Slow Down for Children

I was working with a friend at a library computer. Over and over she expressed frustration with the speed with which the computer was loading. So I said to her, "Remember when it took an hour and a half to cook dinner? Now eight minutes in the microwave seems forever." Both of us are old enough to remember many things that used to take time and planning.

Take cooking, for instance. First of all you had to plan your shopping. Grocery stores closed in the sixties. Really, someone actually locked the door and turned out the lights at five or six o'clock. You could not buy anything until the next day, unless of course, it was Sunday. Nothing was open on Sunday. Once grocery stores started staying open until nine, the butchers union would not allow the grocery to even SELL meat after six p.m. So plan ahead.

If you had all the ingredients you needed, you prepared them. Peeling potatoes, shucking corn, snapping beans, shelling peas, and chopping vegetables, were jobs for children  in the kitchen. That left boning, trussing stuffing, marinading, stewing, roasting, boiling, frying, breading, and baking for adults. The table had to be set. Food was transferred to serving dishes. When dinner was served thanks was given before anyone took a bite.

I hear there is a slow food movement afoot. I think this is a great idea. Personally, I am not much for cooking, but I am not a big fan of speedy food either. Slow is good.

Especially when it comes to children, I feel the need to slow things down. Not that children cannot deal with speed. Many children are quite capable of fast. No, we need to slow things down for children so that there is room to breathe.

Children need time to develop observation skills. The ability to perceive things in the environment is an important thinking skill. Staring at the clouds, watching the rain fall, crunching through the leaves, smelling the flowers, basking in the sun, listening to the insects buzz, licking the spoon are sensations to be savored. Quiet contemplation reveals solutions. Keen observation inspires inventions. Sensation calls to action. Stillness opens us to creation.

It is in the pauses between thoughts that the brain makes new connections.

"The brain is trying to weave ideas together even when you don't think you are thinking of anything," notes Johns Hopkins behavioral neurologist and memory expert Dr. Barry Gordon.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1957114,00.html

So take the time to slow things down, sit and do nothing, watch the world go by with the children you love. And when your child says to you, "I'm bored." you can reply, "That's good."

A Rose by Any Other Name

People have been apologizing for using terms which other people, the people demanding the apology, find offensive. This is problematic on many counts. Most importantly, free speech is a right in the United States which is protected by the constitution. Also, these terms are perfectly legitimate words that carry meaning. They are not some made up derrogatory terms. And, the people complaining about these words were not even present when the words were uttered. What gives them the right to be offended?

Free speech, especially speech among friends, should require no apology to anyone outside of the group. Correct usage of words in public requires no apology. Complainers, your ignorance (lack of knowledge) is showing.

Negro and retarded are the most recent words to make the "Apologize to All the People Who Are" list.  Historically people have used a variety of terms for the groups of people referenced by these words. In my lifetime I have heard perfectly respectable television reporters use the terms colored, negro, black, African American and for a more general group "people of color." At one time the correct labels for the three levels of below normal intelligence were idiot, imbecile, and moron. I was taught the labels educable mental retardation, trainable mental retardation, severe and profound mental retardation when I was in college. Retarded became handicapped. Handicapped became differently-abled. Differently-abled became special needs.

It seems terminology changes when terms become insults. When a term is well understood and people do not want to belong to the group described, a new term is invented. How sad. If members of the described group could embrace their identity with pride there would be no insult intended or not.

Which brings me to my final point. You have a choice. You can be offended by something someone else says or you can not. Taking offense tells more about the person who is offended than about the person making the offending remark. The fact that any of this makes it to the news is very telling about the state of news reporting today.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

You Think?

Things I think are messed up:

Economists talking about education reform.
Take the log out of your own eye before pointing out the speck in your brother's eye.

Micromanagement of everything everywhere.
What makes anyone or any agency think they know more about anything than the people who do that thing everyday?

Goals and objectives equated with quality.
How many business quality management programs have we gone through in the last  30 years?
The flaw in the "objectives equals quality" equation is that the quality of the outcome is proportional to the quality of the goals and objectives. Measuring outcomes only works if you are measuring things that matter.

Blame it on the unions.
Hey unions are made up of workers. The auto unions are the people who put your car together in the factory. The teachers unions are the teachers who wipe your kids noses. So you can blame the "workers" in unions all you want but what you are really criticizing are the people who make the world run so that "executives" can pretend that poop, vomit, and snot don't happen. The most important people in the world are the ones who clean up after everyone else goes home.

Blame it on the government.
Again, you are talking about "We the people." Anytime you say "the government" you should substitute  "The American People." The American people spend too much.  The American people are controlled by  lobbyiests. Even better, you could substitute "I." I invaded Iraq. I tortured people who were turned in as enemy combatants by people who were paid to turn them in. I was so angry that I was willing to lock up people and deprive them of liberty for years without a trial.

"Enemy Combatents" and all other euphemisms.
My favorite euphemism is "potentially English proficient." I like to call myself potentially Japaneese proficient. What it really means is "doesn't speak English" and "doesn't speak Japaneese."

Apologies
A fourth grade teacher I know told us on curriculum night that she teaches children that often "Sorry" isn't enough. For example, if you go to  a restaurant and order a steak and the waiter brings you a hot dog, would you be satisfied with an apology? No, you want the waiter to bring you a steak. When you make a mistake you need to try to fix it.
Even worse is the demand for an apology. Demanding that one feel regret and further demanding that this regret be anounced pubically, well that's messed up.

This "Standardization" movement
Here's a great idea, let's sell clothes in standard sizes. It would be great if a size 12 was always a size 12.  That way we could be sure that clothing makers were putting out correct sizes. Of course we would have to keep tailors from making alterations because then the clothing would no longer be a standard size. We should also do away with those pesky size 12 tall and 12 petite that mess with the standards. Designers shouldn't be able to cut the calf wider or shorten the rise on a particular line because that defies the concept of standard and reduces quality.

So for today, that's what I think is messed up.

Eight is Enough

I am the sixth child of nine children in a Catholic family growing up in the fifties and sixties. I went to a Catholic school with children who typically came from large families. Our family was outnumbered by at least two other families. Most of the many children on my block went to the Catholic school too. A small family in my neighborhood had four children. There was one kid in my class who was an only child. The rest of us wondered how she managed.

This is the perspective I bring to the issue of the 19th child born to the TLC reality show family the Duggars. I know what it feels like to be just another kid in the crowd. I know what it is like to be counted rather than named. I know what it is like to have a strong religious background on display to the world. I even know what it is like to have your family verbally attacked for overpopulating the world.

Like the Duggars, my parents had the resources to feed and clothe all of us. My parents paid for our education in private schools and sent us all to college without aid. It is hard to fault people who can take care of themselves.

As a reality show family I really like the Duggars. They appear easygoing, happy, healthy, and tolerant of differences. The children are allowed to be children. The family spends time together. This is more than can be said about many modern families in America today.

BUT 19 children? Two parents, no matter how wonderful, do not have enough love to nurture 19 children. Let me rephrase that. Love is not enough. Children need to be held, carried, sung to, read to, and listened to in a one on one relationship with a consistent caretaker.

We have decades of research demonstrating the need for gentle physical contact and movement to maintain physical health, a consistent caretaker to maintain emotional health, one to one vocal interaction to develop language and cognitive abilities.

The Duggars have certainly tried to provide for the needs of each child. I just question how they would know if any one of the children was struggling. It is easy to get lost in a crowd.

So on principle as well as experience, I take issue with people who choose to bring up children in a crowd. Not that I would take away the right of any adult to make their own decisions about these matters, but I also have the right to have an opinion and discuss it in public.

The Duggars can espouse to accept each and every child the Lord sends to them. I can encourage self restraint. Michelle Duggar was barely six months from having a cesearian section when she conceived Josie, baby 19. I do not believe there is a biblical injunction to copulate profusely. Common sense would have cautioned against conception so close to surgery. Not using birth control should have cautioned against copulation so close to surgery.

My heart goes out to this family and their beautiful baby Josie who was born way too early.
You can call it the will of God, but God gives us free will. How about exercising a little self-control?

Math People

I believe the world is made up of two kinds of people, math is good people, and math is not for me people, or quite simply, Algebra People and Geometry People.

I barely passed Algebra in high school. The next year I aced Geometry with the same teacher.
Geometry is obvious. You can see it. Algebra is abstract. Algebra is a mysterious mix of letters, numbers, and functions growing into strings of symbols that defy logic.

Geometry is sequential and logical with proof building upon proof, reaching the obvious conclusion.
Algebra is a tricky balancing act with two sides of an equal sign battling it out for a possible answer.

My sister, on the other had, majored in math in college. She loved Algebra and found Geometry abstract and confusing. The words I would use to describe Algebra are the exact words she would use to describe Geometry: abstract, not visible, floating around in the mist.

Ask most adults and they will tell you which which of these two subjects they prefer and you will find the same dichotomy. If you understand Algebra you struggle with Geometry. If you understand Geometry you struggle with Algebra.

What does this tell us about how people perceive and eventually comprehend these two aspects of mathematics? I found this in a math forum on the internet:
Algebra focuses on developing in students convergent thinking patterns (simplifying and solving) and the ability to manipulate abstractions (variables).
Geometry encourages the development of divergent thinking patterns (specific example to generalization) and the visualization of abstractions (geometric modeling).

So let's acknowledge that some people will do better at some things than other things and stop trying to make all our children proficient in everything.

A Fly Went By

I enjoy reading the picture book
A Fly Went By by Mike McClintock. I long to relax barefoot in that row boat chewing on a blade of grass as the sun slowly makes it's way across the sky. Of course this idyllic scene is soon interrupted by a frantic fly. The fly ran away in fear of the frog
Who ran from the cat, who ran from the dog. The harder the boy worked to find the cause of the commotion, the more complicated the commotion became. Finally, after after talking to several terrified animals each terrified by the one coming after it, the problem is discovered. A hunter runs by. But the hunter doesn't stop to negotiate an end to the chase because he is running too. The hunter is running from a loud clanging sound. And what do you think it was? It was a lamb with a bucket stuck on it's leg.

I had a similiar feeling reading education news in my email.

I read this:

June 29, 2009 Chicago Tribune Newspaper BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter

The typical Chicago public school loses more than half of all its teachers within five years -- and about two-thirds of its new ones, a study released today by the University of Chicago indicates. Teacher churning is especially severe in high-poverty, heavily African-American schools -- about a hundred total -- where half of all teachers disappear after only three years, the study found.

"I find that really disturbing,'' said Elaine Allensworth, lead author of the study from the U. of C.'s Consortium on Chicago School Research. "I just see no way they can improve if they can't maintain a stable work force.''

And this from Florida,

By Tony Marrero, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, June 29, 2009

Under a new policy up for a vote by the Hernando County School Board next month, the new grade for a missed assignment or test at the elementary level would be 40 percent.

Translation: no more zeros.

And this blog about a KIPP school teacher:

"No," he told me, shrugging. "I'm leaving teaching. I don't have a plan."

I was shocked. "Why? You're such a wonderful teacher! What happened?"

"It just got to the point that every morning I thought, 'I don't want to go in.' We start at 7:20 and go til 5pm. I wake up at 4:45 for my commute and some days don't get home til 10. I'd honestly rather work in an office at this point." I am still trying to reconcile this new image of Joe with the old one, who was so in love with teaching and seemed to be made for the job.
When Joe left my school, it was a huge loss to our students. But I understand why he wanted to go somewhere less crazy, more organized, that serves a similarly needy population. His current school has one of the highest student achievement rates in NYC, but something is wrong if it killed Joe's drive to teach. He told me that a many other teachers at his school burnt out and quit, much like him. I'm wondering if this KIPP school sees its teaching staff as expendable. Perhaps it has such a great reputation that it can easily replace good teachers who leave with other good teachers.

http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/shoulders_of_giants/2009/06/a-casualty-of-the-teaching-profession.html

And this:

June 15, 2009 Education Week

Study Casts Doubt on Charter School Results By Lesli A. Maxwell

A national study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford casts doubt on whether the academic performance of students in charter schools is any better than that of their peers in regular public schools.

Looking at 2,403 charter schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia, researchers at Stanford University found that students in more than 80 percent of charter schools either performed the same as—or worse than—students in traditional public schools on mathematics tests.

“If this study shows anything, it shows that we’ve got a two-to-one margin of bad charters to good charters,” said Margaret E. Raymond, the director of the center and the study’s lead author. “That’s a red flag.”

Mr. Henig said the Stanford report, along with others that have similarly compared charter school and traditional public school performance, is more evidence that asking which of the two types of schools is better “may be the wrong question.”

As you can see, teachers are leaving the profession in which they invested an expensive college education. School Boards are interferring in individual teachers decisions, one of the key protections of tenure. And when you look at the proposed alternatives, private and charter schools, you see the same burnout with no discernable difference in outcomes.

As more and more government intervention chases fewer and fewer resources, and judicial decisions erode en loco parentis, it is time to take stock.

Can we come to an understanding of what causes what? We know so much about education. Can we synthesize this information into a fishbone diagram in order to get a better picture of the problems and the causes?

Lets take stock of the situation. Lets begin with what exactly we as a nation want to get from our educational system. What constitutes an education? Should it be the same for everyone? Should it look the same for everyone?

When we know what education is for, we can begin to design it. I would guess that education in the future will not have traditional schoolhouses.

But I am asking you to join me in a discussion of National Goals for Education.

WE NEED A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR U.S. EDUCATION

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden; the Purpose and Promise of Special Education

Our government expects all children in public schools to achieve an arbitrary level of expertise in a select number of academic subjects. This expectation extends to children facing any and all physical, mental and emotional challenges. Special Education may have performed great deeds in the past, but it would be a mistake to waste the time and effort of Special Education students and personnel on this wild ride.

I entered Special Education about the time the first Federal Special Education Law, Public Law 94.142, (In it's current form called IDEA) had to be implemented. Public Schools had provided services for the disabled previous to the law’s implementation, but now it was mandatory across the country to provide a Free, Appropriate, Public Education to students with disabilities.

Special Education teachers were considered akin to Florence Nightingale.
We were willing to go in and work with the students that no one else wanted. Our job was to provide these children with an education. No one thought that we would cure retardation or learning disabilities. No one expected us to make the blind to see or the deaf hear. We were teachers. We were to teach the blind to read, write, and do arithmetic. We were to teach the retarded to take care of themselves, hold down a job, and live in the world. We were to assist the learning disabled in overcoming their weaknesses by using their strengths.

Over the years, we became experts in our fields. We developed new techniques and methodologies. We developed a deeper understanding of the variations in brain functioning associated with various disabilities. We found that many children were indeed “differently abled.”

Now children who were were considered “Trainable” as opposed to “Educable” (TMH and EMH respectively), were learning to read and write. Children who might have been diagnosed as retarded in the past could now be understood as learning disabled. Early Intervention and Early Childhood Education were helping children overcome developmental delays and speech problems that could have turned into learning disabilities. Parents were grateful for what we did.

Over the years the expectation of rehabilitation has become the norm for Special Educators.

At the same time that educators were improving the academic outcomes for children with disabilities, medical science was discovering ways to save people who previously would have died. Premature babies were surviving at smaller and smaller birth weights. Traumatic Brain Injuries were no longer fatal. With enough medical intervention many lives could be saved, with no consideration of the quality of life. So after all the progress we have made in improving the outcomes for children with disabilities, we are now faced with new challenges created by medical science.

In my 30 year career I have worked with two children each of whom did not have a brain. One child contracted a herpes virus at birth which destroyed his brain. He required a roomful of machines to live, but he did live for eight years. The other child was anacephalic, born without a brain. When she passed away at the age of two the doctors said no one had ever lived that long with that condition.

There is a lot we can do to overcome problems while the brain is developing. We can do a little to overcome a bad home situation. There is nothing we can do to change genetics. We can’t cure a learning disability. Children going through emotional trauma cannot be made to learn. We can’t reverse brain damage.

If you lose your arm we can teach you to do things with your other arm. We can show you how to compensate for your lost arm. We cannot give you your arm back.

If you have a learning problem, we can teach you in different ways. We can help you use your strengths to compensate for your weaknesses. We can provide a supportive environment. But we cannot make you a different person. Frankly, I think that is a good thing.

It takes all kinds of people to make a world. We need farmers and scientists, artists and mathematicians, musicians and inventors.

I cannot walk in a parent’s shoes. I see the pain, I see the grief, I see the denial, and I see the anger. What I want to see is the love.

When I see the anxiety of the parents of a child with Autism, I know what they are really thinking is, “Will these professionals with all their book knowledge, be able to see beyond the label to the wonderful child I know and love.” When a parent loves a child with all the child’s problems, when they can accept the child even if nothing gets better, then living can begin.

I have heard and experienced many poignant stories in my career. One of them is the story of a young couple expecting a second child. The child is born with the entire back of his head open. There is no bone protecting his brain and the skin is open as well. The parents are told the child will soon die and they are left to be with the child alone. Four hours later the child is still alive and the parents are unsure what to do. The doctors recommend that they care for the child and see what happens. The head is left to heal on its own. I met the child as he was approaching his third birthday. He was able to move around his environment by rolling. He could hold objects and act on them. He was considered blind but I saw him fuss and cry when he saw a favorite toy while visiting a new school. Several years later I talked to his mother. He was attending a special school and making progress. His mother was not planning for college, but she loved him just the way he was every day of his life.

Schools cannot promise you a perfect child. Schools can see each child as an individual. Children are not test scores. Children are human beings with all the success and failure that being human entails. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Special Education. So I am looking to the Special Educators of this nation to stand up and speak for the children. When it comes to standardized testing of Special Education students, just say "No."