Thursday, September 17, 2015

The root of special education

Special education began in response to the great crowds of children brought to our cities by the industrial revolution. One of the forerunners in the field, Elizabeth Farrell, began an Ungraded School in New York City City in 1908, and the first special education journal, Ungraded, published from 1915-1926. 

It is possible that this seminal era of special education -- spurred by mutual responsibility and compassion rather than mere litigation -- could provide clues to the heart of our field. The excerpt below from an essay Farrell published in the first issue of Ungraded, provides three such clues. First the excerpt, then the clues.

There is the problem of the laggard. In its superficial aspects we have recognized it, but its ultimate solution is far below. The work of the school is one of unprecedented intricacy. It is inextricably bound up with all sociological problems of our time; its relation to crime, poverty, to health, to vice, is dimly perceived. The price that we now know we pay when a home is needlessly broken up is not greater than that we pay for repeaters made such by the poverty which drives the mother out early in the morning, but it is the same kind of coin.
To look back upon your own childhood you will agree that the orderly, busy breakfast time; the mother and the younger children standing at the door to wave good-by as you started for school was a time of character growth. Habits of industry, mutual helpfulness, straight-forwardness were there made into flesh and bone. Its value, who can estimate? Or that time after supper with father and mother, their day's work done, industrious with many things; that time which the poet calls the Children’s Hour. Who can count its value as evening succeeded evening all through that formative period? Would you have been the same man had you, like hundreds of children in the big cities of this land, been left asleep each morning while your mother went out into the world busy with the things of life which would not be put by, grasping from the fray food, clothing and shelter, but unable to give that nourishment to the divine spark within, the full flame of which gives meaning and value to life. The house now is the home of the body, but it must again become the home of the souls of children. The children must be taken back from the street and the factory and restored to the home. The mother must be freed from lesser things in order to develop the greater unity, character and strength in her children.

First, education is a response to everyone's problems. "It is inextricably bound up with all the sociological problems of (its) time." Foremost in the 1910s was the industrial revolution's impact on homes. Today's homes are still feeling this impact, along with myriad other detrimental influences that are beyond this post's scope to list, most of which are seen in teacher and student alike. To teach is not to solve our problems, but to address them as we can in our time. To teach with wisdom, then, is to work doggedly for improved outcomes, but to ever bear in mind the limits inherent in our work.

Next, Farrell understands education as a thing of "unprecedented intricacy." This contrasts with the spirit of "evidence based practices" which  are now required by federal law, and presume that if we simply find the programs that work, and implement them correctly, we will gain our desired results (leaving no child behind, closing achievement gaps, etc.). Teachers know that good programs and practices are valuable tools, but we also know how many teacher, classroom, and student factors must be accounted for and managed in order for any program to be worth the box it came in. My bias is that special educators are prone to a closer knowledge of this intricacy than other teachers thanks to a more intimate knowledge of fewer students.

Finally, she understand that schools don't have any influence on children, laggard or otherwise, the way families do. In today's schools, we are trying to address the character of children in the face of disintegrated families, for whom no semblance of a "Children's Hour" exists. What is the ideal cure for the "laggard?" An intensive small group therapy? A behavioral plan that perfectly meets the needs he is communicating with his problem behaviors? An evidence-based practice implemented with fidelity? Not according to Farrell. She prescribes"...a mother...freed from lesser things in order to develop the greater unity, character and strength in her children."


Thursday, July 23, 2015

N.T. Wright talks tech

I've written here before about N.T. Wright, and how he's helped me through seasons of doubt. I've also written of my uneasiness with technological "progress." Today I watched a dialogue  between Wright and Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal, and other Silicon Valley startups. Among other things, they spoke about death, the future, and imagination. I planned on watching just 10 minutes of the 2 hour interview but got sucked in. Maybe you'll get sucked in too.



My takeaways are these:

1. I was struck by the charity exhibited by both Wright and Thiel. They clearly disagreed pretty sharply with one another. Their starting places are vastly different (a biblical scholar/theologian and a futuristic entrepreneur) which led them to wildly different conclusions. But they were kind.

2. Having the upper hand, Wright was especially kind. They are both widely read and well spoken, but Wright's mastery of history and scripture put him a on a different plane. Despite his intellectual superiority, Wright never spiked the football.

3. I hope to see such charitable conversations between believing scholars and non-believers occur at Olivet. I think it could happen.

4. There was a lightness and joyfulness in Wright that Thiel did not possess. This fact alone doesn't prove anything, but it was plainly the case.


Wednesday, July 15, 2015

The Mad Pontiff's Liberation Front



Reading the Encyclical that I talked about in my last post, I kept thinking how much the writing sounded like Wendell Berry. For example, the encyclical avoided vagaries that could easily be sidestepped by targeting specific corrupt behaviors and mentalities. It made clear that merely blaming corporations for our ills was not sufficient. To the Pope, as it has always been for Berry, caring for the Earth means consuming less, delighting in creation, and trusting God. Indulge me a couple more excerpts.


Specific Behavioral Target: Air Conditioning
People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity but it has not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning. The markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behavior, which at times appears self-destructive.
 Specific Mental Target: Secular Humanism
The best way to restore men and women to their rightful place, putting an end to their claim to absolute dominion over the earth, is to speak once more of the figure of a Father who creates and who alone owns the world. Otherwise, human beings will always try to impose their own laws and interests on reality.

The commonalities between Berry and Francis eventually come to a halt. Berry describes himself as a Christian,  but also as a bad-weather church-goer (when it's nice, he Sabbaths outdoors). Francis is, well, Pope. This makes the commonality all the more compelling. What is going on here that would cause two thinkers who, on the surface, draw from such distinct wells, to behold the same cups of water?  There's more comparing the Encyclical and Berry's lifelong work in this First Things Article,The Pope and The Plowman, by John Murdock. Murdock's discussion is rich and nuanced. And important. Let us engage and repent.
 

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Encyclical Highlights

Pope Francis's Encyclical, Laudato Si, is wonderful. It presents a well-reasoned treatment of our responsibility to care for the Earth that flows from the Bible and from church history, It is written with a pastoral heart, not just for Catholics or Christians, but for all of humanity. Calling us to live within limits, the encyclical suggests that our purchases and pace of life are moral issues. It is written with the duty to care for the world's very poor as its primary concern, and makes clear that our agricultural and environmental problems issue from cultural problems.

Point after point is worth reading and reflecting on, but I want to highlight a few.   

The fourth section of the first chapter - Decline in the quality of human life and the breakdown of society - is beautifully crafted. The 49th paragraph makes a point I tried to articulate in my 2011 post How to Be a Rich Christian (To remind myself): We cannot reasonably expect to understand or solve the problems of poor people when we are insulated from them. To this point, Francis seems to add that we cannot expect to understand or solve the problems of the poor Earth, while being insulated from it, either.

49. It needs to be said that, generally speaking, there is little in the way of clear awareness of problems which especially affect the excluded. Yet they are the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people. These days, they are mentioned in international political and economic discussions, but one often has the impression that their problems are brought up as an afterthought, a question which gets added almost out of duty or in a tangential way, if not treated merely as collateral damage. Indeed, when all is said and done, they frequently remain at the bottom of the pile. This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

Also...
 Many people will deny doing anything wrong because distractions constantly dull our consciousness of just how limited and finite our world really is. As a result, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless before the interests of a diefied market.
 And...

For all our limitations, gestures of generosity, solidarity and care cannot but well up within us, since we were made for love.

I could go on pulling out highlights for a long time. But I won't. Read the full text of the encyclical here. What are your takeaways?


Wednesday, July 1, 2015

This just in...

The kids put this trailer together to show what's new with us. Gulp and Glory.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Liesel Meminger's Amygdala

I'm taking a class this summer called, "The Mind, Brain Science, and Learning." If I have an alley, this class is up it. The first topic we're discussing is "Emotions and Learning." Specifically, we're talking about the brain systems that correspond with negative emotion, and their impact on learning. (For a great discussion on the matter, check out this video). Neuroscience from the last 20 years has taught us some nuts and bolts of relatedness, but those nuts and bolts have been operating for a long, long time.

This post is about the long, long time. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak  takes place in Nazi Germany, before anyone knew that the amygdala triggers the hypothalamus, and that it matters. One of its characters, Hans Humberman, shows the power of relatedness. He is the German foster father of Leisel Meminger, who experiences nightly nightmares after her brother died en route to Hans's house.

Those first few months were definitely the hardest.
Every night, Liesel would nightmare.
Her brother's face.
Staring at the floor.
She would wake up swimming in her bed, screaming, and drowning in the flood of sheets. On the other side of the room, the bed that was meant for her brother floated boatlike in the darkness. Slowly, with the arrival of consciousness, it sank, seemingly into the floor. This vision didn't help matters, and it would usually be quite a while before the screaming stopped. 
Possibly the only good to come out of these nightmares was that it brought Hans Humbermann, her new papa, into the room, to soothe her, to love her.
He came in every night and sat with her. The first couple of times, he simply stayed - a stranger to kill the aloneness. A few nights after that, he whispered, "Shh, I'm here. It's all right." After three weeks, he held her. Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man's gentleness, his thereness. The girl knew from the outset that Hans Humbermann would always appear midscream, and he would not leave. 


*** A DEFINITION NOT FOUND ***
IN THE DICTIONARY
Not leaving: an act of trust and love,
often deciphered by children

We now know a little more about what's happening when the Hans Hubermanns of the world slay aloneness with thereness. But that Hans Hubermanns existed should disallow us to confuse deeper knowledge for something new.