Hurricanes & Blizzards as Family Histories

As I write this blog entry, there are emails zipping across the airwaves and Twitter users across the country are tweeting about Hurricane Irene. Expressions of awe that a storm system could be as large as Europe, expressions of care for those who may be in harm's way, safety warnings (don't enter water if there are downed power lines), and motherly advice: Kids are never too old for Moms to stop worrying, so no matter your age, let your Mom know you're okay.

I have a suggestion for a combination historical marking of Hurricane Irene and educational exercise for young and old: Journaling.

Today, I sent this message to my son's Vermont college where they're all hunkered down in Hurricane mode (he's on campus early for residential adviser training):

Suggest you have these students journal during this storm and put entries together in a collection both as a recording of an historical event of Landmark College, plus the students could use journaling as an exercise in memorializing an historical event in their own lives.

For stranded vacationers/travelers with high school students, ask them to write down what was fun/not fun about their challenges in trying to get home. Ask them what they think about how the Odyssey documented the challenges Odysseus faced in trying to return home. What are some of their thoughts and challenges in getting home during Irene that you'd tell your own children when you are parents? They may not be able to think of anything right away, so you may have to start out. Don't remember much about Odysseus? Go online with your kids and look it up on Wikipedia.org

Too young to write well? When my own children were young, after a particularly fun day or a particularly challenging day, I'd ask each what was his favorite thing that happened, and what was the worst. Sometimes we'd write down these stories, with either older siblings or the parent being the scribe. It helps to put everything in perspective, too. Once, one of my sons said the best thing he did all day was to see the happy face of an older neighbor after my son shoveled the drifted snow from his walkway. While parenting is often fraught with uncertainty, I felt certain on that day that my son was learning empathy in a natural way.

Sad that you lived through Katrina but your family didn't journal? Use Irene as a kind of port-key (think Harry Potter) to take you back to that time. What were the best things you remember about Katrina, and how did you survive the hardest things. You see, sharing stories of surviving with your children helps to remind them of their family's resiliency to survive other challenges. Supporting families, supporting communities, should be what our country is all about.

Shared family and community events become part of your own story. Once when I was a young girl, (clean) water bubbled up through a floor drain in our basement. As kids, it was great fun playing the "Beckman bucketeers," repeatedly scooping water in buckets to dump into the laundry basin. I can still remember the soaking-wet olive-colored shirt I was wearing, which became a badge of my contribution to my family's clean-up efforts. During "show and tell" at school, I retold the story, laughing at the parts of the story where the water sloshed out of the sink and onto my shirt.

I learned that shared experiences and teamwork makes any job go more easily, even though it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized my how upset my parents must have been to have ankle-deep water in the basement. They never let on, preferring to help us believe we were essential in restoring the basement to its previous state.

In 1967, I was a young teen during Chicago's big blizzard. for four days, the city and suburbs essentially came to a standstill. Schools and businesses were closed, so parents hunkered down to survive and kids joined forces to make huge snow castles and gigantic snow people. It was a time before we knew about acid rain, so my mother made "snow ice cream" with a recipe she'd found years before. No one had a snowblower, but neighbors helped neighbors to shovel out driveways or push cars out of drifts, regardless of religious, ethnic, or political affiliations.

So, these stories became part of me, part of my family story. Every time we had a big snow when my own sons were young, I retold the stories of traveling to Mr. B's Fine Foods with a sled to get bread and milk.

What stories do you think your children will tell about Irene? Help them to document their own family history.

Taking ownership of disabilities in learning?

Frequently, I have heard school personnel state that students should “take ownership” of their reading or writing disability and “do it the regular way.” However, the law states that students should receive accommodations to allow them equal access to their regular curriculum. Thus, books on computers that read the words aloud, dictation software so that students can write by dictation, and human note-takers in class are all examples of accommodations.

Remediation is specialized tutoring to improve the skills of the person with disabilities. Multi-sensory reading tutoring, manuscript or cursive instruction, and instructions on how to organize your written work are examples of remediation.

Accommodation, without remediation, will destine these students to a truly handicapped life. However, if a student cannot walk to class, we don't say they cannot attend a regular class until they can walk independently, nor do we tell them they should take ownership of their disability and walk like their peers because they'll need to later in life. We provide a wheelchair as an accommodation to get to class, and provide adequate and appropriate remediation of physical and occupational therapy so that they can become increasingly independent. They may never be efficient enough to walk everywhere, but to be able to walk a few steps toward a library shelf would be a reasonable goal. The same holds true for those with invisible disabilities. Because it would impede their ability to access, learn, and demonstrate acquired knowledge of the regular curriculum, we cannot require them to use an inefficient method to access the full curriculum because of a value system that says they "should," rather we need to provide them fully accommodated access to the full, regular curriculum while providing enough research-validated remediation that they will make reasonable progress at acquiring the skills for independent reading/spelling etc. "the regular way." A benefit of using Dragon is that they will be able to use this tool throughout their lives, as non-disabled individuals use Dragon in the business world, while using a method such as Co-Writer is so slow and tedious that many students find it frustrating because it hampers the speed and quality of productive output of many of the students with learning and other hidden disabilities.

Do you need help in getting reasonable accommodations and remediation?
Dr. Jeanne Beckman is available to assist you in determining what you need to learn and thrive. Please call her at 847-446-1251
or email her at techpsych@techpsychologist.com

Rebuilding Haiti, Rebuilding America

Yesterday, a friend and colleague (who wishes to remain anonymous) stated her belief that President Obama should hire out-of-work Americans to immediately jump on a plane to help rebuild Haiti. Her suggestion was that all kinds of unemployed workers,including architects, electricians, drywall installers, plumbers, bankers, large equipment operators etc. could all be asked to show up at regional airports, become temporary employees of the federal government, and be transported to Haiti. She also suggested that, since the island is so small, these workers could be housed in cruise ships off of Haiti's coastline.

I would also like to add to that these American workers should guide apprenticeship programs to teach the Haitians the trades, to teach the Haitians how to run their country when our citizens return to America.

Today, I read an article in the Washington Post where they suggested that Haiti's earthquake disaster could be an opportunity to rebuild Haiti

The early thinking encompasses a broad swath of issues. Policymakers in Washington are considering whether to expand controversial trade provisions for Haiti and how to help fund the reconstruction for years into the future. The rule of law needs to be strengthened, particularly with regard to matters of immediate concern, such as property rights, inheritance issues and guardianship in hard-hit neighborhoods.

And somehow, development officials agree, the recovery effort must build up, not supplant, the Haitian government and civil society, starting with putting Haitian authorities at the center of a single, clearly defined plan to rebuild Port-au-Prince and its environs in a far sturdier form.

"National disasters, as awful as they are, you want to seize those moments, use that awful, awful opportunity, to strengthen the ability of national and local authorities to act for the benefit of their citizens," said Jordan Ryan, the assistant administrator of the U.N. Development Program. There is, to an extent, a development framework in place from efforts underway before the earthquake involving the Obama administration, the United Nations, a huge network of international aid groups and a Haitian government that, despite corruption, was viewed as more reliable than any in years. The United States budgeted $292 million in assistance to Haiti this year, including food aid, infrastructure funds and money to fight drug trafficking. And the Haitian economy grew by 2.5 percent in 2009, despite the global recession.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/yj4nuv2

It is also my belief that we should use such a model to rebuild our inner cities, which are certainly not on the same horrifying scale of disaster as Haiti, but are disasters for the families and their communities (as well as for our nation's future) nevertheless. We should also have our government purchase American-made tools and equipment for both the "Hire American" efforts in Haiti and our inner cities. We are losing an entire generation of future Thomas Edisons, of future Barach Obamas, to the short-sighted educational policies that segregate students by perceived ability/disability and other characteristics, by sometimes abusive police on police forces that utilize uninformed policing strategies, and completely broken down infrastructures and communities.

We cannot afford to lose Haiti to chaos worsened by a devastating earthquake, and we cannot afford to lose our inner cities and our future workforce to neglect and chaos.
Our country still benefits daily from the employment of unemployed Americans via the Works Projects Administration, which hired unemployed Americans in the 30's and 40's.

These days, our country's administration seems to prefer to contract-out work to middlemen, but adding that layer costs money, and seems to reduce accountability. Instead of funding middlemen and pencil-pushers, let's have our government directly hire workers to rebuild Haiti and America. Let's rebuild /Haiti AND America TODAY!

Is discouragement inherited?

The other day, I heard a father of a college freshman with significant learning disabilities speak about how his son needed to "try harder," "get more organized," "pay attention," "buckle down," and perhaps be allowed to fail. He also said that maybe University X is not the right school for his son. The implication is that this student is not trying hard enough, is perhaps partying too hard, and just being a typical adolescent who is abusing his new-found freedoms. Is there truth to what he says?

Whenever I hear these kinds of comments about students with learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders, I try to see whether these comments would fit if a different disability were substituted. So...if you had a student who was blind, would you say he or she needed to "try harder" to read regular text in books? If you had a student in a wheelchair, would you say he or she needed to "try harder" to go up a flight of stairs? No, you wouldn't. You would provide appropriate accommodations, such as Braille texts or an elevator to get to another floor. So why is it so different for those with learning disabilities? And why would a father be parroting the very phrases that the child was subjected to in grade school and high school?

The answer to the first question, I have come to believe, is three-fold. First, it is difficult to "see" a learning disability or attention deficit disorder because it is internal, it is due to the manner in which the different parts of the brain communicate. It is obvious if a person is blind that he or she cannot use traditional text, yet there have been those who have discriminated against those with vision impairments. There have also been cases where those in wheelchairs have been forced to literally drag themselves up stairs in order to reach a government court or other public place. Secondly, there is variability in performance among those with learning disabilities, even within an individual. This variability can depend on the specific demands of the particular task, the competing demands on the person at the time, fatigue, and other factors. Thirdly, while most public officials and school administrators have learned that it is not politically correct to demean those who are blind or have other visible disabilities, it still seems that there are many who believe it is acceptable to demean those with learning and attention disabilities. We know from research that overt, or even subtle biases about an individual or group of students will diminish their performance to match those low expectations.

So, why would a father make pejorative comments about his son? And, can discouragement be "inherited?" I have come to believe that the reason you hear these kinds of put-downs coming out of the mouths of parents one would expect to be defending and advocating for the child is that many of these parents have similar disabilities themselves, and have incorporated these biases into their own self-concepts after years of being put-down by others for their own weaknesses.

So how can we facilitate a change to this system where students with disabilities not only face undue barriers to full access to an inclusive education, but also face continual verbal put-downs for failing to perform to their potential because they did not have appropriate accommodations? How can we facilitate a fundamental shift back to a time where families and communities were the center of learning, producing hard-working, community-minded citizens, employers and employees? How does science and technology fit into this picture and when is the old-fashioned "human touch" the only appropriate method?

Come back for part two of "is discouragement inherited?"

Low Expectations Derail Student's Chances to Be Ready for College

In the Kansas City Star, there was an article about a high school senior, Dustin Villarreal, who, his parents argued, had received inadequate preparation for taking college prep exams with special-education support services so that he could get a good ACT score and be ready for college. The school argues that they had given him adequate tutoring with the Huntington learning Center, but that they were not required to provide him with a guaranteed ACT score.

In a hearing requested by Dennis and Dee Ann Villarreal, parents of 18-year-old Dustin Villarreal, the family alleges the district failed to provide “a free and appropriate public education” by failing to provide an annual Individualized Education Plan goal of “a favorable ACT score that would facilitate his transition to a four-year college. The district, however, contends it has no legal obligation to ensure that any student, with or without disabilities, achieves an appropriate ACT score.

Dustin has Apert Syndrome, a congenital disorder characterized by malformations of the skull, face, hands and feet. Apert occurs in one per 100,000 births.

Dustin’s physical abnormalities affect his speech, hand coordination and manipulation, upper body strength and range of motion, vision and hearing, all of which affect his ability to learn in an educational setting, his parents said.

But Dustin wants to go to college and hopes to becoming an elementary school teacher. Other goals include securing a financial future and, eventually, having a family.
continued: http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1008177.html

So, is it so wrong that the school should say they've done an adequate job? I would argue that there's a big problem with this view. First of all, if the student is not achieving at least at grade level, the school should have examined whether their specialized tutoring was adequate to meet his needs. I would argue that, it did not meet his needs because he did not make sufficient academic progress compared to his age peers. Secondly, Huntington Learning Centers are private franchises geared toward providing generalized homework help, not public school individualized remediation.

I would also argue that it is highly probable that the student has faced subtle discrimination and low expectations for his ability based solely on the physical characteristics of his Apert's Syndrome. His teachers may not realize that they had low expectations for him, but there is plenty of research supporting "Pygmalion Syndrome" whereby teachers' unconscious expectations have a greater impact on students learning performance than the students' actual abilities.

I believe our great country should radically change how we view the necessary educational experiences that will prepare our children for productive adult lives. Instead of stating that schools are only required to provide a mediocre or adequate education (the current legal contention of deep pocket public school legal teams funded by their local taxpayers), I believe that students should be provided ample opportunities to MAXIMIZE their learning abilities. This means screening every preschooler for learning challenges and talents, and providing customized education that is validated by rigorous research, not the good ole boys' pet reading projects.

This radical change also means that, in addition to maximizing potential (right away) with rigorous specialized "remediation" the school needs to be providing technology to access reading and writing right away (in preschool if the child is identified then) if the student cannot keep up with his age peers. Such technology as text-to-speech and voice recognition allows students to read the same curriculum and demonstrate what he or she has learned by writing (via dictation) his or her thoughts at a similar pace as his or her age peers.

This radical change also means providing bountiful exposure to rich vocabulary found in classic books as well as award-winning current authors and sophisticated Internet literature and database resources. Every child of every age should have daily exposure to listening to these books in the classroom setting and every child of every age should have the opportunity to utilize technology to read or write. Homework should be limited to high school aged children with the exception of having children listen to readers reading or recordings of books with rich vocabulary. There should be no time spent on test preparation until later high school ages, and such test prep time should be done after school, not in lieu of curriculum.

Thomas Edison's school had very low expectations of him, pronouncing him "addled." His mother refused to believe the school and taught him at home. Our great country cannot afford to lose any children, whether a future innovator, inventor,artist, or faithful and loving son or daughter.

Welcome to Dr. Jeanne Beckman's Blog

Those who know me know that I wear many hats. I am a clinical and developmental psychologist who has written family-friendly articles explaining the research about the effects of media violence on children.

Here is a link to my first website, which contains information about the various articles I've written:
http://www.jeannebeckman.com

Here's a link to the article about the effects of media violence:
http://www.jeannebeckman.com/page18.html

Some know me as the "Tech Psychologist" who has written a book (title: Tech Psychologist's Guide to Technology and Access Tools), a family-friendly book to assist families in finding technologies and supports so that their children (and adults) can experience success in educational, leisure, and work environments.

Here is a link to information about my book:
http://www.techpsychologist.com/techpsychbook.html

Some know me because I've written articles about using technology to be successful in school and other settings. Some of this technology includes computers and software that reads books aloud, technology that takes dictation and converts it to written formats (voice recognition or "speech to text"), and technology that helps to organize what you write, organize your schedules and life.
Here's a link to my Tech Psychologist Website:
http://www.techpsychologist.com

Some know me as a Rotarian who works to provide literacy opportunities, both locally as well as farther away.
Here is a link to my blog about the Winnetka (Illinois) Rotary Literacy Committee:
http://winnetkarotaryliteracyprojects.blogspot.com/

Some know me as a person who believes that, as a member of the true moral majority, the best way to live my life is to give back to the local and world-wide community, pay it forward, and strive to care for others as I would like to be treated. My new blog, Winnetka Commons, is a place (and possibly a movement) where community-minded people of all ages can share ideas, resources, and commitment to doing acts of kindness and sharing for the common good while finding ways to survive during times of personal, financial, and/or community downturns.
Here's a link to Winnetka Commons:
http://winnetkacommons.blogspot.com/

It is my hope that my Jeanne Beckman's News blog will allow me to keep you updated on information that will help you and your family grow. Please check back here for updates.

Dr. Jeanne Beckman