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Dagobah Resident
To give you a sense how bad it could be for a child whose parents are not involved I'll tell you the story of L.I. whom I had as a student more than ten years ago. Although I've seen a lot of examples where the system failed students, this incident, to me, is the most egregious.
At the time, I was teaching in one of the most selective schools in NYC, (not the one I wrote about in a former post). The students were motivated, cooperative, articulate - everything a teacher would dream of.
At the beginning of the semester, I asked the students to begin an in class writing assignment.
After a few minutes I noticed that one student, L.I., was not doing the assignment, at which point I asked him again, to begin working on his essay.
To my absolute horror and mortification, he immediately ducked his head down so that his eyes were less than an inch from the page and began writing.
I walked over to his desk to ask him if he had left his glasses home.
"No," he said. He didn't have glasses. I thought that maybe his family couldn't afford glasses for him, so after class I called his guidance counselor to ask about L.I. to see if the school could provide glasses for him.
"WHAT BUSINESS IS IT OF YOURS?" was the hostile respose.
"I'm his teacher." I said.
"SO? IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS." Then he hung up.
The next day I asked L.I. if I could buy him glasses. It was only at that point that I learned that he was BLIND.
No one had told me. None of his other teachers had been told either.
Okay, so I have a blind fourteen year old in my class whose dream had always been to be admitted to this school and his dream came true. But the school is so huge,that even the sighted kids have a hard time finding their way around it, so how can he manage? When L.I. leaves my classroom, I watch dumbfounded as he gropes his way down the corridor by guiding himself along by the wall. I run up to him toask if he would like me to take him to his next class. He says, "No," that he's all right. I don't think that he's all right, but I have another class to teach and I go back to my room.
After class I call the counselor again. "Mr. X, I learned that Leonard is blind. How can he get around the school safely. He could fall down the stairs and hurt himself. Did you KNOW that he's blind?"
"WHAT'S THIS TO YOU. I TOLD YOU IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS." the phone slams.
I buy carbon paper and plan to ask a student to put it under her paper to take class notes for L.I. during next day's class.
The next day, I talk to Leonard and learn that there is a special machine he is supposed to have that magnifies print. He is also supposed to have someone assigned to him to help him.
The person who had been with him since he was SIX was no longer assigned to him. His/her replacement has either not been assigned, or shown up.
So here he is in this HUGE school with no friends, and no adult assigned to assist him. In addition, he is grieving for the person who had been with him for about eight years and is no longer there.
Meanwhile his chemistry teacher was complaining that she was afraid to have him do experiments in the lab because of the hazard that his inability to see posed to everyone else.
Other teachers also did not know how to cope.
I did call his home, but his mother, a single parent with a large family did not, to my knowledge, come in to advocate for him.
After several weeks of this, L.I. came into my room distraught and told me that he felt like a character in a book the class was reading.
This really alarmed me because this fictional character had committed suicide.
I notified my chairperson who notified the head of the guidance department who determined that he was indeed suicidal and he was admitted to the hospital. He had had a complete nervous breakdown.
A few days after L.I. was admitted to the hospital, about six weeks after the term had begun, a young woman showed up who had just been assigned to work with L.I.
L.I. never returned to the school to which he had dreamed about being admitted. He transferred to a school for the blind.
I believe that he could have made it if he had been supported. He was really motivated and determined to succeed.
This incident happened around 1994 or 1995 before NCLB, standardized testing, or accountability for test grades.
It's much worse now because of the threat of closing a school if the test grades drop, dismissing the entire staff, and reopening the school as a charter. This is economically really frightening because all of these educators may no longer have jobs if their school is closed. In addition, there is a push to create conditions to make public schools fail by inundating them with so many special needs studentsthat the staff and the facilities can not cope. In this climate, any child who poses the "threat" of lowering the school's rating is perceived as a liability.
Parents really have to be there for their children. Although I tried, I did not have the ability or the resources to help L.I. He also had the terrible luck of being assigned to that awful guidance counselor. I have never, before or since, seen anything like it.
He really needed his family in that school calling the district office, contacting the press, doing whatever needed to be done to get L.I. the help he needed.
At the time, I was teaching in one of the most selective schools in NYC, (not the one I wrote about in a former post). The students were motivated, cooperative, articulate - everything a teacher would dream of.
At the beginning of the semester, I asked the students to begin an in class writing assignment.
After a few minutes I noticed that one student, L.I., was not doing the assignment, at which point I asked him again, to begin working on his essay.
To my absolute horror and mortification, he immediately ducked his head down so that his eyes were less than an inch from the page and began writing.
I walked over to his desk to ask him if he had left his glasses home.
"No," he said. He didn't have glasses. I thought that maybe his family couldn't afford glasses for him, so after class I called his guidance counselor to ask about L.I. to see if the school could provide glasses for him.
"WHAT BUSINESS IS IT OF YOURS?" was the hostile respose.
"I'm his teacher." I said.
"SO? IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS." Then he hung up.
The next day I asked L.I. if I could buy him glasses. It was only at that point that I learned that he was BLIND.
No one had told me. None of his other teachers had been told either.
Okay, so I have a blind fourteen year old in my class whose dream had always been to be admitted to this school and his dream came true. But the school is so huge,that even the sighted kids have a hard time finding their way around it, so how can he manage? When L.I. leaves my classroom, I watch dumbfounded as he gropes his way down the corridor by guiding himself along by the wall. I run up to him toask if he would like me to take him to his next class. He says, "No," that he's all right. I don't think that he's all right, but I have another class to teach and I go back to my room.
After class I call the counselor again. "Mr. X, I learned that Leonard is blind. How can he get around the school safely. He could fall down the stairs and hurt himself. Did you KNOW that he's blind?"
"WHAT'S THIS TO YOU. I TOLD YOU IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS." the phone slams.
I buy carbon paper and plan to ask a student to put it under her paper to take class notes for L.I. during next day's class.
The next day, I talk to Leonard and learn that there is a special machine he is supposed to have that magnifies print. He is also supposed to have someone assigned to him to help him.
The person who had been with him since he was SIX was no longer assigned to him. His/her replacement has either not been assigned, or shown up.
So here he is in this HUGE school with no friends, and no adult assigned to assist him. In addition, he is grieving for the person who had been with him for about eight years and is no longer there.
Meanwhile his chemistry teacher was complaining that she was afraid to have him do experiments in the lab because of the hazard that his inability to see posed to everyone else.
Other teachers also did not know how to cope.
I did call his home, but his mother, a single parent with a large family did not, to my knowledge, come in to advocate for him.
After several weeks of this, L.I. came into my room distraught and told me that he felt like a character in a book the class was reading.
This really alarmed me because this fictional character had committed suicide.
I notified my chairperson who notified the head of the guidance department who determined that he was indeed suicidal and he was admitted to the hospital. He had had a complete nervous breakdown.
A few days after L.I. was admitted to the hospital, about six weeks after the term had begun, a young woman showed up who had just been assigned to work with L.I.
L.I. never returned to the school to which he had dreamed about being admitted. He transferred to a school for the blind.
I believe that he could have made it if he had been supported. He was really motivated and determined to succeed.
This incident happened around 1994 or 1995 before NCLB, standardized testing, or accountability for test grades.
It's much worse now because of the threat of closing a school if the test grades drop, dismissing the entire staff, and reopening the school as a charter. This is economically really frightening because all of these educators may no longer have jobs if their school is closed. In addition, there is a push to create conditions to make public schools fail by inundating them with so many special needs studentsthat the staff and the facilities can not cope. In this climate, any child who poses the "threat" of lowering the school's rating is perceived as a liability.
Parents really have to be there for their children. Although I tried, I did not have the ability or the resources to help L.I. He also had the terrible luck of being assigned to that awful guidance counselor. I have never, before or since, seen anything like it.
He really needed his family in that school calling the district office, contacting the press, doing whatever needed to be done to get L.I. the help he needed.
