
> help with a simple sign that reads "Need Help With Reading?" But, just
> that sign, along with word of mouth, is keeping the center full with those
> who do need and want help with their reading skills.
>
> Having just started its second year, Project CALL, short for Communities
> Assisting Literacy and Learning, has helped nearly 1,000 people, including
> children, teens and adults, not just to learn how to read, but to learn
> how to learn. Their methods are nontraditional, but they work, says Minot
> Edwards, Project CALL's technical director.
>
> What is different about the organization, Edwards says, is that when a
> child or a teen comes for tutoring, the parents are required to come in
> with their child, participate and learn skills to help their children.
> "Basically, we teach the parents to teach their kids how to learn to
> study," he says. "That way at the end of the program, the parent knows how
> to help their children with school work."
>
> Other approaches to learning used by Project CALL are keeping it simple
> and keeping it fun.
>
> The center uses a study technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard, author of
> "Learning How to Learn," an illustrated work that teaches children how to
> study.
>
> Everybody who participates in the program must read the book. "If they
> can't read the book, we read it to them," says Edwards.
>
> Pariani says part of the theory that works so well is that it is simple.
> It works for everyone, even adults and people who have been labeled with
> learning disabilities, she says. The program also adds some fun into the
> mix.
>
> "We make learning fun, entertaining and interesting," says Pariani. "I
> remember there was one boy that was brought here, and he did not want any
> part of it. He did not want to be here," she says. "But, when the lesson
> was over, he did not want to leave."
>
> Edwards says it is common for the children to not want to leave. "It
> amazes parents that their children are starting to enjoy reading, learning
> and studying."
>
> A former classical ballet dancer and director of a performance arts
> troupe, Edwards uses his gift for entertainment during the Learning Show,
> which he presents at the center every first and third Thursday evening of
> the month. During the show, Edwards dazzles the children as he juggles
> knives and hatchets. "I use juggling to catch their attention and teach
> them what gets in the way of learning."
>
> At the center, student programs include a phonics program, the learning
> basics program and basic volunteer tutor training.
>
> The phonics program, Reading Rescue, was developed by Edwards based on his
> extensive research into the most effective ways of teaching reading.
> Reading Rescue teaches the student the sounds of a language and then how
> to combine them to read and spell. Using games and fun drills, the student
> will master reading and spelling with the sounds of the English language,
> says Edwards.
>
> In the learning basics program, the student learns what gets in the way of
> study and what to do about it, as well as ways to ensure that they
> understand and continue to use what they read.
>
> "To study means to look at something and ask about it and read about it,
> as you learn about it," says Edwards. "Just reading the sounds of the
> words on the page does not even begin to ensure understanding."
>
> The tutor training program teaches a parent or other literacy volunteer or
> professional the basics of what stops learning and how to handle these
> barriers. It also teaches them simple methods of ensuring that the student
> understands what he has learned.
>
> While the program helps children and adults learn to read, the methods
> used can applied to anything and anyone. Even teachers come and take the
> program to help with their teaching skills, says Pariani.
>
> Meena Mabbu, 12, a volunteer tutor, found that as she helped others, she
> also benefited from the program. While Mabbu did not need help reading, as
> she completed the learning basics program and began to tutor others, she
> found herself using the skills in her everyday life. "I began using the
> concepts I was teaching others in my daily life, and it has helped me a
> lot," says Mabbu.
>
> Project CALL was founded by Missouri City residents Dr. Willis J. Pumphrey
> Jr. and his wife, Grace. Pumphrey, a successful dentist with his own
> practice in the Houston area, started the program after years of
> conducting truancy workshops for Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Joel
> Clouser's court. The program, still going on, gives truant students who
> appear in Clouser's court an alternative to fines.
>
> During the one-day workshop, the students are taught how to learn how to
> learn and study based on "Learning How to Learn." A parent is also
> required to go the workshop.
>
> "We started giving the one-day workshop to high school students, and two
> thirds of those attending could not even read the book," says Pumphrey.
> "And after three years of the program, we started noticing that if the
> student couldn't read, nine out of 10 times, the parents were just as
> illiterate. And in those situations where the parents couldn't help, we
> felt needed to do more."
>
> So the Pumphrey's decided to start Project CALL. After finding the office
> space on Texas Parkway in Missouri City, the group held a phone fundraiser
> to build it out.
>
> "We all used cell phones to call everyone we knew to get donations," says
> Pariani.
>
> Through donations from friends and local businesses like Dynegy and
> Lowe's, the center began to take shape.
>
> Even before the center opened its doors, people saw the small "Need Help
> Reading" sign hanging in the window and started knocking on the window to
> see what was going on, says Pumphrey.
>
> "So we let them in and started helping them," he says. "Here we were with
> cement floors and only a couple of tables, and we were already helping
> people."
>
> "Now we have this fantastic project here, and were are helping a lot of
> people," says Pumphrey, who has hopes to expand the center and open more
> locations in the Houston area.
>
> "We opened this center in Missouri City, because it is close to my home,
> but we have big plans. We are growing and are going to keep on growing,
> and we are going to help more people," says Pumphrey.
>
> Project CALL is located at 2360 Texas Parkway. For more information, call
> (281) 261-2600.
>
> [caption: Pictured are: Dr. Willis J. Pumphrey Jr., Barbara Pariani, Meena
> Mabbu, Grace Pumphrey and Minot Edwards at the Project CALL office in
> Missouri City. - Photo by ANDREA CASHIOLA]
>

Every time a front group for the "Church" of Scientology is exposed as such, a new "front group of a front group" appears. This seems to be the case with your reported opening of a group named CALL. It looks like a false front for Applied Scholastics or HELP, two other groups which claim to help literacy and educational concerns.

"Based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard..." If you were aware that Hubbard was a college dropout who purchased a doctorate from a diploma mill, wouldn't you be a bit leery about sending your kids there? If you knew that Scientology policy outlines methods of introducing Scientology through front groups like this, would you be alarmed? Scientology operates many front groups, which appear to address real social concerns, such as literacy and drug abuse. However, their main goal is to expose people to L. Ron Hubbard's peculiar alternate reality. A bit of research will reveal this to be a paranoid fantasy at the deeper levels, peopled by alien Markab invaders and a cabal of evil psychiatrists bent on world domination.

Any front group supported by the Scientology organization is, first and foremost, intended as a gateway to draw people into the bizarre, paranoid and destructive society created by Hubbard. Scientology is like an onion, it has many layers. Lower levels have no clue what the entirety of the organization is about, as they're forbidden to read anything negative, or "entheta" about Scientology. For those of us who enjoy the freedom to research their history, we find a trail of fraud, broken families and lives, and life savings squandered on false promises of freedom.

Front groups have three purposes. Besides disseminating L. Ron Hubbard's "tech," front groups also garner good PR in communities. "We're helping people to get off drugs. We're helping people learn to read." On the surface, it sounds benevolent and positive. However, studies have shown that their programs, which are all based upon Hubbard's junk science, are at best, useless and at worst, a danger to one's health. Two excellent websites are available which address both the "study tech" and the drug rehab programs put forth by Scientology. http://www.narconon-exposed.org addresses their drug rehab project Narconon, which also has another front called Second Chance. http://www.studytech.org/home.php addresses the "Study Tech" of L. Ron Hubbard. http://www.xenu.net provides an in-depth overview of Scientology and its front groups.

And the third purpose of a front group? Getting government funding for these projects! The Scientology organization is desperate to continue collecting the millions of dollars it used to extract from naive, new members and heavily indoctrinated long time Scientologists. Thanks to the Internet, the flood of new victims is dwindling like Antarctic ice fields as people learn more about the history and character of this group, considered in France, Germany and the Netherlands as a destructive, mentally coercive cult. Government funding is probably their last resort here in the United States as people become more aware of the fraud and abuse committed by Scientologists and Scientology.

I truly hope that the folks living in the communities where CALL is establishing itself will do their homework. There are genuinely beneficial organizations out there which deserve your support. However, Scientology based programs don't deserve a dime! Despite their excellent and effective Public Relations material, it's all smoke and mirrors. Scientology is worse than you can imagine, and you have the freedom to look it up!

barbara graham
san diego, california

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