Friday Open Thread
Once again, the end of the week and a massively horrific incident, this time in Nice. Please send out good karma and prayers for all affected by this mass murder and by the people of France. (I note that Dallas had lit up public buildings in blue for their slain officers and one building was done in the colors of the French flag. Classy.)
In the name of democracy, a good article from the Global Oneness Project, Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy by Parker Palmer.
The district has made the announcement of the new "division" in the district - Student Supports. It is to be headed by former director of Special Education, Wyeth Jessee. Looks like Michael Tolley's empire is expanding.
Saturday director community meetings:
President Betty Patu - Caffe Vita, 5028 Wilson Ave S. from 10 am to 11:30 am
Director Leslie Harris - Southwest Branch of Seattle Public Library, 9010 35th Ave SW
from 3-4:30 pm
The Board has been silent on the Garfield "Honors for All" issue; might be a good opportunity to ask these directors for their thoughts.
What's on your mind?
In the name of democracy, a good article from the Global Oneness Project, Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy by Parker Palmer.
If I were asked for two words to summarize the habits of the heart American citizens need in response to twenty-first-century conditions, I would chose chutzpah and humility. By chutzpah I mean knowing that I have a voice that needs to be heard and the right to speak it. By humility I mean accepting the fact that my truth is always partial and may not be true at all, so I need to listen with openness and respect, especially to "the other," as much as I need to speak my own voice with clarity and conviction.Former Queen Anne principal, David Elliott, is opening a private school, Solve for (x) School. They have a fairly specific page on qualities they want (or want to develop) in students.
The district has made the announcement of the new "division" in the district - Student Supports. It is to be headed by former director of Special Education, Wyeth Jessee. Looks like Michael Tolley's empire is expanding.
After several months of internal stakeholder engagement, SPS launched a multi-phased restructure of the central office to increase support to schools, build system coherence and improve accountability.The district, in explaining staffing adjustments, says this:
Under this restructure, a new division of Student Supports has been created and includes: behavioral supports, counseling, nursing, Special Education, English Language Learners (ELL) and the Advanced Learning services and will work in close partnership with the Curriculum and Instruction division.
Based on the June enrollment projections, we are expecting 53,107 students (headcount) for our 2016-17 school year, an increase of 783 students over last year’s official October 1 headcount.Looks like several middle schools are losing teachers with Mercer losing the most at 2.4 FTE. But it is the high schools that are taking on the chin with nearly all of them (comprehensive) to experience some kind of cut. Sealth is still losing 3.0 FTE. What a loss.
Saturday director community meetings:
President Betty Patu - Caffe Vita, 5028 Wilson Ave S. from 10 am to 11:30 am
Director Leslie Harris - Southwest Branch of Seattle Public Library, 9010 35th Ave SW
from 3-4:30 pm
The Board has been silent on the Garfield "Honors for All" issue; might be a good opportunity to ask these directors for their thoughts.
What's on your mind?
Comments
https://www.donorschoose.org/project/solid-seats-for-solid-science-students/1942331/?challengeid=193036&more=true
I found this comment from the detracking thread troubling. Can someone explain what a SM4 is? Are there levels/catagories of SPED kids? Do they really teach Garbage Collection at Garfield? Maybe it was a joke?
SM4 is one of the self-contained models for kids with more significant issues that also need higher special ed teachers and higher than normal teacher:student ratios.
-another sped parent
https://vimeo.com/142753864
Old Bulldog
http://www.garfieldmessenger.org/2505/articles/features/specializing-education/
open ears
MM
MM
I don't suppose the kids going through the cash get paid at all.
"Seattle Public Schools (SPS) appointed Wyeth Jessee to Chief of Student Supports. Effective July 1, Jessee will provide leadership to the new Student Supports division with a focus on the implementation of the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) model."
He has the job to come up with creative explanations for how they are making lots of progress on MTSS implementation without getting any closer to getting the job done. It's challenging work that can only be done with the help of a leadership that turns over like a spin cycle and constant revisions to the lexicon.
He will start with an honest appraisal of the failures to date and a new timetable for implementation. That will buy him the five years he'll need to find another job before people discover that he hasn't done anything productive.
Emails between a SPS director and a SPS supervisor were the director is instructing the supervisor to document (on her laptop in real time) the questions OSPI is asking regarding IDEA compliance during the OSPI SPED audit (again being sent to the director in real time). According to the emails, the documented questions are then used to coach others who are scheduled to be interviewed.
No shame
I was disappointed to find out that OSPI notifies SPS in advance of which student's IEPs that OSPI will audit. (I believe the notice is 3 days, but I will have to research that.) I don't know so much advance notice of which students IEPs will be inspected even qualifies as an audit. I would like to know how many IEP's are modified in the time between notice and inspection by OSPI, and what the substance of the modifications are.
There is a bagger at the QFC I shop at, with Down's Syndrome. She came up through the SPS program.
HP
SPS SPED
Thank you. I totally agree with your post. Schools should not have students going through garbage, period. Recycling is a activity, life skill, education that can be addressed and taught another way. At one time, cleaning the lunchroom was a punishment for a transgression, and mostly Black students were doing the cleaning......due to the "transgressions" that were disproportionately recorded and referred.
Just Messenger
Earth Corp students compost, too. At the end of the school day, these students go through various recycle bins, take partially eaten sandwiches out of garbage and place in compost bins etc.
I've also seen Earth Corp students at various festivals around Seattle. Again, they are dealing with compost and recycle bins on the streets of Seattle.
These kids feel good about what they are doing and they feel they are making the world a better place.
I've been concerned about the lack of education around hand washing etc. I think more students need instruction on recycling, composting and health safety.
To be clear. I'm all for recycling at school. I'm all for having kids help out. I even support recycling or garbage handling as job training - for any student who really had a particular ambition in sanitation. EG. They ask for it. I've never met such a kid. I reject mandatory garbage collection, as a stand alone class, or as part of ANY class - for 1 group of students - those with disabilities. If it's a good skill - then everybody should be doing it. Students with disabilities don't need to be doing the trash for your kids. In special education there are the 3 F's of transition - food, filth, and flowers. Sanitation is one leg of this dumping ground - FILTH.
N, and Just Messenger - you are both wrong in what we should be expecting from our transition students. DVR has very developed programs with job coaching, mentoring, and job-shadowing students don't need to be sorting through trash. N, unemployment is not high - it's incredibly low, and this can not be an excuse for an inappropriate program. We don't need to stigmatize or re-stigmatize a whole group of students by reducing them to a single job skill - which isn't really a job skill - which simply fits our idea of disability. I can think of 1000 other things a student could be doing instead. Why can't the school staff do the same?
Speddie
Speddie
West
1) May not be a legitimate CTE class
2) Is a required course for some students when it should only be an elective
3) Is not available for students without IEPs
4) Has no academic expectations associated with it
Beyond that, there is reason to believe that the activity is regarded as demeaning within the culture of the school and the students who are compelled to engage in this activity are demeaned by it.
I'm curious. Can any student sign up for this course or only students who are receiving Special Education services?
Here DRW, Washington state's mandated disability watchdog group won a lawsuit that banned Garbage Sorting. Too bad we spend all this effort and money on compliance - but don't even bother with providing compliant classes for our most disabled students. Garbage sorting has ALREADY been found out of compliance in Washington. Here we have promoted Wyeth Jesse to grand poo-bah for all his excellent work on compliance. And we have students with disabilities forced to wade through garbage at the district's flagship high school. (and, it's not just at Garfield either)
Here's one from California.
Here California district apologizes for humiliating students with disabilities.
You know. It's just a small step - from sorting garbage to being garbage. And, you will find instances of students put in garbage cans as punishment in special education classes as restraint and/or isolation. I have witnessed students blocked between garbage cans - right here in SPS. Folks, if it looks bad - it is bad. I applaud Garfield students who have identified this as a grave injustice.
Speddie
And students learn by doing.
West
What you are missing - there's a long history of making people with disabilities (and minorities) do the garbage in lieu of anything more meaningful or based on their unique aptitudes. That's how you reinforce a stereotype, by reinforcing the notion that the only thing students with disabilities can do is: "garbage". And they all must do the same thing: "garbage". That strips them of their identities. We need that stereotype dismantled, not reinforced. Furthermore - the kids are drenched in garbage and totally stink. How does that make them socially engaging?
Isn't it ironic that the school that is integrating its LA classes for social justice - doesn't bat an eyelash at this HUGE, one-size fits-all mass stigmatization of students with disabilities? These are mostly minority students we are talking about here. And, I know for an absolute fact - they absolutely HATE being forced into this.
Here are 10 other "jobs" in a school that kids could learn instead: coffee cart, office supply replenishment, class display board refreshing, party planning, library book sorting, lost and found management, local shopping for staff, school store. Those would build useful skills without stigmatizing students. Heck. A coffee cart might even build their social status. I thought of that in about 2 minutes. If it were my job - I could think of 1000 jobs. Why is the special ed teacher unable to think of something better on his own?
For me - my kid will "do the school's garbage" ONLY when everybody else is doing it too. And even then - given the history in this country and in schools probably not.
Speddie
Times have changed. We must change as well. If people get stuck in the paradigms of the past, well little is going to change and education will be rooted in a mire of competing factions forever.
I'm reading the same mind sets on my neighborhood blog about HALA, parking, density, etc. Everyone wants everything to stay the same. Everybody sees through their own lenses. AT some point, we have to realize that we can change. How we value work changes. How we value development over neighborhoods and cars over density. I don't want to argue HALA here but it is the same mindset that keeps people from making good changes. And if nothing else, we must teach our kids to value our environment and to respect all work and all workers. If that means putting aside old paradigms and helping to create new ones, do it.
I don't mean to lecture but I see so many stuck in the ruts of the past. Your children don't have those experiences. Those are yours. Let them go and make sure they don't get repeated today. We all have to let go of what used to be...because those days are gone.
I don't know how many of you listen to Thom Hartmann but I've been catching up on podcasts. He talked at length about how so many of our drug problems and mental illnesses are predicated on isolationism. On competing. On feelings of not fitting in. A lack of social support. He'd done his research. We have so much to do to prevent generations of kids from falling into the same traps that keep them isolated and feeling inferior and bad.
Well, I don't mean to be maudlin but to me it is so clear. We must value things we used to denigrate and respect people for the contributions they make and it really does start with family and school.
I won't argue beyond what I've said. Sometimes I'm not so good at that. I wish I could convey how clearly I see this as part of a greater challenge and one that values all kids and all work. But we do have to make sure it is never a negative experience or punishment for any student. And I do agree with your third paragraph completely. And no, your child should not be doing anything that is exclusive from the rest of the kids. If that's happening anywhere, that is an extremely poor administration and they should be called on it. Again, please don't burden your kids with your history. Yes, at one time...but now is a different time and the planet has different needs.
However, do you want your kid picking fruit in Wenatchee? Would that be considered beneath him/her? My mother traveled with her family between Montana and Oregon and they picked fruit and vegetables. Her sister went to college, brothers all became ranchers, and mom stayed in the city and worked, got married, had a family. We all did just fine. I didn't know this until after I was a working woman. I always had the notion that only minorities every did field work.
But when I went back to school - in the eighties! - I lived in a house with four other students. Three guys (architect, business, engineering) and a woman (social work). I got to know her quite well and I was absolutely dumbstruck when she said that her family were migrant workers in Eastern Wa. She was a red-haired white woman. I couldn't believe that children of migrant workers would have the opportunity to come to the UW. And I sure didn't realize in the eighties that there were white migrants. That's how poorly educated I was in the realities of work and families. It changed my whole outlook. Many years later I hosted a black woman in my home with three children and one on the way. She was running from an abusive husband. I never intended to do this but via a series of weird events I ended up have her for three-four months.
All I'm trying to say is that we have to value all persons and find value in all the work they do. I think most people would consider field work and trash sorting comparable. And as you said, everyone learns to value it or no one learns to value it. I'm for everyone learning to value it. But I hear you. If you think I'm being idealistic, that's fine. I've been accused before. But I keep trying. :)
I'm no goodie two shoes and my charitable nature is pretty reserved to writing checks.But I've learned how to see life through lenses that I never would have used had I not been exposed to these kinds of experiences in my life.
It's not about how things might be if, if if. It's about how things are.
It's not about how things were. It's about how things are.
This class, regardless of what it might be, is completely illegitimate as it now is. Can you please acknowledge that before moving on to fantasy scenarios?
HP
Wrong on the first sentence, right on the second. Because you brought up HALA, I'll just make the point. I have met/heard very, very few people who "want everything to stay the same." I think there is an acknowledgment that the city is changing (and I should know, I live very close to the new Roosevelt station-in-progress.) What people don't want is willy-nilly change in every single area of the city, unchecked by the city government.
I agree with Speddie; the point is missed about the garbage collection. Of course, there is honor in every job (many European countries are a lot better about this than in the U.S.) But, if it's such a worthy learning activity, then maybe all the freshman should be assigned garbage duty at least once a year.
And Speddie pointed out many other jobs those students could do like barista work at school. And, I think any kid who wants to should be able to sell at the student store.
N - yes. I get it. I value work. All work. And those who do the work. I really do. Do I want my kid with a disability working in an orchard? Probably not. Your friends and family who did that work - did it as a path to somewhere better. When we look at people with disabilities - we do not see work "as the road to college", we're seeing it as the best they can possibly do. I want my kid to have a socially meaningful life, where my adult child is well integrated into the community. If that work can be found on an orchard - then I'm all for it. But right now, my child has not expressed any interest in orchard work - and we don't live on one.
But N - you are not getting it. Stigmatizing, one-size fits-all work should not be foisted on students with disabilities. Students with disabilities are not the ones who hold the stigmatizing views in need of correction through education. You do not remove stigma - by making stigmatized people do stigmatizing work - that they do not want to do, because they are disabled. (Hard to believe that this needs explaining, but I'm willing to explain.) If it were a good idea, we should put it on everyone else. If it were any other group besides students with severe cognitive disabilities - say, black boys (likely to have high unemployment), would you say - "Yay! Let's train THEM the value of work by requiring THEM to sort OUR garbage." ??? I think you wouldn't that. And you're also not getting a big point - this has already been found illegal in a lawsuit brought by DRW (disability rights Washington), right here in Washington state. So why are we STILL doing it?
Speddie
You are burdened with history. Your kids are not.
The past is never dead. It's not even past.
Seriously!!!! The kids are still being screwed over by the adults, in line with historical trajectories. In the building. So they walked in the building with no burden - but they left with great burden. Same with race. Do you really think this racial stuff doesn't play out at school? It absolutely does. History repeats itself through education unless great effort is applied. At least in the case of racism, we have people who actual want to fix the issue acting thoughtfully. I wish I saw a similar care applied to students with disabilities. I have great hope in the kids - because they are the ones who see it, when the staff can't or won't.
Speddie
hawk
HP
Ballard 2.0 increase
Garfield (0.8) decrease
Ingraham 2.0 increase
Nathan Hale (1.6) decrease
Rainier Beach (0.8) decrease
Chief Sealth (3.0) decrease
West Seattle 2.4 increase
-parent
open ears
Does Garfield's Honors for All include the kids who have to take this class?
I would encourage students reporting on this to their parents.
The Bulldog article was shocking and the teacher, Mr. Stevens was flat out admitting to violating the law!
Did he actually get certified? How could he be a teacher of these special kids with that mindset? He needs to go back to school or lots of PD.
If this practice continues this year there will a big problem for the sup, board, ex. directors and principals.
big problem
Speddie
I know, Charlie, you think you're the smartest guy that ever blogged but no, I get it and still believe what I wrote thank you very much. And as for what is, it can always be changed. You are asking why and I"m asking why not. Isn't working for change the point of this blog? Yes, I get what I'm saying but apparently you do not.
As for HALA, I'm very well aware of the issues. In my neighborhood the city plans a large structure with no parking and no laundry and minimal square footage for "workforce" whatever that is. Still, on my neighborhood blog, the instincts are to protect what we have rather than acknowledge what the needs of the city are and how to best address them. I used that analogy simply to anecdotally show how most people see things through their own lenses. Yes, even smart people who believe they are always looking at situations objectively - which none of us can really do most of the time. That is why we try to discuss rather than tell.
Charlie, often your posts reflect privilege. The privilege of someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else. And I thoroughly disagree with your post that said the speaker says what he intends and it is up to the listener to get it right. That is pure horse-pucky. Both the speaker and the listener must work extremely hard to be understood accurately. That is the nature of words. Esp. written words.
@Speddie: I want to add that my take on history is that we must never forget history so we will never repeat it. Knowing that history should inform how we implement new teaching. But again, I'm okay with your responses because I always realize not everyone sees everything through my lens. But I'm curious, if any of these kids really do end up working in a job that like trash sorting or comparable, how do you think they're going to feel then? Esp. given that they will know it is beneath anyone to sort trash?
Oh well. Guess I've stirred it up again. So what? Speddie, this is not meant to argue with you. I understand your point of view.
What if for occ. ed. credit white kids took marketing but all black kids were required to farm cotton? Or if male students took business but all female students were required to do the school laundry for 4 years? People are farmers & run laundries for work. But having it required for one group of students because they are identified for that job by historic patterns of discrimination, and off limits for all other students, is indefensible. It is discrimination. The historic implications make it worse. If the school wants to make it an elective available for all students, required for none, & avoid funneling students with disabilities into it at a higher rate, then I'm fine with it. Better yet, it can be the responsibility of a club.
-2e parent
Nobody has said Garbage is "beneath" somebody else. That misses the point. This "training" is given to students with low cognitive skills. Many or most of these students probably don't "get it" about the social hierarchy. Which makes it all the worse - we're forcing people who can't make a choice, or have an opinion in the same way as most of us - into a position which marginalizes them. And you somehow think somebody will learn the "ethics of hard work" and pulling yourself up from your bootstraps??? Who and what are being taught here? What happened to evidence based practice? It is YOU who think the work is stigmatizing. This is happening in middle school! Is your average middle schooler supposed to think, "Gee isn't it cool that cognitively disabled kids are getting to do my Garbage and Clean Up after me. How lucky for him. That work is cool. I think I'll invite him to my birthday party." Seriously? That's how you, as an educator, "are informed" for changing historical patterns?
I am saying people with disabilities are robbed of their dignity when, as a group, they are singled out for "training" that is not based on their unique interest or ability. Instead of actual education students with disabilities are forced into "training", or non-training really, that is stigmatizing. It is BECAUSE, partly because, students with disabilities and other marginalized people have been forced to do Garbage that we hold this view in the first place.
N - right you don't have my lens. And SPS never considers the long term results of this type of education (or lack thereof). Have you ever observed a "group home" for people with disabilities? I have. I noticed several residents on a field trip to Golden Gardens. They weren't enjoying the beach - they were obsessively picking up Garbage as they were trained to - somewhere, maybe SPS. It included nasty food, any bit of trash, needles, condoms, everything you might find in a ditch in a public venue - with their bare hands. It wasn't a job - it was a hobby - built from practice. It wasn't a job, a social skill, a behavior that we want in anybody - it was marginalizing and bizarre - but I understood why they did it. It was the result of an education - rather, the lack of one.
Speddie
HP
Marvel