Teen uses VGo robot to attend class

A New Castle teen with spina bifida who can't attend class due to a seizure disorder uses a VGo robot, shown in the above video, to participate in class from home. Chris controls the robot via remote, moving it through the hallways, and is able to see his teachers, the blackboard and classrooms. A teacher sits alongside him during the day to assist him and he's able to interact with his classmates and friends via the VGo.

14 year old boy stuck in apartment since October 7

Jaime Roman, who has a disability and uses a wheelchair, has missed almost a month of school and hasn't been able to get out to do anything else either.

Why? Because of a broken elevator in his apartment building. His mother can't get him downstairs in his wheelchair. A spokesman said there have been "unusual problems" trying to get the elevator fixed, but a part is expected tomorrow.

Let's hope so.

A college student with CP talks about assumptions about disability: "It's not that I'm not able"

via YouTube:

A University student with a disability, Ashley Anderson, discusses the struggles of campus life in a wheelchair and misconceptions about her disability in a strikingly honest way.
Filmed and Edited by Eva Andersen

The unenlightened attitude of higher education

Lest you still harbor the illusion that colleges and universities in the U.S. provide a place where students with disabilities will find the greatest minds working toward inclusion, here's a story for you.

Joshua Jackson, a quadriplegic student at East Central University, has been notified that he cannot remain in the dorms after the fall semester unless he provides an aide or a lift for himself since he can't transfer by himself from his wheelchair to his bed. The institution of higher learning is calling this a safety violation, although Jackson notes his concern with the university's policy that elevators are turned off in the event of an emergency.

Here's Jackson's dilemma: money. The cost of providing an aide, he estimates, would be $11,000. Lifts are also expensive and many cannot use them without assistance.

So, in effect, Jackson is being evicted from his dorm, which could end his education.

The university, apparently, has not made any attempt to find a volunteer student to assist or offer any other solution, simply relying on a liability argument.

Sit. Stay. Read.

R.E.A.D. - or Reading Education Assistance dogs- are helping children with literacy skills by listening to the kids read in libraries and schools.

The philosophy is simple. Children who are just learning to read often feel judged or intimidated by classmates and adults. But reading to a dog isn't so scary. It won't judge, it won't get impatient, it won't laugh or correct if the child makes a mistake. In a nutshell, dogs are simply excellent listeners. And for shy kids or slow readers, that can make all the difference. via cnn

Volunteers say that the program helps students build confidence, resulting not only in improvements in reading level by multiple grade levels in one school year, but areas like class participation and homework.

Broken elevator in school keeps student out of classes

14 year old Robert Mota wants to go to class. In fact, he is in the school building. But because he uses a power chair and the school elevator has been broken for three weeks straight, he's unable to get to his three classes on the second floor. As a result, teachers have marked him with unexcused absences and he's received uncharacteristically low grades.

The A and B student talks in a video about his experience, expressing frustration with the delay in repairs to the elevator. School officials are waiting for the lowest bid to repair the elevator.

But before anyone thinks that the money issue is the sole one here, let me point out that there is no mention in the article of any attempt to move Robert's class to the first floor, to use technology (such as a laptop with a webcam) or any other solution to resolve this situation to provide access to his classes. Instead, Robert remains alone in a room downstairs while his classes are held a floor above him.

He says he misses his ninth grade classmates.

Meanwhile school officials have said that "efforts are under way to try and get elevator repairs started by Friday".

How about using some resourcefulness in the meantime?

Entre les murs

I watched this documentary last night, which YouTube describes as:

Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.

The movie used actual students as actors. The script is an adaptation of Begaudeau's novel.

from the Cannes review:

Chronicling a year in the life of a junior high school class in a rougher section of Paris, there's something undeniably French about the film: the cultural challenges, the uneasy-yet-unescapable mix of cultures and races in the classroom, the plot's turn on a subtler point of formal French grammar. But at the same time, these kids and their teacher (Francois Begaudeau) are going through a series of challenges and opportunities that will be familiar to anyone who's ever gone to school: The tedium of work, the charged-yet-collegial relationship between student and teacher, the subdivisions in the halls.

It's a pretty brave movie, showing raw interactions between teacher and student in difficult situations, as well as dealing with sensitive issues such as parents' different cultural responses to the discipline of students, achievement and academic struggles.

Back to Middle School- a guest post

[This blog post was written by my nephew Danny who will be heading back to middle school soon. Thanks, Danny, for being a guest blogger!]

School - some kids have shivers sent down their spines just by the sound of that one word!

As the school year comes closer parents will be going to department stores, malls, and clothing stores to get their kids what they want.. You know what that is like - crowded aisles with small children and mothers screaming “WHAT KIND OF BINDER DO YOU WANT JOHNNY, COME ON MAKE UP YOUR MIND!” Yep, that is what it is like around here in August.

This year my classmates and I are going to a higher grade which can be very stressful for them and their parents. I am going into 8^th grade which is the highest grade in my middle school. We like to call ourselves the Head Leaders at the school.

But what is really scary is kindergarten. I was scared to death when I was going to kindergarten! I didn't want to even get on the bus, but once I got to the school I had the time of my life. Kids are not going to get any sleep the night before school, especially if they are going into the High School. The High School is the granddaddy of all the schools (except colleges and universities, of course) .

So I guess I’m happy to be going to middle school – right in the middle of it all!

Cooke Center Academy prepares students for real world

This video includes an interview with a student, parent and staff at the Academy, located in Manhattan, which combines a high school education along with life skills for students with disabilities. They offer parent workshops and other resources to the community.

The Academy is raising money to make the school more accessible.

The kids from PS22 sing Let There be Peace on Earth

A day after Christmas message from this ever changing group of fifth graders in Staten Island led by a teacher who, since 2000, has shared his gift of music, changing these children's lives. These kids are not from a music school - just a "regular " school.

Making Cornell more accessible

Plans are in the works for improved accessibility at Cornell University after a meeting that was held to discuss lack of signage, lack of wheelchair access to many buildings and what is necessary to eliminate exclusion of people with all disabilities, not just wheelchair users.

The ADA coordinator team met with members of the Student Assembly to discuss plans, although the committee that has been formed does not have any student representation. It was explained to the students that Cornell must comply with requirements in order to continue receiving federal aid.


Cornell has organized a group of administrators, including Susan Murphy, vice president of student and academic services, and Stephen Golding, executive vice president, to assess Cornell’s care of members of the community that have disabilities.

The focus of the team’s initiative is divided into six main areas: physical accessibility, educational programs and services, technology, communication employment and emergency preparedness.

While the committee lacks any student representation, S.A. members asked questions and gave some suggestions to the ADA. via cornellsun.com

**

An organization called the Cornell Union for Disabilities Awareness (CUDA), has been formed to address issues involving disability awareness on campus and their efforts have resulted in a course offering on disabilities awareness.

CUDA was created by students who saw that Cornell did not have a student organization that was committed to disabilities awareness and advocacy, said Sung Min Kim ’10, a member of CUDA.

Aside from pushing for the class, CUDA has also created a forum for students to speak out and discuss disabilities in addition to creating opportunities by which the rest of campus can raise awareness. “To my knowledge there were no outlets for this population of students other than Student Disability Services. CUDA has allowed students who are interested in this topic, whether they have a disability or not, to come together,” said Sember.

In addition to providing a forum, CUDA develops advocacy and awareness projects, a frequent focus being universal design. Universal design is when buildings or other facilities are planned so that everyone, disabled or not, can use them with ease.

Darwinism is alive and well in our school system

Over at The Gimp Parade, Kay is writing about Alex, who was kicked out of his kindergarten class after the teacher had the class vote whether to keep him out. They all lost, 14-2. Worse yet, the class was asked to tell him how they felt about him, and words like "disgusting" were thrown around.

Alex is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's/autism and, according to some, the diagnosis has already been made. In any event, the teacher was present at IEP meetings and knew this history.

This is the third post I've tried to write about this event. Why? Because yesterday and today my own nephew is going through his own situation. No, he wasn't kicked out of a classroom. But he's unable to go on a class trip, because it involves things like rock climbing and apparently fording rivers and streams and things like that. I guess it's like a sixth grade Survivors thing or something.

Here's the kicker: there's no alternative to this trip. If you're not able to go, you are just out of luck. Not a big deal, perhaps, to adults. I guarantee you it's a bigdeal to him. Watching the bus pull out with everyone else on it? Hearing everyone talk about it? Excluded yet again, as he is day after day because of how we set up our educational system - still.

These "little things", these events that perhaps seem small and it's just too much of a bureaucratic hassle to fix, loom large in the lives of our children.

I still remember my sixth grade class trip. Gary spilled Pepsi on the bus and I spent all day with sticky socks walking around New York. Ew. And my best friend and I got to see artwork that we never would have seen at that age. I also had my first kiss. Yes, Gary. Ew.

My nephew could have gone on so many other kinds of trips. He would have gladly gone if this wasn't such an extreme trip, one set up that it can't possibly be made accessible. I question why physical prowess is still so important in our society because, conscious or unconscious, we differentiate on so many levels on that basis alone.

And then there's Alex. If you ask his mom, she'd say we still have pack behavior and pick on the weakest, most vulnerable and even teach our young to do the same. Even educators, who should know better.

Maybe we've all watched too many of the Survivor shows

Darwinism is alive and well in our school system.

To see what others are saying, click here.

To Be and To Have: Movie Review

This 2003 French documentary may have you believing it's about a rural school room in France and a commentary on the educational system. I found it to be much more than that.

In the one-room classroom, Georges Lopez, a 55-year-old teacher about to retire, teaches a class of 13 children ages 5 to 11. He talks about how he is the son of farmers and how he always wanted to be a teacher. The film shows him at work in the classroom, dealing with discipline issues, learning difficulties and emotional issues of the children. His quiet dedication and calm discipline speaks volumes about what it means to be a teacher.

There are also film clips of children being tutored at home by their parents and families. In one scene, an entire family tries to help a student with his math assignment and in the end appears to confuse him even more. The film has a sensitive, gentle tone about the very real difficulties of providing a good education under circumstances that are far from ideal.

The film provides no solutions and in fact ends as several of the students move on to middle school, somewhat unprepared despite the teacher's almost heroic efforts to prepare them. He does what he can, however, to provide each student who is moving on with the necessary resources, with the same loving care he shows while they are under his tutelage.

I guarantee if you take the time to watch this documentary, you won't soon forget Georges Lopez or the children you meet.

You can find another review of the movie here.

Update: the French film The Class won this year's Canne's festival. Find a clip of the movie here.

From Yale to Cristo Rey- or vice versa

In Best and Brightest, But Not the Nicest, a law student shares her experiences and thoughts about students she's met at a few of the top colleges and universities in America and raises interesting questions about the "Darwinian nature" of the college selection process. Although impressed by many of her peers' accomplishments, she writes:

I'm saying that sometimes some of these students will denounce world hunger but be unfriendly to the homeless. They will debate environmental policy but never offer to take out the trash. They will believe vehemently in many causes but roll their eyes when reminded to be humble, to be generous and to "do what is right.

An interesting article that questions our society's definition of who succeeds - and how.

And I couldn't help but juxtapose that article with this interview with the author of More than a Dream, a young fellow two years out of college who wrote about Cristo Rey High School ,an innovative school focusing on Mexican immigrant students in Chicago run by Jesuits, whose odds of success were not high. The author, who was a volunteer teacher at the school, talks about how the Jesuits funded the school by sending the students to work - and succeeded in sending most of its students to college, usually the first ones in their family to do so. None of it, theoretically, should have worked, the interviewer pointed out. (Apparently he was never taught by a Jesuit.)

Now there are a network of 12 schools, all of which provide college prep education to families who otherwise would not be able to afford it due to the innovative workstudy program. The schools are considered a model for urban education.

The heart of education

Interesting NY Times letters to the editor on the subject of a recent criticism of US education by Herbert.

One of those responding, who teaches gifted high school students, noted that critical reasoning and thinking skills are needed, not learning facts since kids today can google what they need to know. On the other hand, some responses point out that other countries' children/teens spend far more hours on education and learning. Thought-provoking responses to a problem and issue that just isn't going to go away until we address it.

And here's my two cents. (Feel free to add yours in the comments). We need to address the disparities between school districts . As one reader notes, other social problems don't disappear in a classroom - poverty, violence, and drugs among them. Kids who are afraid to walk to school aren't going to be able to concentrate. And the trauma of seeing people shot and die changes their perception of time - the long term goal of getting a good education is not in some of their radars if they're trying to just survive.

I volunteered in a juvenile detention facility years ago out in Ypsilanti, Michigan. They asked me to teach math to the kids who were junior high and high school age- all boys. It took me three classes to get those kids (admittedly trouble makers) to just sit down. And several more classes to get any of them to stay on task. By then new kids were admitted and some of those I'd been teaching were gone. It was an atmosphere for a perpetual zoo. So I called a Catholic clergy member who was a missionary and teacher and asked her what she would do. . She told me to sing to the children and teach them - that was the way into their hearts.

I used music to teach math. I brought my guitar in and, knowing most of the kids never learned basic math, I sang fractions, addition, subtraction, multiplication. The boys who did know junior high math were given sheets to work on in the corner (which the nuns did with us if we were ahead on a subject) or asked to tutor others. The kids calmed down and sang the songs, but more importantly, their hearts did open. I couldn't believe the transformation. And they learned some basic math skills. It was the best I could do.

I know teachers in some school districts are still faced with these issues, all these years later. And more. And, no, I'm not suggesting that singing to the kids is the answer, but reaching their hearts is. What's at risk is our future- too many of our children don't have a love of learning coupled with the ability to feel safe and secure in the rest of their lives. How can they open their hearts to an education when they live in fear? No child in our country should be treated as a throwaway statistic.We just can't deal with the issue of quality education in a vacuum any more - we need to start dealing with the social problems that are interfering with access to a good education.

One Day University

Imagine going to college for just one day. No entrance exams, no tests. And being taught by professors from the best schools across the country.

Interested? Welcome to One Day University!

This is a great chance to enrich your knowledge.

And there may be someone out there who does this to see how it goes. To build a bit of confidence. Maybe a newly injured or disabled vet. Maybe a single mother. Maybe a grandparent. Maybe a 20 something year old considering going to college.

Who knows? Maybe you.


For more information or to register, click on the link above to go to their site:

October 6, Wellesley, MA
October 20th, New York, NY
Positive Psych 1/2 Day Workshop
October 20, Rye Brook, NY
October 27, Morristown, NJ
October 28, Fairfield, CT
October 28, West Hartford, CT
November 3rd, Morristown, NJ
Human Resilience 1/2 Day Worksh
November 10, Wellesley, MA--SOLD OUT
November 17, New York, NY
November 18, Brookville, LI, NY
December 8, West Hartford, CT
December 8, Rye Brook, NY
December 9, Morristown, NJ
December 15th, New York, NY
December 16, Fairfield, CT
January 27th, 2008, Rye Brook, NY
February 2nd, 2008, New York, NY
February 17th, 2008, Brookville, LI, NY
Register online or call 800-811-8821

Going to college: high tech, low tech, mom tech....

David over at Growing Up with a Disability writes about his "workarounds" in assistive technology of all kinds for going (back) to college. An added plus- photos to show how it all works.

He has great practical tips on things like cup holders and cell phone holders for his power chair as well as an accessible rugged cell phone available from Verizon. David also writes about "gear" he purchased that works out well - or can be adapted - and his computer solutions.

Click above to read his post. The tips are great for students - and parents. Thanks for sharing these tips, David - and good luck in your studies.

NY city lags behind rest of state in mainstreaming students with disabilities...

...and lags even more significantly behind rest of country.

New to the Blogroll: Network of Inclusive Catholic Educators

Do you need assistance with the needs of a child with a disability in your education program, in a CCD class or other activity? I've just added the Network of Inclusive Catholic Educators to my blogroll. Located at the University of Dayton, they provide assistance on a local and national level to those seeking to provide inclusion in education.

Worth Watching: The Boys of Baraka

{Visual description: One of the four boys featured in the film is shown sitting in a playground near his inner city home.}

Speaking of community and inclusion (which I talk about a lot on here in relation to people with disabilities), I rented this DVD from Netflix and watched it last night. (This film also airs on PBS - click above for show times and an update on the boys.)

This film features the journey of four inner city kids from Baltimore about to enter seventh grade who are sent to the Baraka school in Kenya to a two year program for intensive educational and therapeutic experience to help them deal with issues holding them back academically.

The filim begins in Baltimore, where each of the boys and their families are introduced. The boys are dealing with parents in jail, on drugs, poverty, poor school systems, racism, violence on the streets and other difficult challenges. They are accepted to the Baraka program and sent to a summer program to get them ready before they are flown to Kenya in September of their seventh grade year of studies.

Upon arrival in Kenya, the students learn that they will be living in a building which only has electricity part of the day. It is a stark contrast to the urban environment they have grown up. Suddenly surrounded by what one boy calls "beautiful" scenery and wild animals that roam freely around the school's environs, one child is shown playing with a hedgehog, fascinated. In this photo, the boys are introduced to an elephant by a local.


These physical changes are only part of the picture - the school has a one to five teacher:student ratio. The boys, used to being lost in large city classes, are suddenly under a microscope. Those with behavioral issues are sent to a time out room or to a mini-survival experience with a counselor. One boy, it is discovered, is reading at a second grade level and yet was never tested for academic problems.

One night the boys are taken to a local church where they participate in a celebration of song and community spirit. Upon their return, the boys tell a teacher how impressed they were by the love they saw between people in Kenya and how they cared about each other even in conditions of poverty worse than they experienced.

The boys are sent home for a three month summer break and their planned return the next September never occurs when the school has to be shut down due to political upheaval and safety concerns in the area. Each boy reacts differently to this news. One boy goes on to excel in eighth grade and gets into Baltmore's best academic high school. Another decides he wants to be a preacher and begins to preach at his church with the support of his family.

Two brothers who went do not fare as well. The older one displays anger, despair and feels betrayed by the discontinuation of the program. He gives up doing his schoolwork in his large city class and fights with his younger brother. Their home life appears to be in worse shape than before. A woman from the Baraka program meets with him and encourages him to go to an automotive program at a vocational high school but he shows no interest.

The film raises the issue of what responsibility communities hold for the people within them and what role neighboring communities can play. As one of the boys asks, why couldn't a school in the surrounding area continue the program to help these boys succeed with them having to go all the way to Kenya? Another boy interviewed in 2006 now points out the need for role models for kids today in inner cities.

Film Factoid: 76% of African American young men never graduate high school.