Hello again,

I brought up the issue of LD students that are English language learner
(ELL) students. In addition to some very fragmented statistics about
learning disabilities from around the world, I just finished a book that was
published by UNESCO, "Children Out Of School: Measuring Exclusion from
Primary Education." This publication is free if you order or view on their
web site. The data that UNESCO and UNICEF complied about participation in
primary education by children around the world can be helpful. The main
reason I feel that it is helpful is for a student to be identified as having
any learning difficulties or disabilities they need to have been in the
classroom. I try hard not to label or profile my students, but I have found
that learning about the education system from where they came from can be
very insightful. These facts start to provide a more detailed picture of the
socioeconomic factors that influenced the growth and development of our
students prior to when they entered our classroom.

Have a happy day,

John Warrior


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Today's Topics:

   1. [LearningDisabilities 896] Re: [SPAM?] Re: CROSS POSTED -
      There is	No Silver Bullet (Christy Breihan)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 21:40:30 -0600
From: "Christy Breihan" <breihanc at matc.edu>
Subject: [LearningDisabilities 896] Re: [SPAM?] Re: CROSS POSTED -
	There is	No Silver Bullet
To: <learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>, <mag at sover.net>
Message-ID: <45C25E4E0200008A00017A67 at GWISE1.matc.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Doing something that doesn't help for however long or at your own pace
still doesn't help. It's the individualized part that can result in
progress, but only if instructors have the understanding and the
resources to provide appropriate learning opportunities. That's often
not the case, whether in individualized alternative schools or in
special needs classes.I agree that education should strive to help all
people learn what they need and want to know, and that may require a lot
of different strategies. Difficulties are only disabilities if
traditional methods don't result in progress AND the target learning is
deemed necessary by society. If dance or hair styling were considered
essential, a lot of teachers would be in "special needs" programs.
Chris Breihan, ABE Instructor


>>> mag <mag at sover.net> 01/31/07 2:57 PM >>>

Amen, Tom!

Woods wrote:


>I appreciate John Warrior's post. We find about 50% of our students in 

>corrections have a previous history of having received special

education 

>services when they were in public school. The most frequent diagnoses 

>are emotional disturbance, learning disability and other health, which 

>usually denotes attention deficit disorder.

>

>Despite the high numbers of these disabilities, only a very few, those 

>with the most disabling conditions, are actually found to be eligible 

>for special education in our school. This is because our regular 

>education program offers small classes and individualized self-paced 

>instruction. There are no grades and no failure. Students just work at 

>something until they get it. Earning credit for a course is dependent

on 

>what a student knows and is able to do, not on the time spent in class.



>All students, save those with the most serious disabilities are able to



>make progress in this model of education. The vast majority of those 

>with disabilities do not need special education.

>

>One vital ingredient in the recipe to correct our education system's 

>shortcomings is to stop viewing the student as being the one with the 

>problem. It is the school system that has the problem. We our bound by 

>educational practices and traditions that may well be impossible to 

>change, but if we could create schools that are self-paced and 

>individualized, the large numbers of special ed students would suddenly



>drop to much more manageable numbers.

>

>I would have to concur with Mr. Warrior's observations about ridiculous



>IEPs. They seem to be mostly irrelevent, a contrivance to satisfy 

>paperwork requirements rather than to actually try to help the student.



>I would take it one step further than Mr. Warrior and argue that 

>evaluations, eligibility determinations, and possibly even some 

>diagnoses are also contrivances. They are contrived in order to explain



>why a student doesn't learn in the same way that all the other students



>learn. They conveniently make the case that there is something wrong 

>with the student that prevents him or her from progressing like all the



>others. The student has a disability; the student needs treatment.

>

>Ungraded, self-paced, individualized instruction usually removes the 

>adverse effect caused by a disability an the need for special

education. 

>If our present system could just stop its cookie-cutter approach and 

>trying to bang square pegs into round holes everyone would be a lot 

>better off. We could appreciate the differences in students rather than



>label them as disabilities. The sad part is, I don't think public 

>education is willing or able to make this quantum leap.

>

>Tom Woods, Special Educator

>Community High School of Vermont

>.

>

>RKenyon721 at aol.com wrote:

>

>  

>

>>Hi,

>> 

>>I wanted to share this very thought-provoking message that was 

>>recently posted on the Poverty, Race, Women, and Literacy.  I welcome 

>>any comments you might have that would be shared with the poster.

>> 

>>Thanks,

>> 

>>Rochelle

>> 

>>Rochelle Kenyon

>>Moderator, LINCS Learning Disabilities Discussion List

>>Center for Literacy Studies at the University of Tennessee

>>RKenyon721 at aol.com <mailto:RKenyon721 at aol.com> 

>> 

>>To post a message:

>>Learningdisabilities at nifl.gov <mailto:Learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>

>> 

>>To subscribe:

>>http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/LearningDisabilities

>> 

>>To read archived messages:

>>http://www.nifl.gov/linc/discussions/list_archives.html

>> 

>> 

>>Hello to everyone,

>>

>>I wanted to add a few more comments to this discussion after my 

>>original posting. There is no "silver bullet" and there is no quick 

>>fix to many of the short-comings that we see in our classrooms 

>>everyday. In countless seminars and classes, I have received that list



>>of successful people who had dyslexia or other learning disabilities. 

>>There are usually about one hundred names on there. However, every 

>>year I see more than that fail in our school systems because their 

>>problems are not diagnosed in the first place or they are 

>>misdiagnosed. One article I recently read cites the increasing number

of

>>Hispanic prisoners in our penal system. Corresponding to this it is 

>>estimated that 30% to 50% of them have at least one undiagnosed LD. 

>>This is over three times the national average. Another study from the 

>>UK estimates that over 15,000 people would not be incarcerated every 

>>year if they were correctly diagnosed and treated for their learning 

>>disabilities.

>>

>>Some will argue that our children are over-diagnosed and 

>>over-medicated for

>>learning disabilities. However, the alternative to this can be found 

>>when you research UNESCO's statistics on learning disabilities around 

>>the world. Some countries have no data, others put all LD students 

>>into one category and others have detailed reports.

>>

>>So, what are our choices? As I see it we need to screen everyone that 

>>we suspect of having a learning disability that is affecting their 

>>behavior and/ or their academic performance. These students should 

>>have complete access to treatment, to include medication, counseling 

>>and remedial education. These diagnosis should also be reevaluated 

>>regularly. Ineffective treatment methods can be replaced with 

>>alternatives and diagnosis can be reassessed if new symptoms arise. 

>>However, our greatest failure to our society is to ignore the problem 

>>or say, "It couldn't happen to you, you're a..."

>>

>>One failure that we do have in the system is the IEP. It is 

>>ridiculous. The comments are vague, generalized or in "teacher-speak" 

>>which h in the end means little to nothing for the student. Instead of



>>providing the appropriate guidelines and adjustment which will help 

>>the student perform at their best or at grade-level, they are often 

>>the new vehicle of social promotion. I have not seen an IEP which is 

>>focused on the terminal learning objectives that a high school 

>>graduate is expected to meet, this is one of

>>the areas we seem to have failed in miserably.

>>

>>In my opinion, over-diagnosing 1000 students is better than missing 

>>one student. It is admirable that some famous people succeeded despite



>>adversity, but we don't see the list of names of those who failed. It 

>>can give us hope, but not a reason to avoid taking action. Also, no 

>>stigma of being LD in school is worse than the stigma of being an 

>>ex-con, which it looks like many of our undiagnosed students are 

>>headed. Let's ere on the side of caution and use all of the resources 



>>that are available, so that

>>the young student can realize their dreams and learn to cope with 

>>their problems and not lead a life of characterized by failure, crime 

>>and poverty.

>>

>>"John steps down off of his soap box"

>>

>>Everyone have a happy day,

>>

>>John Warrior

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>

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>>

>>    

>>

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>  

>





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