Dr. Mercola August 09 2008 44,545 views
My aunt is a special ed teacher near Boston, and has been for about decade or more. She doesn't seem to have all the "problems" that other regular teachers have or other special ed teachers have and here's why: She talks to her kids like people and asks them personal questions like, so how's things going today? Did U eat breakfast today? I like your t-shirt, does that come in my size? With a BIG smile every time. My aunt is a very special person, always happy, wants to help, doesn't let stress get to her, but her Techniques work wonders because they make sense. She says that other teachers, whether good or burned-out, talk to their kids like they're a "job", not like young human beings with problems and emotions. She talks to them, even as they do their work quietly in class. She walks around and make personal attention a Point! She's been praised as a saint, but I think it's just her techniques. Besides that ok, we do have major problems in our schools systems, but the kids truly are the same kids as before. They're being numbered and stuck in huge classroom with NO personal attention. Teachers have no idea if these "problem" kids have a drunk or drug addict for a parent, or no sleep at night with clueless parents, or workaholic parents AND all poor diets to say the least. My aunt says MOST of the cases of Problem kids are just this and they're labelled and drugged so adults don't have to talk to them. Ok, yes, it's parents a lot of the time, but decades ago teachers had a 1-on-1 relationship with their students. They were mentors, friends, confidants, and the kids did better with their emotions AND schoolwork. I think the sadest thing in our schools in the crowding, not enough teachers per students, and from the earliest grades. Even if the class sizes get better in later years, they've already had so much of the NO Attention at all. We have no personal contact with other people, tv, Internet, but what about just going back to being human?
Someone actually thumbed you down healthnutmom! Some people are just very ignorant, clueless and mean! Good for you for homeschooling your kids. It takes a lot of patience, love and unselfishness to do it! You get my thumbs up.
I ONLY ASK YOU THIS: DOO CHILDREN AND ALL PEOPLE ANY MORE HAVE OUR HUMAN RIGHTS AT ALL???
www.cchr.org
You are so right. I spent the summer working as a camp nurse in a camp for the handicapped. Rewarding positive behavior and learning to redirect mentally handicapped people back toward the "group" activity in a kind and gentle way is an art. It is also a skill that can be taught. The other thing I was able to do was contact some parents and use appropriate homeopathic remedies. Especially when a a camper had a rage issue. The change can be dramatic and affect the "energy" of the whole camp as the rage and the fear this rage caused disappeared. I am hoping to continue to work with this camp to bring their nutritional standards up.
If anyone has a camp for the handicapped in their neighborhood I would strongly urge you to send your newly graduated teens there to work for a summer. My teen did and it has changed his life.
These camps also need financial aide to keep their programs strong. They not only help the campers by putting them in a fun environment with people like themselves but they also give the caregivers respite. These caregivers need to recharge their "batteries" to keep themselves going as well. To see an example of such a camp check out www.thefowlercenter.org
Thank you for your comment. It was well said. I've worked as a nanny for some time and I'm in the process of getting my degree in Special Education. I absolutely agree with you and your aunts assessment of the situation. I also have a comment to add in addition to what you have said. No couple, husband and wife or anyone should be having kids out of duty or need. They should be having them because they WANT them. This is at the root at whats going on and please, no comments from those who had kids and wanted them. This comment is only for the couples who don't take on the responsibilty of having and raising children. The schools can only do so much. If your comment received a thumbs down its because the person who did that wants to raise their kids with no investment and doesn't want to be reminded that this is not possible. Couples that have there kids out of duty or need are completely selfish, period. They get what they deserve which are kids that haunt them with behavioral problems for the rest of their lives. I have seen this happen with my own eyes, couples who want to do what they want to do. Stubborn, unloving, and extremely unfortunate for the children them have them as parents and role models. I think its a real shame.
I think that's it, really. That and people seem to forget the fact that children, since the beginning of time, have been restless and fidgety. The world is still new and they want to do anything except sit still and be quiet. They want to enjoy it, to run and play and shout and explore. They can be good and quiet and listen in school, but only if they have ample time to do what their nature wants them to do. If they come home and then lay in front of the TV all day, of course they are going to be restless. If they are given that opportunity, fed real healthy food, taught how to interact and behave (IN THE HOME, THIS IS A BIG ONE PEOPLE, IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE A PARENT THIS IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT GOES ALONG WITH IT) then they will, provided there is no underlying health issue, be a "normal kid".
I am a teacher in Los Angeles public schools and could not agree more. Many of the children have no real help in their lives, or parents who are virtually alone, and who are vainly try to row upstream with a noodle. I teach Science in a middle school, a subject not qualified for extra help, here only Math and English teachers get an assistant in middle schools. Therefore, last year, I, a regular ed teacher had about 160 students a day, split into five periods. In each of my classes I had about 1/2 special ed students and 1/2 second language learners. When surveyed by me, less than 10% of my kids had any food before 10 am and often nothing but simple carbs and fats until evening. No school materials either. Sitting in a classroom, trying to learn, trying to teach, be a mentor, it is tough on all of us. Caring techinques like your aunts are very important. Why we let children get treated like this is beyond me. It is not poor quality teachers, but the system we are using nationwide: dehumanizing of kindergardeners on, the mass production system: everyone is to pass the same standards, we are killing a generation at least. I talk to anyone I can. Many many classrooms are like this, mine is not unique. We have lost contact with one another, and it is through relationships that people really learn. Shall the only relationships they find be gangs? Do we understand what we are doing by aleinating and mistreating one another? Do we understand what treasures we have in these special ed students, gifts that could become the answers for tomorrow, our next inventors, presidents, leaders. We need to first, be human and raise human beings who love and care, by being caring.
Just to set all this against the real background we have in the school system I would like to point out what I heard from a child psychologist. He says that children aged 4 are capable of learning 6 different languages. And I would like to add that kingergarten and grades 1, 2 and 3 wipe out this capability and that when kids get out of school they have primarily only trivial knowledge and really nothing to help them in their lives and no business skills. For the most part, the kids have little or no self esteem and know that they don't know anything about life or about how to get a spouse and keep a spouse, how to treat people and for business, they need public speaking and debating as the 2 core subjucts which would also help with life issues. Benefits are minimal of school as a whole and damaging to children in lowering their self esteem and lowering the capability to learn. Really it is just for the purpose of getting us to obey authority, and not to educate students. It is just a monopoly under the government monopoly. It hurts and damages the kids. Parents should not tell the school boards about their children and should home school them with education they are interested in. The best thing is to take up local network marketing and take your children with you from birth. The kids would learn a tremendous amount and we would have a golden age learning and innovation.
Well said, Kimberly! It is so true that we have no choice within the public (read: SOCIALIST) school system, paid for through mostly property taxes. The average soul has been brainwashed into accepting this socialist slavery system as the norm, rather than thinking outside the box.
How we got to this point - socialism - is quite a testament to the monied, control-freaks and a rebuke to liberty-minded souls that have not organized effectively to prevent or roll-back the creeping socialism that has enslaved us all...
You talk about "each individual (privatized) school", making it sound like they will be cozy little local establishments. In fact, if public schools shut down, the resulting void would most likely just be filled by a few huge, nation-wide corporations with their own rigid controls and guidelines, and no doubt paying the lowest salaries possible. The "Wal-Marting of schools". Big towns might have several companies operating. Small towns might be lucky to have any privatized schools at all. Any small local private schools remaining would be most likely for the elite. Their "own rules" might include: Are you the right religion, color? Are you rich enough to ensure our school makes a profit? Do you have any developmentally challenged students who might require the school to suffer profit-losses? You want "freedom of choice?". You have it already. No one is stopping you from enrolling your children in a private school.
Vin DiCator; Well said! Too bad Dr. Mercola doesn't have the comments display totals of positive and negative votes. How about it, Joe?
evihcra: "You want 'freedom of choice?' You have it already." No, he probably doesn't. In the vast majority of school districts, EVERYBODY contributes through property taxes (or through increases in rent, which is the landlord passing on the cost of property tax increases). I have two sons with autism. If I had REAL freedom of choice, I could use my property taxes to privately educate my children, and have money left over! As it is, I have chosen to go into debt rather than send them to inadequate public schools.
I agree on not sending children to government reeducation camps (schools). If at all possible homeschooling is the most effective way to educate our youth. As for the government criminals robbing us through taxes to support the schools, and the rest of their forced programs, education about taxes is in order for the adults. No American should pay unfair or unconstitutional taxes. Only fear of these power gluttons keeps their tax coffers full and we are not to fear government but government should be fearing, and serving, the people. Educate yourselves and then stand up as the early colonists did to shake off this evil that robs us of our wealth and good education for our children.
You make such a good point. I pulled my children out of "public indoctrination camp" and home school them. They difference in them is astonishing! It is the best thing I have ever done for my family - the best.
I so thank God for the privelage of being allowed to stay home and homeschool my 3 children and my husband for working so hard to make it possible. I pray that never changes! :-)
Kimberly,
Can you be specific on what you are talking about here. You seem to be implying that State and Local run government schools are somehow "bad" and that private schools are in danger of being shut down.
This is certainly not the case universally, although it may be true in your area.
I do know that my husband, a former educator believes that if we ever manage to adopt that he wants to handle their education at home and through experiential travel and exploration. On the other hand we have both seen public schools do a good job.
I do have a relative who refuses to use nutritional means to treat some problems that her children have and through my own practice and the overwhelming scientific research that nutritional modifications and supplementation can have a profound effect on children's ability to function. Grandma was right. Eat your [non-GMO, locally grown] veggies.
VinDiCator,
OOOOOOOOOOO. Socialism creeping. OOOOOOOOOOO. Let's all go hide under the floorboards 'cause Stalin is just waiting around the corner to "indoctrinate your kids.
Ignoring for a moment the absolute paranoia of your post [you could use some omega 3's I think], you also ignore the most pervasive socialist organization in this country, the family.
Or are families bad too.
Of course our opinions reflect our individual circumstances and experiences. As a home-school mother of 14 years I find it difficult to grasp the mindset that the public school, or the government or ‘somebody’ is responsible to deal with the special needs of each child born into the world. Most children are born to parents, and intrinsic to this event is the personal responsibility for the health, training, education and well-being of each child by their respective parents. When did it become the responsibility of the state to meet the vastly different physical, emotional and educational needs of each child born into the world? It has been my experience that all of my five children have unique abilities and needs, and a parent automatically adjusts their methods as necessary. It would seem nearly impossible for a teacher of 20+ different students each year to ever know them intimately enough to evaluate their true state of well-being and ability to learn. This requires an intimate love-based relationship that is usually only found in a family setting. Can we really expect our schools to replicate what only a family can hope to accomplish - the complete acceptance and loving nurture of each child no matter the challenges? A parent does not give up on a child because he doesn’t fit into his lesson plan; a parent seeks to know his child, his weaknesses, his struggles, etc., and never gives up looking for an approach that works. I am fortunate that none of my children has an extreme physical or mental impairment. If they did, I believe that I would be the most likely person to have the love, patience and commitment to deal with it, and that the best environment for such a child is a safe place in which they are surrounded by people who love and understand them. I realize that there may be situations in which the challenges are too great for the parent to handle alone, and resources must be available to assist them. Ideally this help would come from family, church and community, for which ‘the state’ is a cold, distant replacement. Having grown up with the public school mindset, I do understand that most people cannot envision any other option. I would just like to offer to others a vision that opened my mind many years ago - that of raising and educating my children in a loving, supportive environment, tailored to their own needs and those of our individual family. There are so many options available for academic instruction today that did not exist when we began home-schooling, and there are support groups available worldwide - there seems little reason for anyone to feel that they could not home school. In two weeks I am sending off my two oldest sons to college (kindergarten has finally arrived!) and this is an exciting next step for us. I am so thankful for the wonderful years we have had together as a family, really knowing one another in a way that I never knew my parents and seven siblings. Have we done everything just right and are all my kids perfect? Not even close! But we have lived and loved and laughed together, my boys excelled on their ACT tests in spite of my ’hands off’ approach to education, and I believe they will do at least as well as their peers in college and in life. All that to say, why do we only focus on the institutional approach to raising children when there is a much more natural way to train and educate our young? Could it have something to do with the social myth that parenting is somehow inferior to climbing the corporate ladder which has led so many women to trade in their diaper bags for briefcases? As long as we accept the lower wages that have accompanied the growth of the two-income family and refuse to question the wisdom of single parent families, we will continue to limit our choices on how to raise our children. Both require an alternative child care system to the more natural family setting, and I believe that is what has led us to turn over to the state our God-given responsibility to raise our own children. I pity the children, and I pity the parents, most of whom never even know there is a better way.
Well said!
Excellent! I could not agree more!
Wages have gone down since about 1970, when women entered the workforce in large numbers. Now we are paying specialists and daycare workers to raise our kids. Couldn't we do a better job ourselves?
Right on! As a home school mother myself, I second everything you said. It is so true in every way.
I work as a para educator in a special day school that has the most profoundly disabled kids in our county. The majority of the kids in our classroom have the mental capacity of a 2 y.o.& 1 girl has the mental capacity of a 1- 4 month old baby (depending on which doctor you believe).
I think it's very fitting that our students have their own classroom. We routinely deal with temper tantrums that include kicking, hitting, biting and screaming and crying (LOUD crying). It would be grossly unfair to our students as well as others if they were integrated into a "regular" classroom.
I do agree that many developmentally disabled kids would do much better with a diet like the one in the article. HOWEVER, that doesn't help teachers and para educators. We cannot MAKE parents give their children healthier diets. We can only make suggestions. Every one of the students in our classroom comes from homes that routinely give them junky processed foods (with the exception of the one on tube feedings who is given SOY FORMULA and is physically developing at an alarming rate). Changing their diet would mean a major overhaul for these families and frankly most are not willing to do that.
I did not see anywhere in the article where it talked about a lack of discipline in the home. Most of the kids in our classroom have learned that they can get their way by having a fit. If that doesn't work initially, they just ratchet it up a notch (scream louder, hit themselves more, etc) until their parents finally give in.
I am sure I will get negative points for saying this, but the truth is that these kids need more discipline at home. They need to learn that you don't get your way by having a fit! When they have a fit because they want a ball, e.g., giving them it teaches them that's the way to get it. Even with their limitations, the kids in our classroom can learn to ask appropriately and to wait. We only sell them short if we think they can't!
I have a friend who is an autism aide. Her brother is autistic and she now helps families with their kids' behavior improvement, etc.
She does not give in to fits or violence. She sets clear expectations and rewards the kids as they do what she asks. They learn to be more verbal and follow rules and become more functional. A lot of her work is undone tho because the families do not keep up with the methods at home, as well as feeding them crap, including things they are allergic to.
I think if you have a child, whether normal, gifted, challenged, delayed or whatever, you can't just stick them with a teacher or daycare. If you really had no interest in working one-on-one with a child's development, and expected them to be an accessory to your life, less work or worry than even a dog, then you shouldn't have them.
As a child, I had an eating disorder for 8 years and no one noticed until I asked for help. I also was far ahead of my grade level in most subjects and my family didn't even know until I got awards in certain subjects, best in school, national competitions, etc. They also didn't know I struggled in math until I brought D's on report cards sometimes. My family never offered to help me with a tutor or anything. Anything they would have to spend money on they wouldn't do. I found out about a little-publicized program that would allow me to start community college early and got myself into it (little known because the highschools did not like to lose funding when a student was spending part of their time at college). I was very self directed and basically self-raised due to dysfunctional, divorced parenting.
Kids are not little automatons, they take work and attention. If you can't provide that to a child, get a fishtank instead, because all you have to do is drop some food in once in awhile and make sure the filters run. Or, if it makes you feel better, sponsor a kid in Africa, but don't have one yourself unless you are willing to parent right.