Sunday, December 3, 2006

Introduction - Education Chat

Hi All - So...I'm blogging! Who knew!!

I've been teaching since the 70's (with some years off to bring up my sons) and find myself getting more and more passionate about my work every year! This, I suppose, is a good thing!

My teaching started in the DC area in a "public training school." Supposedly all the students had to have an IQ of 55 or below to gain entry (the teachers were allowed to have somewhat higher scores). The whole idea, of course, is suspect. How do you get accurate IQ scores with kids with significant learning and communication issues? As each year progressed it was obvious that the psychologists missed the mark with a number of the kids. Take Ben for instance. Ben was a young teenager assigned to my class (14-18 year olds) my first year of teaching. Ben was deaf and unintelligible. The first day he arrived he was SCREAMING and fighting so vehemently that he tore his mother's shirt off. As a new teacher I was trying to conceal my trepidation, but I did believe that everyone could learn if a connection could be made and if I could get to know my students as individuals. This remains a cornerstone of my philosophy even today.

Ben had never learned to communicate in any way beyond grunts and gestures. His wild ways intimidated all of us - students and teachers alike. It was a short time before Ben calmed down and through home visits I eventually learned quite a bit about Ben. You see, before coming to our school Ben had been in a residential institution where he had been repeatedly burned with cigarettes. He must have been terrified to be dropped off at another "institution" without any way to communicate. It didn't take Ben long, I suppose, to realize he wasn't going to be hurt at our school. It was soon very apparent to me that there was an intelligent person trapped inside Ben. He was also very artisitic and had a wonderful sense of humor. In 1975 with the passage of IDEA, we wrote an IEP for Ben that included parts of his day at the community high school. Ben and I took a couple of trips over to the high school the spring before entering in the fall. The sheer excitement and joy that Ben exuded has stayed with me all these years. He was beyond being thrilled at the idea of going to the "regular" school.

I learned so much more from Ben than I imagine he ever learned from me. I learned that people might look scary from the outside, but there's a reason for it. If we are going to get anywhere we need to understand what the fear is and where it's coming from. (Isn't this true about both people and societies?) I learned that you can learn soooo much from looking into one's eyes. Ben's intelligence was all there - how could it ever have been a question? I also learned to question. Sometimes those with the credentials don't always know best - it's critical to pay attention - take the information that is available, but always remain open to new information. I was also interested to realize the importance of not assuming that we adults (or near adults!) know what's best for the students we teach. That while we had what seemed to be a good thing going at the "training school" the power of being with typical peers was astounding. I was completely taken by surprise at Ben's reaction to his new school. He couldn't wait to get there!

We have come a long way since those days. It has been both an exciting and trying time to be in this profession over the past few decades. I look forward, I hope, to squeezing out at least one more decade!!!

As I said, I continue to be passionate about figuring out how kids learn and making it work for them. This passion has brought me to the Antioch Autism Certificate Program (and this blogging assignment). So, about every third weekend I travel two and a half hours to sit in 16 hours of classes! I am loving every minute of it!! (Call me crazy - you wouldn't be the first!) Because I live in such a rural town (very northern NH) I feel an obligation to be sure we are doing the most for the kids we serve and their families. I've had many people ask me what I will be doing once this certificate program is complete. The truthful answer is that I really don't know. But what I do know is that I will feel confident about the services we are providing for our students on the spectrum and their families.

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