What I said to them
Here are Miss Illinois and me at the 2008 Raising Student Achievement conference in St Charles, Illinois this Monday. Imagine . . . she and I were talking to the teachers, while across town . . . the FBI was arresting the governor. Miss Illinois was a big hit with the superintendents, especially the males. I even got in on the game, getting her to sign a picture for Cubby.
I'm bigger, but she got all the attention. And for those of you who want specifications . . . she is 24, not married, not engaged, and continuing with college. 17 to 24 is the age range for this competition. She's friendly and personable, and the crown is detachable. She did not offer to let me try it, though.
Luckily there were no arrests at the Pheasant Run resort. The teachers were all well-behaved. I arrived the night before my talk, as everyone was rolling into town. Once I'd gotten settled in my room, I ventured downstairs to get a feel for the audience I'd have in the morning. I found some teachers in the bar.
After first ascertaining that they were friendly, I set out to answer some questions. What do you do? I asked. Are you teachers, superintendents, or something else? Most were teachers. I asked if they were dedicated, and they all said yes. I asked if they planned to attend in the morning, and they said yes to that, too.
Knowing I had a dedicated audience, I retreated to my room to re-read your comments and ponder what to say at the opening bell. Thank you all for the suggestions in my last thread, What Would You Say to Them? I did my best to pass on your ideas during my three sessions. I spoke to the entire assembly at the conference opening. After that, I had a session with regional superintendents, and a session with teachers.
The whole thing went very well, thanks in large part to your suggestions.
Comments
(woof!)
I've had people show up at work with implanted anal sticks, and they can be very, very difficult. Snippy, bitchy, and just generally nasty.
And they never seem to figure it out. If they just withdrew the stick and tossed the smelly thing in the trash, a lot of their discomfort would go away.
Miss Illinois did not seem to be in that category. She seemed happy, well adusted, and able to remove and refit all the acoutrements at will.
Looks like our 5-year-old has it too. He hasn't been diagnosed yet but we've given his teacher a heads up. Our son has a really hard time following directions and always wants to do things his way, not the way you're "supposed to".
I'm really hoping that his teachers will get educated on AS. At least do a simple Internet search!
I just finished your book awhile ago, and I must say I drove my son crazy while reading it. After every few pages I would stop and ask
"Evan, is this like you? Am I like this? Talk to me! Fill me in!"
and he would just sigh and give me the old "omg mother, you are embarrassing me again" routine (mind you, we were alone in our own home)
The way we obsess over nutrient-deprived toothpicks in this country is pretty f'n disgusting. I'm sure she's nice, but her type is just symptom of a shallow...a deepy, incredibly shallow...culture.
Barbie-doll worship: vile stuff.
Thanks
Theresa
Again, I had a really great time talking to you last week. Looks like you had a great time with the teachers (and don't forget Miss Illinois). Too bad Miss Illinois now has to deal with being from the same state as Rod Blagojevich!
Polly, you and your sons are extremely fortunate to have such a progressive school system. But your situation is not the norm, I'm afraid.
Another reason so many exceptional kids (many of them Aspergian) are getting shortchanged has to do with teachers and teachers' unions. I'm a liberal and generally pro-union, but in Illinois especially, the draconian demands of entrenched teachers' unions hurt kids. Many exceptional kids who have socialization problems (like Aspergians) get relegated to special ed simply because teachers don't want to "deal" with them, and use their unions to change matriculation rules for them. And one of the main reasons the Chicago Public Schools are so bad is because of the Chicago teachers' union. Among other things, the CPS school day is 90 minutes shorter than school days in the rest of the state because the teachers' union has always refused to go to a seven-hour teaching day. (I especially think this is ridiculous because in Hong Kong, where my husband grew up and two of his sisters are teachers, the standard school day is TWELVE hours!)
So I don't think they all blow the kids off. Several of them told me about working with kids on the spectrum. But of course the teachers I met may be the exceptional ones, as shown by their attendance at the conference in the first place. I always wonder that . . . do teachers I meet represent the majority, or are they the most dedicated ones? I can't tell.
As to unions . . . I really have no idea about that. The subject of unions did not come up at all during any of my conversations at the conference.
The current policy in my school district is that now you can't get one UNLESS your kid is on the spectrum. The student must be particularly low functioning.
My youngest kid's evaluations are "borderline". She has been relegated to the back of the room with the other 'problem students'. We held her back this year and I wonder if they will cough up an aide for her once she fails the 4th grade again. I hear the term "slipping through the cracks" quite a bit. Hmm...
Booooooooo.
What I'm really mad about is that my school district just recently changed their testing requirements so that more kids would score better on standardized testing so the district will keep getting state funding at similar rates to previous years. The neighboring district did the same thing last year....Is this really teaching kids to learn????
My kids are not made to use cursive handwriting after grade school. In the neighboring district we came from almost two years ago they were taught cursive in third grade but never made to use it. My son (youngest, not Aspergian) got a multiplication table last year in 6th grade to help him with his homework. I went to school here back in the 70s-80s and we used cursive well into high school and had to know our multiplication tables by heart in 4th grade. We didn't get to use cheat sheets. It's a whole different school system now. Is it the same around the country?
I thoroughly enjoyed our chat at lunch. Thanks for your time. My daughter is visiting from Boston, and I shared your book with her. She is going to take back your info to an interested friend.