An important resource on this is Jenny Horsman's book - Too Scared to 
learn - she talks a fair amount about self-care - that and other resources 
on her website http://www.learningandviolence.net/ - not to mention that the 
website is a pleasure - even under construction as it is.
Cheers
Evelyn
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daphne Greenberg" <alcdgg at langate.gsu.edu>
To: <povertyracewomen at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 3:12 PM
Subject: [PovertyRaceWomen 396] Re: taking care of ourselves



> Andrea raises an important issue. Many of our learners share with us

> very difficult life stories. Others present very difficult learning

> challenges. How do we as teachers keep the appropriate boundaries? How

> do we keep these stories/challenges from seeping into our personal

> lives?

> Any examples anybody feels like sharing?

> Daphne

>

>>>> Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net> 01/25/07 3:58 PM >>>

> Dear Mr. Soap Box,

>

> Good to hear your voice.!  Sometimes I feel absolutely crushed by the

> obvious problems that face us  in schools and with students, then I

> feel like just retreating to my cave. There I read mystery books

> (problem solving that works) or  cook. How do you keep going through

> all this? How does anybody keep going through this? What strategies are

>

> people on the list using?

>

>

> Andrea

>

>

> On Jan 25, 2007, at 3:24 PM, John Warrior wrote:

>

>> 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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