Thoughts About Facing Facts July 31, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, Ed Policy Discussion, Parent Support, Special Ed..comments closed
A fellow by the name of Ray Schmitt wrote an article that got a mention in the daily CEC news brief. With the victory of a parent in winning a court judgment for their autistic child as the backdrop, Schmitt writes of his own struggle in deciding whether to go to court for his own daughter:
My point here is that there are times when practicality, reality and a sense of reasonableness must factor into decisions made by parents, schools and the legal system. I went through an agonizing internal debate many years ago, wondering whether I should send my daughter to a private school and fight the county to pay for it. I chose not to because sometimes you just have to accept reality. Sometimes a child is simply unable to learn. It’s one of the most difficult things a parent will ever have to accept, but it’s something to consider.
If a teacher had written that, it would have been blasphemous sacrilege worthy of an Old Testament-style stoning. As it is, that second-to-the-last sentence has got to make every parent and educator wince. Or at least blink. But in a world where “learning” equals taking and passing a standardized test, he kind of has a point. The reality is that some students will never be able to take and pass a standardized test. How standard would a test be if everyone could pass it?
There are a few things about Schmitt’s article that do merit some discussion. First, he tells how his daughter who just graduated last June had an IEP since first grade and never mastered anyof the goals. To me, that is simply astounding. However, I do see where it might happen that way. Under each goal, there are several short-term objectives. If these are not all mastered, the goal is not considered mastered. While it is common not to master every objective under a goal, there should have been times when the goal was mastered. At the very least, progress shouyld have been indicated and communicated.
My 3rd year of teaching, Spaz had mastered ALL of his objectives in the rec/leisure domain. His mother made a comment that this was the first time he had mastered an entire goal. What’s more, he had actually mastered it before to annual review of his IEP during the 3rd 9 week progress report. She had never seen a prior progress report in his school career that had showed actual progress and mastery. Of course she saw a lot of things out of me she had never seen before, for good or ill.
But Schmitt’s assertion that some students can not learn is a troubling one. If I were his girl’s teacher at any level, I would take this statement as a sign of failure…MY failure. No parent should walk away from a teacher feeling like their child can not learn. Okay, so they can’t bubble in an answer sheet for some stupid test. But this is not a true indicator of a child’s ability to learn valuable skills. Even if the child learns to use the toilet, this is learning! Learning how to stay on task, learning how to go from one point to another, following instructions, learning how to deal with challenges, learning how to get along with others…these are all skills that I end up spending much of my time on and are actually more crucial to success in life than the bubbling in of answers on a test with a pencil.
This gets back to special education teachers and their failure to track progress regularly over a period of time. They need to be collecting data on a regular basis in order to be able to convey progress.
Schmitt talks a bit about teachers in special education. I need to find out where Henrico County is, because it sounds like there might be some lucrative positions there! He talks about how new teachers start out teaching at the county system until they gain sufficient knowledge and experience to teach at the higher paying private schools.
In Georgia, that is not the case at all. Private schools pay less all around. There are also few to no private schools for special education students. Some parents will vote with their feet and move to states and districts with better teachers and services. Jim, who was new to us last year, is a refugee of the the California special ed. system. Maybe we have better teachers due to a nonexistent private school system.
The bigger question Schmitt asks is whether parents should sue the school in order to get them to pay for a more expensive private school. He uses the comparison of the Cavalier versus the Corvette, and no lawsuit will make his Cavalier run and perform like a Corvette. When discussing FAPE (Free and Appropriate Public Education) we always hear about how we’re not entitled to a Cadillac. Schmitt concludes his article by saying that thanks to the judge’s ruling, he’ll have a chance to know what it feels like paying for a private school.
The safeguards for parents in special education are largely procedural. However, had Schmitt known his rights, he would have known that the independent evaluation he wanted for his daughter could have been at the expense of the county. The county could have filed for due process and refused to pay, but just paying for the evaluation is much less expensive.
I do believe in looking at things realistically. I don’t believe bankrupting a family or a school system necessarily makes society or an individual better. It would be better if parents went ahead and made a sort of internal cost-benefit analysis, but too many want to leave it in the hands of a judge. As a parent, I understand how we want to do anything for our children. However, the collapse of an entire family system (or school system) isn’t beneficial, either. I admire Schmitt’s courage in speaking out with a voice that is admittedly going to be less than popular. But I also feel bad that his own experiences seem to have left him feeling like his daughter can’t learn.
D.
Realistically Speaking… July 29, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, Ed Policy Discussion, Parent Support, Services.comments closed
Just Holding this place for this article until I finish a response.
You really should read it.
Getting Ready July 27, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Day-to-day drama: home, Day-to-day school drama.comments closed
Well, this is it.
Ready or not, tomorrow they are coming. The school year officially begins for students in Magnolia County as the buses begin rolling, the bell rings and teachers begin teaching. In many ways, that first day is one of the longest of the year second only to the last day. This is why starting on a Friday is a good idea that I like. It gives everyone a full weekend to plan and plot what they are going to do on the next day.
I have been visited by 3 parents during preplanning. Taz’s mother works here, so I expected to see her. She has been in a good mood so I’m guessing that she likes the new lunchroom manager. She will probably NOT like the fact that my door will not be open at 7:30 every morning this year, but we’ll deal with that later.
Spaz showed up yesterday with his mother and proceeded to exhibit every bit of his old aggressive behaviors of hitting, kicking, grabbing, pinching and scratching. Just when I thought we could retire that old data sheet, we will be starting from scratch…or scratches as it is back to the arm pads. Hopefully we can structure and teach that stuff out of him. He has spent the entire summer wearing his mother out. Today he was scheduled for graduation pictures which should be a hoot with his present state of mind.
We are getting one new student (that I know of) from the middle school. While he did not appear, his mother did. Until I pick out a name, he’s going to be the New Student. I’d just like something short, easy to remember and vaguely associated with him before getting a name. He sounds like a sweet boy, but it will take some time to get to know him.
Yet to appear is Jim, who was on Mr. Pyle’s caseload and moved here late last year. He might have moved away over the summer as some of our kids do move quite a bit. And finally, there is the student I’ll call Larry, who was also on Mr. Pyle’s caseload last year. I’ll give more info on them as the year goes on.
Princess has spent a lot of time in our room and is terribly unhappy about leaving us. She just walked through here on her way home and registered her anxiety. I’m not thrilled about losing her, either, but I’ve been trying to encourage her to do her best with this new teacher and with the new students. I’ve gotten fairly used to the idea of change, so I’m not quite so affected as she is. It’s a tough concept, change. You either get it and go with it, or you get resentful and bitter. Speaking of which…
Mr. Pyle is struggling to adjust to his new world of students with mild disabilities. He has no idea who will show up at his door tomorrow and he has no idea what to do with them. Frankly, I understand his discomfort and feel for him. But none of us have gotten IEP folders for our new students, yet which makes teaching the new kids a challenge.
In Georgia, the legislature passed a bill and Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill giving each teacher a $100 gift card to spend on educational supplies. Today, we got our cards which are actually a sort of preloaded Visa card. The card will only be good Aug. 3-6, when Georgia has it’s tax-free holiday for purchasing school supplies. If a teacher doesn’t use his/her card, it gets deactivated and becomes useless. Shoot…that’s next week, already! It can not be used for clothing, alcohol or other non school supply items. I have no idea how they’ll tell but they are numbered and we did have to sign for them so they could do some auditing if they had to. I already know I’ll be buying ink for the new printer the county bought for us AFTER I had ordered ink for the old printer. And that will pretty much blow the whole thing.
On the home front…
Thomas is SO excited about going to school. The boy has been waking up at around 6:30 all summer long but this week has has gotten up at 6:00 a.m. He actually is sort of getting the concept of time and is getting pretty into his routine of eating and going to bed at certain times by reading the clock. He is probably more into time than most other 7 year-olds and certainly more than most 1st graders. The boy has been trying to reset various clocks in an attempt to move his lunch and dinner times up or moving his bedtime back!!
Percy is going to pre-K at a different school than his brother. He sort of gets this, but it hasn’t fully sank in. He has been going to a summer session of a church pre-K this month, but going all day, everyday is going to be a new thing for him and will definitely wear him out.
While I have a certain amount of anxiety my wife, Jane, is probably the most anxious of all of us even though she is the only one NOT starting school tomorrow! Just has major anxiety about 4 year-old Percy riding the big bus and will probably take him to school, herself. I’m actually encouraging her to let him ride the bus. First, he really is looking forward to riding it. Second, driving there is going to be a totally nutty experience for any one on the road that morning. Seriously, Jane is only one of about 10,000 other (mothers) parents with the same anxiety she has. Kids pick up on that and they end up having that same anxiety all day at school.
It’s because of all the other Janes on the road that I will have to leave my house in the dark in order to get to school before the roads become too congested. We do have an elementary school next to the high school, so that traffic tangles with the high school kids and teachers and parents and buses and…well, you get the idea.
Actually, you don’t, because in addition to all of that, our county board of commissioners totally screwed up. We have two major roads going by the elementary/high schools which allow fairly good traffic flow on a good day. Guess where construction is going on this week to resurface BOTH of those roads?? I’ll be calling my board member tomorrow and letting him have it. They have done NOTHING all summer around here and wait until the week that school opens to cut BOTH roads down to one lane?
Otherwise, I’m looking forward to getting on with the show. For those of you still on vacation, reading me may help you appreciate and enjoy the rest of your summer even more! Here’s hoping that my day is too boring to provide material to post and I can talk about NCLB or IDEA or some other boring but meaningful education topic.
dick
The New Test for GA Teachers July 26, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Ed Policy Discussion, NCLB, Special Education, Teachers.comments closed
I began my teaching odyssey back in 1987 in Iowa. In Iowa, I graduated from an NCATE school and was approved for teacher certification. I went back and picked up some science endorsements by taking several courses and applying. It wasn’t until I considered teaching in other states that I became familiar with the testing of teachers. It seemed incredibly odd to me that I had a certificate from a state with an almost 100% literacy rate and among the best in education by any measure used, and it was not good enough to teach in states struggling to make 50% literacy or a 50% graduation rate.
Georgia seems to exhibit the most hubris for a state routinely looking at 49th or 50th place in education. I sometimes wonder how I ended up here, as I had taken the National Teacher’s Exam (NTE) in order to teach in several states. However, this was also not sufficient for Georgia. They had the Teacher Certification Test (TCT) which I took for Agriculture and later for EBD, despite having a master’s degree from one of their own accredited institutions and programs. And then they finally went with the Praxis tests, joining other states in assessing their teachers.
Are you keeping score? NTE (an early version of Praxis), TCT, Praxis, and now?….
Georgia has once again decided to go it alone. Say goodbye to Praxis and hello to the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators or GACE, pronounced GAY-see. Beginning this fall, the GACE will be used and beginning next year, the Praxis will no longer be accepted. For those of us already certified in Georgia, our TCT and Praxis scores will still be good. They claim this new test is aligned to national standards, but they have not even established validity yet! I know other states do their own testing and develop their own standards, and that’s the nature of our educational system. But I think it is a joke. It seems to me with Georgia consistently bringing up the tail end of educational performance, they would accept certificates from just about any teacher that could help improve things. But instead, they become even more exclusionary, requiring teachers coming into the state to take Georgia’s version of a test in order to get their certificate. Which basically means that this is simply revenue machine for the state.
And then they wonder why education does so poorly, here.
We just learned that in order to be considered “highly qualified” to teach any self-contained special education classes at the high school level, teachers will also have to take the the MR test. I already took it, as that is how I moved from EBD to where I am now. But many of those teachers who thought they would get by with that one test (0511) last year, are now learning that they will need ANOTHER test! Egad.
The federal regulations for IDEA 2004 are not completed yet, so there are no state regulations, yet. In other words, we are still working under IDEA 1997. Not that it was that bad, before, but it just goes to show how slow things work.
dick
Welcome Back! July 21, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Day-to-day school drama, Paraeducators.comments closed
Yes, some of you might not want to be reading this, but the days are getting shorter. Today was the first day back to school with all of the teachers, paras, lunch people, custodians…everyone in Magnolia County in the education business.
I, for one, was thankful to be back. I need the structure and routine that regular work provides. Maybe I’m a nutcase, but I’m okay with that.
I had a chance to see all of our adult characters from last year, and they are all doing well. Coach had his baby in June and was almost as glad as me to be back at work. Princess was back, and was her regularly snappy self, Patience was her regular patient self. Ruth was here, as outspoken as usual. Queen’s husband had some sort of surgery this morning, but she did make an afternoon appearance. Oh, and Mr. Pyle was also present. Did I miss anyone? We’ll catch up to other supporting characters later.
We had breakfast provided by the cheerleaders and a fairly brief meeting, introducing new teachers and providing a schedule for next week. We don’t have too many new teachers (maybe 10) and most of those were in the social studies department. Maybe they just haven’t filled the Special Ed. positions, yet.
There were several things on my mind upon returning, but the biggest was who was going to be assigned where in our room. We will only have 5 or 6 students so we don’t need 7 adults. The word did not come until late in the afternoon when the paras had their meeting to find out their assignments. Up until that meeting, most of them hung out in our rooom.
First of all, Mr. Pyle is assigned somewhere else with a different para. We don’t know exactly what he’ll be teaching or even where, but it will not be in this room. This is good news for me. The para assigned to him started out in this room and is pretty competent so maybe it will work out. Not knowing what he is doing or where he will be is driving him batty, though. Hopefully that will be resolved on Monday.
Ruth is assigned to a different teacher in the department. I’m a bit surprised she hasn’t retired, but she said she really needs the health insurance as she is not quite eligible for medicaid, yet.
The biggest change for me is the loss of Princess, who is assigned to the same sub-department she came from before joining us. She’ll be with a different teacher but will still have to work with the teacher she had so much conflict with before. And THAT worries me. She might just quit over it, as she has been really happy with being with the SID kids this past year. But I’m in a bit of a spot.
Coach, Queen and Patience are currently assigned to worrk with me. If I could, I’d send Queen off to work in another setting. But she has been here forever and politics being what they are she’ll have to be carried out of here. Coach’s position is pretty safe because he is specifically assigned to Spaz. That leaves Patience, who worked with Charlie last year who is going to the other school. Patience might be a better choice to move, although I don’t like the idea of losing her either. But it would be better than having Princess get drummed out after we had made so much progress last year in building her self-confidence.
The other concern I had is about the ones I sent to the new school. Who would they get to fill that spot? According to someone who went out there today, they hired a football coach. One with little or no experience. Crap. I know that principal and he has no idea the trouble he is asking for.
I suppose it is worth noting that for the second consecutive year, our school made AYP! The number of high schools not on the Needs Improvement list is very small, so maybe I shouldn’t have said. But it was something our principal was excited and happy about.
Okay, we are off and running for another year! I’m glad to have you all along for the ride. I sense some drama coming up, so stay tuned. Plus, there are always issuues that come up with educational policy and such that impacts what we do. Sometimes I WISH there was nothing to write about, but there usually is. Drama and excitement are often over rated.
d
Ready or Not… July 18, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Special Ed., Teachers.comments closed
Today is the first day back to work for Magnolia County’s newest batch of teachers. I am totally sympathetic for any of them who transferred in from somewhere where school just got out 3 weeks ago! But there is going to be a big batch of new teachers this year with the new high school opening. I wonder if they found a SID/PID teacher, yet? Actually, they needed two, as the other high school had one move to another position.
I noticed this year the teacher induction process is shorter than past years, perhaps to lengthen the summer by a day or so. Basically, when I went through it, it was a big deal. The first day, the chamber of commerce had businesses set up booths and we spent much of the morning talking to people and getting free stuff. We also spent time going through some of the benefit paperwork with the director of personnel. This year, we have a new personnel director as well as a new superintendent so there are some major changes afoot, for good or ill. I guess we’ll all find out together.
The second day was spent in various workshops covering various topics of school policy, behavior management, parent conferences, dress code and other topics, often divided between secondary and primary levels. Then we spent more time with other new teachers at our particular schools. The teachers that were brand new out of college when I started are now seasoned veterans and the competent cream of the crop having survived 6 years. The nonhackers are long gone.
Teacher induction was also held throughout the rest of the year as we had several other meetings in evenings culminating with one at the end of the year. Unfortunately there usually aren’t quite as many then as there were at the beginning. It is a very tough business we’re in.
The rest of us report this Friday, and then Monday we have a meeting of all county special education teachers. That is usually a big, long meeting and it is going to get bigger and longer as they keep adding new people on the county level. My biggest concern is that we’re going to buried with ever more paperwork as this is what they do at the county office: generate more forms, manuals, procedures and rules. That is a major downside of being in a county system that is growing so quickly.
As the summer draws to a close, I’ll be getting my annual physical to drive the bus for another year and I really need a haircut.
The bus: UGH! Truly the hottest place in the entire county is behind the wheel of a bus. Drivers sit right behind the engine block (or on it) and are surrounded by windows. There is usually one little fan that blows the hot air and one open window if they are lucky. But on the other side is the door, which doesn’t offer the cross circulation that is everywhere else on the bus while it is moving. I am NOT looking forwards to that so much. But it’s part of what we do. Maybe I’ll have some other folks to split driving duties with, hopefully.
I think I’m ready. Are you?
Ready or not, it is coming; a new school year with some new characters, some new challenges, some new drama and a whole new year of exciting adventures. I’m really looking forward to sharing this with y’all.
dick
Para Pay July 12, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Ed Policy Discussion, NCLB, Paraeducators, Special Ed..comments closed
Over on NCLBlog, there was a brief discussion on the pay of paraeducators. It just so happens that Jane is considering trying for a position the year after this upcoming one. She downloaded the application and the pay scale and asked me if I could figure it out.
Basically it is a level-step system, similar to what teachers have, except there is no explanation of what moves a person from one step or level to the next. This pay scale actually covers all noncertified employees except for bus drivers and monitors who have an entirely different compensation deal. so that would be secretaries, custodians, lunch staff and paras.
At level 1, step 1 it starts at about $6.75 and the moves up about $0.35 each level or step. Presumably, education influences the level and time is the step axis on the matrix. But I had to tell Jane that I was not real certain how to figure out what she might expect to make as a para.
Jane has a degree in early childhood, and is enjoying teaching at the church preschool. However, the school offers more hours (hence more money) and more benefits. She could get her certificate and go into teaching fairly easy once in the system if she wanted. Being a para is a good way of figuring out if it is something a body really wants to do.
But back to the pay, it is pretty appalling. She has a friend who has a master’s degree who was making about $8.00/hr. as a para. So why would anyone do it?
In Jane’s case, she likes working with the kids, likes the hours and schedule and the benefits. She also does not like the paperwork and planning involved that teachers have to do.
Most of the people I get are mothers (like Jane) looking for another income and with similar hours and schedules as what their children have. There is a major convenience factor in not having to find childcare for school breaks, snow days and summer.
It is also a good way to transition into becoming certified. Whatever roadblocks there are should be lifted for moving paras through the professional pipeline and getting them certified, especially in special education. I like the idea of paras being paid interns towards becoming full fledged teachers. People going through traditional teacher preparation programs in special education often get hired provisionally knowing nothing about special ed, while paras may already have several years of experience.
It makes more sense now that NCLB is mandating paras having 2 years of college that something be done to enhance the para experience. If we aren’t going to pay them more for this increased education, the least we could do is fast track them into higher paying positions.
One benefit that I don’t think many paras have taken advantage of, is that Magnolia County has been offering a series of computer courses offered as staff development leading to A+ and MS certifications. Granted it is more time, but since the cost is zero, that is not a bad deal for acquiring some extra marketable skills.
In the case of the paras in my program, they are supposed to get trained for driving a bus, which is an entirely different skill set that is marketable.
Having said all of this, $6.75/hr is not a lot of money for someone with an associate’s degree or more. In Georgia, people can get a Hope grant to pay for a technical degree or certificate and they will end up making a lot more coming out. Many paras end up having to get another part-time job in order to make ends meet, especially when they are single parents which is the case for half my paras.
They really do need to be getting raises at the same time as teachers are getting theirs. It makes sense to do so, because these folks are directly supporting teachers and delivering instruction. Much of what we’re required to do as teachers could not be done without the support of these individuals.
dick
Spanking (Autism) July 12, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, Behavior Analysis, Day-to-day drama: home, Parents and parenting.comments closed
Spanking (Autism)
[slight name change because of the fetish traffic...not that I don't appreciate it or anything!]
I’m treading lightly on this one, and trying to be sensitive about it. I’M sensitive about it and hope readers might at least try to be likewise. This is not easy reading. It certainly wasn’t the easiest thing to write.
A few weeks ago, Percy and Jane were out, and Thomas and I were at home. We were fiddling around out in the garden and then came inside. He demanded pizza and I told him it wasn’t time to eat yet. He then goes to the microwave and punches the numbers to make it 5:00. I informed him that wasn’t going to cut it. He screamed and I told him screaming was finished and put him in the brown chair. Then he did something he had never done before; he hit me. He just hauled off and whapped me in the leg!
Up until this point, neither Jane nor I had ever spanked the boys. We both grew up getting a belt (me) a spoon (her) or a switch (me again) but have been using a time out chair (the brown chair), like Supernanny uses. And for the most part it has worked. The next step is to put them in their room for time out. Problem is, starting last month Thomas took to throwing all of his books off the bookshelf and trashing his room.
Thomas hit me when I told him to sit on the chair and yelled “NO!” He and Percy have gotten a lot more defiant this summer.
All this is to say that Thomas’ defiance to me ended at that moment when I gave him two hard swats to his bare bottom. Then I put him in his room and warned him not to clear his book shelves.
Actually, his defiance didn’t end until the next moment, when I walked in and his books were all over the floor which garnered him two more hard swats. I then told him he was going to get more if he didn’t have it cleaned up when I came back. This was a couple weeks ago, and I have since not had the compliance and defiance issues Jane continues to have.
I’m not a big fan of beating kids. The behaviorist in me understands that punishment only suppresses behavior, and does not teach new and better behaviors. But the old style behaviorists knew something the more modern version has forgotten: Punishment works. In fact, the famous Lovaas Young Autism Project (YAP) used punishers extensively in their famous study where so many students “recovered” from their autism. That’s not to say I want a researcher or anyone else spanking or striking or shocking my children. But my parents, Jane’s parents and now me understands that it can be an efficient tool if juxtaposed with good teaching and good guidance.
Jane wanted to accuse me of teaching the boys how to hit, which I said was utter nonsense. They learned how to hit at school from their peers! Actually, I think hitting is more of an instinctual thing, anyway. I was not hitting to counter hitting, I was using it to counter defiance.
Hmmm. That spanking was not my intended focus, here. But now I see where I’m going to be accused of beating on my autistic child or something. The last word on that is this: I believe that part or teaching and parenting kids (NT or AS or otherwise) means turning them into productive human beings. Kids today (and many of their parents) often act like selfish animals. I’m not playing that, and my kids have a very concrete understanding of my authority. I care enough not to condone poor behavior. I’ll do it again if I have to. It’s not capricious and I take absolutely no bloody pleasure in it at all. Ever. But it works. I still get hugs and kisses. But if I tell them to sit on the brown chair, they do it and I do not get this “NO!” nonsense. Jane still does get an awful lot of grief, especially from Thomas. Sometimes she’ll just look at me, and I’ll give him the same instruction she just did (i.e. pick up your shoes) and he’ll do it right away.
Spanking is a controversial topic among parents and I feel somewhat like a traitor to behaviorists who have spent decades developing nonaversive and effective techniques. Not everyone can or should do it. I think it is a decision and a practice for parents to decide for themselves and their own situations. Any practice can evolve into abuse, and it is important to guard against that, but swatting a child on the bottom should not be confused with using knuckles across their face. In our household, I think we do have a good balance between Jane, who is ambivalent about the practice and me, who is cautiously okay with it. Thomas gets the connection between the behavior and the consequence, which is the most important thing. It’s not just about compliance (although that is a big deal) it is about learning some control. The consequences for impulsiveness can be dire, and I’m trying to work on that aspect of his behavior in a way where his life isn’t on the line. At this point, I know he thinks a bit more when he’s trying to decide whether or not to listen to what I’m telling him. I’ll take that.
dick
Comments to this post are closed due to some posters who wish to abuse others and other such foolishness.
What Autism Looks Like July 12, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, Day-to-day drama: home.comments closed
Thanks to Liz, who shared a brief excerpt on what Autism looks like from Laura Schreibman. Jane and I are both familiar with her work and I have cited her several times in my own. The full article on the AFT site is worth a read as it gives a comprehensive overview of autism and its treatment from a recognized expert in the field. That’s not to say I agree with everything she wrote…
For Autistic Children, Relating to Others Is Life’s Greatest Challenge
By Laura Schreibman
Peter is a beautiful 5-year-old boy with blond hair, blue eyes, and freckles. He looks like many other very cute kids. He is well coordinated, active, and agile. However, while Peter looks perfectly normal, it soon becomes apparent as you watch him that Peter does not behave like a typical child. He does not interact with the other children in his class, and in fact he avoids contact with them. He is not attached to his parents or anyone else, preferring to be alone. Rather than playing appropriately with toys, he puts them in his mouth or flaps them in front of his eyes. He does not communicate but instead parrots TV commercial jingles or bits of conversation he hears from others. He throws frequent and intense tantrums, often lasting over an hour and precipitated by nothing more severe than the discovery of a drawer left open, the disruption of a precise line of toy cars he has arranged by color, or the removal of one of the McDonald’s mustard packets that he insists on carrying with him at all times. Sometimes during these tantrums Peter bangs his head against the floor or the wall or bites his hand. He has calluses on his hands from repeated biting. When not otherwise engaged, he will jump repeatedly while flapping his arms and whistling. The teachers in his school try a variety of techniques in an effort to help him. Understandably, his parents are immensely frustrated. They cannot reach their son emotionally despite endless attempts. Their lives are complicated further by the fact that they avoid taking him places because of his disruptive, bizarre, and embarrassing behavior. Their son has autism.
If there is anything I’ve learned from being a parent and teacher, it is there is no comprehensive picture of what autism looks like. Autism Diva looks a lot different than Charlie over in Autism Land. In my own land, I’m finishing ESY for Darius, while also having some times with my own son, Thomas. Schreibman’s picture is of a child disconnected, aloof and not socially involved with anyone. Charlie isn’t like that. Neither is Darius or Thomas. You can see what autism looks like for Charlie on Ms. Chew’s excellent blog.
When I last mentioned Thomas, we had decided that the Concerta was not doing any good but was actually causing some rebounding. So we discontinued it, and Thomas actually finished the school year with some good days.
However, vacations and breaks are very tough on him because he has so much unstructured time. Jane has season passes to the Atlanta Zoo and the Georgia Aquarium, which both boys enjoy. However Thomas has been getting harder and harder for Jane to manage. He weighs about 75 pounds, and if does the dropping-to-the-floor thing, she’s pretty much stuck.
Often a meltdown will start out over food. The Georgia Aquarium has a food court where they happen to have his favorite food; pizza. And it is plopped pretty much in the center of the place, so it is difficult to avoid. Thomas starts whining, “I want pizza!” Jane sticks to her guns (and the family budget) and promises them their lunches when they finish and get back to the car. Thomas whines and may even scream, “I WANT PIZZA!” and scream some more and flop on the floor. Now he’s caused a scene. I wasn’t there this trip, so Jane is on her own. She eventually is able to get him and Percy out of the Aquarium (you HAVE to exit through the gift shop!) and to the car.
Thomas likes to eat out and if it were up to him, we’d do it every day for every meal. Which means that going to the grocery store turns into a meltdown when it comes time to go home. Or when going to the recycling center and we pass a McDonald’s. Screaming often ensues and the meltdown can last a good hour.
He also has a tendency to want to run off. In school and church, it’s not a huge issue, but in the community it can be a dangerous thing. I’m usually all over him when he is with me, keeping his hands on the cart. He’s way too big to actually get in a shopping cart. But with Jane, he’s been known to get away on occasion. In our yard he’s learned to stay in the boundaries and is generally okay but still needs to be watched.
There has been opposition and defiance, which I’ll cover more in my next (and most controversial) post.
I feel like I’m sort of rambling here. Autism looks different to different people. To me, the parent, it is a world of constant diligence. I see other parents of NT kids just let their kids run all over the place, doing whatever they want in the neighborhood. That does not happen here. We are always watchful and diligent and always know where our kids are with our eyeballs fixed on them 90% of the time. It’s hard to believe the stuff that can happen that other 10% of the time!
It is not an easy life, and this is the part of my life I totally had no choice in. I’ve had to learn and grow and stretch in ways that are hard to imagine. All parents do. I think “diligence” is the key difference between me and the NT parents. And Jane is even more hawkish than me over the boys.
But I still can not tell you what autism looks like for other people. Schreibman’s account tells someone’s story, but not mine. There is some truth in it, but not for everyone. I’m still learning about it and so is she.
dick
Perfect Attendance July 10, 2006
Posted by Daniel Dage in Backstory, Teachers.comments closed
As long as I’ve been teaching (off and on since 1987) I’ve had several years when I did not miss a single day of work. And I don’t remember EVER missing more than two. When I was teaching at the private school, the Headmaster publicly recognized those of us who didn’t miss a day. In a faculty of 35, there were only two of us, and the other guy hadn’t missed a day in 20 years. That happened 2 years in a row. Of course, there was no other compensation offered.
When working for the county at the state mental hospital, I had 2 or 3 years of perfect attendance. This time, I was invited to attend the school board meeting and I got a nice certificate. And that was the last time I had perfect attendance for several years as I was in the midst of starting a family. Most of the days missed were for various surgeries my wife had, since she was able to take care of the kids for the most part.
Here in Magnolia County, they do offer compensation for perfect attendance. I got a check for over $300 the other day, and that’s the only thing I can think it would be for. There was no letter or certificate or anything indicating what this was for, which is just the way they do it here. And the check is very nice, make no mistake! They do offer around $150 for only missing one day, which I’ve gotten a couple of times. I usually just sign the check and give it to Jane since I really could not do it without her. She’s the one who tends to the kids when they’re sick and runs them to their appointments and picks them up from school if needed. This allows me to concentrate on my work.
But there is also something to be said for planning around the various breaks we have. My paras, colleagues and peers seem to be either unwilling or unable to exercise that concept. Dollars to donuts, I’m going to be short some paras during the first 2 weeks of school for some business that could have and should have been handled over the summer. For instance, Princess and Queen (and possibly Patience) will have to get tbeir physicals in order to drive our bus. I’m getting mine the week before preplanning. They ALL know they need this and they need to do it every year. But they won’t do it, and will wait until school starts in order to take time off from work to do it. The school already pays for it, why not do it beforehand?
I think doctor’s appointments are my biggest pet peeves. We have weeks and weeks of NO work where this stuff could be scheduled, but they insist on doing it during work days and work hours, even waiting until the week after break to schedule this stuff for them and their children. It’s annoying, and puts everyone else off. Why can’t they be more considerate, like Coach who waited until June to have his first child?
We get something like 9 sick days and 2 or 3 personal days a year which are able to be accumulated over the several years. Those built up days can be used to retire early, if there are enough of them or cashed out. I have 65 or so days stored up, that I know of. I don’t keep that close track of them, but I know they are there if I need them. I know several teachers and staff who had emergency situations where they had extended illnesses and ended up without any days. So, they ended up losing pay at a time when they needed every dime they could get to pay medical bills!
There are lots of reasons to show up to work everyday. Consider the work that goes into planning for a substitute! In my present position, I have a lot less of that, but for most teachers it is SUCH a huge undertaking to make all the work and then having to correct and grade it all. It takes several days work to make up each missed day.
Another reason that I run into more often is my students punish me for being gone. They tend to act out more and test me more. Whether this is to actually punish me or it is because of a lackadaisical substitute who let things go, I can’t say. In any case, it takes a day or two to get the kids straight after either a break or I’m out a day. I still miss a lot of days for staff development and tons for doing other’s IEPs.
I like routine and it really messes me up when I get out of my groove. Missing a day gets me out. Plus, the entire time I’m out my mind is still in the classroom, worrying about what is going on. Crap happens when I’m out, and the anxiety rules over me when I’m worried about someone (student or staff) being hauled off in an ambulance!
A certain amount of fate or fortune has also helped me along in not missing many days over the years. I simply do not get sick very often. And when I do, it isn’t for more than a weekend. The few times I’ve been laid up longer, it has been over a break. Over the years, I have actually had students get irate at me for NOT missing more days. Those are usually the same ones who punished me when I did! EBD kids, bless their ambivalent hearts!
The recognition in the form of a certificate, or cash or even just being able to retire a year earlier is nice. I like what I do and look forward to doing it most of the time. The reward of that is pretty good and the rest is just gravy.
dick
