Son Caged in Class
As I become more sensitive to perspectives and language, I caught this article today in The Globe and Mail: "Son Caged in Class, Parent's Say."
" 'Just imagine. My son would come back from school and he always appeared troubled. He had tried to tell us what was going on, but we couldn't understand what he meant. It wasn't until we asked him and his twin brother, who is in the same class, to draw us a picture of this enclosure that we realized what it was...'
Ms. Sinotte insists that Felix is a normal intelligent child and said there was no reason for this treatment."
SCREEEEEEETCH. What does this mean? That it's okay for other children who are "not normal" or let's posit for a moment, autistic, to be caged?
"The school board called a news conference yesterday, explaining that it is normal practice to place turbulent children in an isolation area for about an hour throughout the course of the day 'so they can rest and clam down.'"
Hmmm. I can think of better rooms, like snoezellen rooms,for instance, that provide that calm and are not cages.
What era are we living in?
" 'Just imagine. My son would come back from school and he always appeared troubled. He had tried to tell us what was going on, but we couldn't understand what he meant. It wasn't until we asked him and his twin brother, who is in the same class, to draw us a picture of this enclosure that we realized what it was...'
Ms. Sinotte insists that Felix is a normal intelligent child and said there was no reason for this treatment."
SCREEEEEEETCH. What does this mean? That it's okay for other children who are "not normal" or let's posit for a moment, autistic, to be caged?
"The school board called a news conference yesterday, explaining that it is normal practice to place turbulent children in an isolation area for about an hour throughout the course of the day 'so they can rest and clam down.'"
Hmmm. I can think of better rooms, like snoezellen rooms,for instance, that provide that calm and are not cages.
What era are we living in?
1 Comments:
We had a similar experience over 10 years ago, I can't tell you how, um, upset that made us. My thoughts, as I've recounted elsewhere, were along the lines of "Why don't you let me strap you (the teacher) into a chair?!?" Their reasons: he was disruptive of course. What he was, was bored. Out of his skull.
Eleven years ago, I would not have believed that schools would still be doing that today. We've made a lot of progress, but there is still a lot of ignorance out there for us to overcome.
Post a Comment
<< Home