Hateful

 Hateful

 

A couple of weeks ago a gunman was welcomed into a synagogue because he said he was homeless and hungry.  Instead of gratitude for kindness, he held the rabbi and members of the congregation hostage for eleven hours while he threatened their lives unless he got to intervene on behalf of his sister a convicted terrorist who is serving time in a U.S. prison.

A few months ago, a teenager stormed through his school and killed several students.  

Over the course of this past year, schools and houses of worship have suffered armed invaders, people have been abused and hurt because of the color of their skins, language has become increasingly uncivil and rude.

What does all this have to do with the education of children with special needs?-Plenty!

In every instance, the perpetrator of violence felt entitled to inflict that violence on people he saw as “less than”.   People with disabilities routinely experience this condescension and sometimes physical aggression.

We have come to use crude and ignorant language in every day discourse further demeaning our interactions with each other.  When we demean each other we set ourselves up to be hateful towards each other.  And in a very real way, give tacit approval to other forms of diminishing someone else.

Have you ever been to a restaurant with a person who uses a wheelchair for mobility?  Don’t be surprised if the server completely ignores the individual and speaks to the more physically able person as if the individual using the wheelchair could not speak for herself.  It is not unusual for the popular press to write about someone “confined” to a wheelchair as if the individual committed a crime and the person is confined to a prison.

It seems we make progress in our respect for others and then we start to move back the clock.  We define people with autism as “autistics”- as if that one trait defined a person who is also a boy, has blond hair, is great with technology and is one of the most organized people we know.  

Newspapers write about African-Americans needing additional help with paying rent as if there were no other Americans who needed help paying rent and as if ALL African-Americans needed help paying rent.

Maybe each of us has hate in our hearts towards some things or some people.  Maybe that’s true.  But it is not a trait we should need to show off.   Hateful towards others is not good.  Knock it off.

Does your physician know enough?

 Does your physician know enough about helping people with disabilities?

 

It has been over 30 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) took effect.  Recent research shows that many physicians are still unaware of their obligations under the law.

Well over one-third of doctors surveyed had little to no knowledge of their obligations under the law.  And almost three-fourths had not a clue what a reasonable accommodation is.  These findings come from a study published in the Journal of Health Affairs.

The lead author in the study, Dr. Lisa Iezzoni of the Harvard Medical School, found that even though people with special needs comprise about 25% of the population; she found multiple barriers to effective health care and particularly lack of knowledge about the requirements of ADA.

The ADA bars discrimination against people with disabilities including the delivery of medical services.  Yet, how can a physician deliver appropriate health care if she/he doesn’t know what “appropriate” is under the law.

Iezzoni recommends that people with disabilities quiz the practice before making an appointment. For example, it is not unusual for someone using a wheelchair to find the examination takes place while the person is still seated in the chair rather than be moved to an exam table where a more thorough examination could take place.  ADA requires sign language interpreters for those who are deaf.  The interpreter should be a neutral party so that the views of a friend or family member are not filtered into the responses of the patient.

Additionally, physicians are often asked to verify or advocate for school based services for children with disabilities.  If the physician does not know what accommodations are needed for children with special needs to benefit from an education how can he/she perform this vital function?

Physicians are not blind to the vulnerability this lack of knowledge creates.  In the study, 68% said they felt at risk for a lawsuit for failure to provide adequate care to a person with special needs.

Medical schools are working hard to educate med students about the need to combat racism in health care.  Little to nothing is included in a med school education on how to provide appropriate care to a person with special needs.  

It is unfortunate that this void will be addressed only out of fear of a lawsuit.  The greater risk is the damaging consequences to people with special needs when their medical needs are not appropriately met

Why are some more equal than others?

 Why are some more equal than others?

 

The teachers’ Union in Chicago has not called a strike but nor have they come to work.  Their excuse is that the buildings are not safe and they want to teach virtually.  First of all, when did the union get to decide when schools are open or closed?  The mayor of Chicago is negotiating with the Union to decide on the terms when they will agree to return to school.   I wonder if dozens of students, instead of thousands, had been kidnapped, would the Mayor still be negotiating with the kidnappers?  Teachers’ unions have evolved from being professional organizations into labor unions.  They may call themselves professional organizations but they are not.  One of the indicators of a profession is that the individual puts the needs of the people they serve first and not their own needs,  a person is a professional by that criterion not by the standard of just getting paid for the job or service.

Excellent and well-trained teachers are paid much less than they earn.  It is also true that marginal teachers are being paid much more than they deserve.  But merit pay is a non-starter for unions.

Teachers’ unions are not allowed to strike, so this is not a strike. The teachers are just not providing the services for which they are paid.  By the way, there has been no mention of any monetary consequences to teachers for not doing their jobs.  The other issue is, I wonder what these teachers are doing while they are home.  How many are going out to visit unvaccinated friends or family?  Anyone visit a bar lately or go to a movie?   Over and over we know that schools do not spread the virus to the community but rather the community brings the virus into schools.

Because teachers won’t work, many parents will not be able to work and you can see where this all leads.  

Teachers are not totally to blame for this debacle.  School districts have stopped treating teachers as professionals for some time.  It is hard to discern which came first, teachers acting like assembly line workers complete with pacing guides to tell them what they will be doing every day or unions declaring the number of minutes a teacher may work a day.  As professionals, we are supposed to put the best interests of the people we serve first.  Oh, wait a minute, that is neither the school districts nor the teachers, it is the students.  It is a struggle but we should try to remember that salient point.

Teachers should be deemed essential workers, just like grocery store clerks, medical assistants and police officers.  Teachers can’t have it both ways, behave like an assembly line worker and be treated like a professional with significant responsibility.  Teachers have a job to do and it is a VERY important one.  They need to get up off their collective bargaining agreements and get to school.  The mayor of Chicago and all the other mayors need to start treating these folks like the kidnappers they are.  Kidnapping a kid’s education is a crime and needs to be treated as such.  Teachers are important but they aren’t more equal than others

Do We Really Need an SRO?

Do we really need an SRO?

In today’s parlance, an SRO isn’t standing room only but a school resource officer (SRO) which is sort of like police officer light.  Nearly all SRO’s are armed and the few who aren’t carry restraints such as handcuffs.

The original idea for the SRO was to provide protection and support for students and staff from school violence, whether that violence originated within or without the building.   In theory, the SRO has some additional training in how to work with adolescents, although there are also school districts with an SRO in elementary and middle schools.  But about half of the resource officers said they had any specialized training to deal with kids with disabilities and 20% said they had no special training to deal with students at all.

Opinions differ as to whether the SRO is a mentor to the students or an extension of law enforcement.   Sometimes one SRO may rotate between several schools.  In Maryland for instance 328 of the 439 SRO’s in the state were assigned to one school, the remaining had multiple schools.  The call for more SRO’s increases whenever there is a mass school shooting.  People seem to think that more SRO’s in a building will keep more students safe.  Yet there was an SRO in Parkland and he didn’t keep anyone safe.  Additionally, large high school buildings simply can’t be covered by one person and the chances of that one person being exactly where an invasion is happening are not great.   In Maryland, schools must have SRO’s OR “adequate police coverage” whatever that is.  In practice, that usually means sheriff deputies, regular patrol officers in the area or others who can provide emergency responses.   Some of the larger school districts in the country actually have developed their own school police forces.  The thought is that in this way school districts can control hiring and training.  But there is little evidence to suggest that an in-house police force is any better at containing violence or understanding the students’ needs.  

Most school districts have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the agency that employs the resource officers.  Usually these memoranda delineate just when the SRO gets involved in student discipline.  In most instances they are not to get involved in routine student discipline or low level crimes, but only at times of violent crimes or felonies.

It is not clear if there have been any quantitative studies to see if the presence of an SRO actually helps student safety or creates a culture of “gotcha”.  The anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that the benefit of the SRO is a reflection of the attitudes of school administrators.  

Black Lives Matter advocates call attention to the figures that show Black students are arrested by SRO at a rate that is sometimes 20% HIGHER than percentage of Black kids in the school.  They ask is this just a new opening in the school to prison pipeline?

So do schools need an SRO and does their presence really make a school safer?   It appears that their presence has led to a decline in rapes, robberies and physical attacks.   On the other hand, it appears they do little to reduce school shootings the primary reason they were initially placed in schools.  Is the cost of an SRO worth the price or could that money be spent on more social workers or counselors?  Independent of the presence of an SRO, the amount of school violence has decreased over the past 20 years.  

Uniformed officers, SRO presence, metal detectors, bullet proof glass and circulating panda cars might make some families and staff feel safer, but does learning occur more easily in a war zone or in a place where kids are known and seen and not afraid.

Shut the door, lock and latch it

 Shut the door, lock and latch it!

 

Quickly- lock the doors to the schools, here comes COVID with a brand new hachet.  Keep all the kids out!  Keep the teachers home!  Damn the lack of learning, damn the mental health issues, damn the social/emotional damage.  The virus is coming, the virus is coming AGAIN

The news is full of worry about the positivity rate of the newest variant of the Covid 19 virus.  Yes it is bad, and could be better if everyone would get vaccinated but they won’t and some kids can’t.  So the solution of some schools and school systems seems to be to go back to virtual learning- which could be the world’s greatest oxymoron since “common sense”. The Maryland State Board of Education is STRONGLY opposing whole school systems moving to virtual learning. In spite of that,  Prince George’s County schools made the decision to make the move to total virtual learning  before the winter break until mid-January.  The Maryland State Superintendent of Schools reminded school systems of the huge loss to kids when they are not in school. Maryland state-wide tests scores absolutely crashed this past fall in spite of local superintendents telling us how wonderful kids were doing on virtual learning.  The Baltimore County superintendent told staff and students to take home portable devices “just in case” the county schools go to virtual learning after the winter break.  Baltimore City schools have delayed coming back from the break for two days to give them a chance to test all students and staff.

So why shouldn’t we be safe and send the kids home again.  Well I guess that depends on how you define safe.

Let’s start with the most obvious.  Safe from illness.  With teachers being vaccinated or required to be tested negative before being in school, their chances of serious illness are low.  Every winter schools are hit with a bad batch of flu cases and life goes on.  What about the students who aren’t vaccinated?  First of all, if they are over five, they should be.  Let’s do clinics in schools and get the kids vaccinated.  Oh wait I forgot, that is government overreach?  Are the kids vaccinated against smallpox, measles, mumps, polio and other childhood diseases?  Yep they are but that was when we protected kids with science not politics.  If kids and staff stay in school, some will get sick.  And if kids and staff stay out of school, some will get sick because they will not be locked in their homes.

What about the other definitions of safe?   Is it safe for kids to lose another partial or whole year of learning?  How long will it take them to catch up with that?  Is it safe for more high school kids to drop out lured by the hot $15 an hour jobs currently available for people with or without a high school diploma?  What will happen to those kids next year or the year after that?

And then there is mental health.  We already know from last year’s “virtual learning”, that students suffered serious mental health depression ranging from anger to suicidal thoughts.   Schools are struggling to manage this new found aggression that is showing up not only in schools but on airplanes when people are asked to mask up.   People, including children, are feeling impotent and angry.  Another virtual school situation will not make that better.

The winter flu has been with us for multiple years.   Might just happen that some variation on the theme of flu/COVID virus might be around for a long time as well.  We can run but we can’t hide, and it will be a lot better for kids if we stop doing both

Where Have all the Children gone?

 Where Have all the Children Gone?

 

All across Maryland school districts are reporting a big drop in school enrollment.  The deficits are most notable in the lower grades where the thought it that kids are in private schools or being home schooled.   It is the upper high school grades that are most concerning.

When the pandemic hit most public school systems went virtual. Private schools were not so quick to follow.   Some children and their families immediately saw that virtual schooling would not work for their children.  Public schools are learning that now as fall state testing scores have plummeted beyond that seen in 2019 when the scores were already pretty bad.  

Families who place their children in private schools are finding that their budgets can sustain that enrollment and that they are happy with the safety of the environment and more attention to their children.  At the same time, public schools are experiencing a huge uptick in physical aggression and even violence that would not exactly draw families back to them.   These children and their families care about education and the loss of their advocacy is another loss for public schools.

The decrease in high school students is more troublesome.  Many of those kids may never return to school.  The data seem to be that they are not in private schools nor are they being home-schooled.  Too many of these kids are out of the system for good.  The lack of entry level staff in retail and food service has proved to be fertile ground for these young people to snare those $15 an hour jobs that seem like a big deal to them.   They do not have the perception to understand that a job that seems great at 17 may not be so hot at 27 or even 37, and without a high school diploma, let alone college, their future is not very bright.

Then there is the rise of home-schooling to consider.   It appears that there are two large demographics that are very much into home schooling.  One is families on the religious right and/or very conservative politically.  They do not want their children influenced by what they see as a radical liberal agenda that is taking over the curriculum in public schools.   Well educated families of Black children are also flocking to the home-schooling movement.   They are working to protect their children from the implied or explicit racism they see in the public schools where it is not uncommon for administrators to tell parents that bullying is a part of life- adjust!

The movement away from public schools is unfortunate on multiple levels.   One of the great benefits of a universal public school system is the opportunity to get to know other kids who live outside of our own bubble.  So conservative thinking students get to hear their views challenged rather than live in an echo chamber.  The same if true for students growing up in very left wing thinking families.  People (and students ARE people) need to have their views challenged and changed or not.

African-American kids should not be bullied in school.  Nor should they be exposed to racism.  But like all kids, it is good for them to know and maybe even be friends with kids who are different from them.  And the white kids in those public schools need to know Black kids who are much more like them than different.  

In the end, the loss of enrollment in public schools is bad in lots of ways.  Last year, Maryland did not punish public schools by reducing funding for decreased enrollment.  That won’t happen this year, so schools will lose money.

The children are losing enriching experiences.

Where have all the children gone?  Gone to safer spaces almost everyone, there’s lots of work to be done if public schools want them back.

Tell me again why we do these tests?

 Tell Me Again Why We do These Tests?

 

Every year the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) requires that all students are tested annually for proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA) and math. These latest tests are called MCAP.  It is not altogether clear what the point of these tests is since the results that are shared are summative and don’t provide any diagnostic data for teachers.  Even in previous better years, the scores were nothing to brag about.

This past fall, more than 92% of Maryland’s public school students took the tests.  The preliminary results are in and only 35% of test takers met or exceeded expectations in ELA.  The situation was worse in math where only 15% met or exceeded expectations.  There is no question but that the extended “online not much instruction going on” contributed to these very disappointing outcomes.  But let’s be honest here, before the pandemic, we were looking at 43.7% for ELA and 33% for math.  Hardly stellar when more than half of the students taking the test fell significantly below grade level.

As usual the dismal results yielded wonderful political talk about we were going to use these data to “seize the moment” to improve education in Maryland.  Everyone reiterated our commitment to bright futures and better results.  We will continue to throw billions- yes, billions- of dollars toward public education without a plan or process for better results other than increasing teachers’ salaries.  Oh yes, I forgot, we are going to implement “evidence based strategies” as well.   What exactly have we been doing the last 150 years if not implementing “evidence based strategies”.  The problem is that the evidence keeps shifting and changing and so do our instructional methods.  This time we are going to add the “fierce dedication of our State’s talented and skilled teachers and school leaders”.   So up until now we haven’t done that?

We really haven’t learned much from these tests that we didn’t already know.  Kids lost a tremendous amount of learning during the online non-learning experiences. 

Why haven’t we implemented differentiated instruction that teaches children differently based on how they learn rather than the way we want to teach advocated by the latest and greatest research?   Why haven’t we thrown out the pacing guides and moved at the pace of learning for each child?   Why haven’t we stopped wasting teaching and learning time by giving these tests?

These are preliminary results.  Final results will be released at the end of January.  Final results won’t be much different.  There will be more fine words thrown at the issue.  We will call on all teachers to become even MORE fiercely dedicated as if the issue were dedication rather than instructional skill.  And we will throw more money at the problem and be here again next year.  

Tell me again why we give these tests?