April 9, 2009

Active Faith- Do It Even If It Scares You

Easter and Passover are here. The awakening of dormant life can be felt in the chilly air enfolding the daffodils and jonquils. The hyacinths hug each bud close when spring snow surprises them. Even though no blooms or sweet smells can be experienced during winter, you know spring is coming with the miracle of new life born and old life renewed. You put bulbs in the ground in the fall with the belief that they will grow and give you beauty later on. Planting is an act of faith. Taking care of what you plant before you see the results is active faith. Think of special education as a garden in which millions of children are planted each year, seeking nourishment from within and without in order to sustain them as each year passes. If we are going to be part of the solution in saving and enriching this barren and unsustainable field, there must be more than talk and desire and grandiose plans for marches and public demonstrations. Those will never happen. There must be a reality check of the doable and the determination to rethink an entirely broken system.

Some months ago I did a few YouTube videos to try and organize parents nationally because there is no genuine parent activism anywhere to be seen. The first video was well received with at least 1 person from each state emailing me. There was discussion of a Washington, D.C. march, of others doing videos, of a variety of organizations pulling together to help develop a united and independent parent organization, uncontrolled by taking federal funds. Everybody was sincere and had the best of intentions. But when I asked some to let me interview them for another video or to post their own, they refused. To go public frightened many. They believed in the cause, but not enough to risk being seen doing anything controversial. This is something I understand. But we need to put fear aside and replace it with an active faith that parents can actually work together in a common cause, across many different views, disabilities and needs. We need to believe this enough to take enormous risks in redesigning the disability garden so that all children can grow without the need to hug themselves against the cold of political and public opinion. Stimulus money is about to come to each state for special education. Think about writing a letter or making a phone call to your local school district, or even your state department of education. Ask exactly what they will do with that money. It is OK to be afraid. It is not OK to do nothing. Doing nothing is what has led us to where we are at this moment. I will do another YouTube video soon. If you want to participate, let me know.

Here are some news summaries you may have missed:

1. Special education stimulus money of $6.1 billion will be given to districts soon, with another $6.1 billion to come later to cover a two year period. This is in addition to the $11 billion for the current fiscal year and to be used for one-time expenses with the potential for long-term benefit, such as teacher training. (Spec. Ed. Stimulus Money Raising Cautions, Christina Samuels, Education Week, 3/18/09)
2. Lawyers continue to be hit by the economy, turning to bankruptcy law because of the recession. Some firms have laid off lawyers or told associates to take a year off and do charity work. (Lack of Mergers Idling Lawyers, The New York Times, 4/2/09). I think we have some charity work to recommend, don’t you?
3. A new book, Intelligence and How to Use It, Why Schools and Culture Count (Richard Nisbett, W.W. Norton & Company), challenges the view that intelligence is hereditary. Nisbett examines the importance of environment in determining IQ, with particular interest in IQ discrepancies between black and white children. He acknowledges that IQ tests measure real things- abstract reasoning skills and knowledge. He disagrees that 75-80% is hereditary, believing it to be less than 50% and points to IQ increases when poor children are adopted by upper-middle-class families. Their IQs increase 12-16 points. He points to the challenge of finding educational programs that are as effective as adoption in raising IQs. Nesbitt, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, has analyzed differences in how black and Hispanic children process information, fighting against a stereotype threat. Inner city students performed better when tests were presented as puzzles and when assignments were presented within a context of positive values. (Education Is All in Your Mind, Richard Nisbett, The New York Times, 2/8/09).

As for specific special education news, all of the websites I’ve seen are bare. We are frozen in time. In trimming my special education library, a 1978 publication from the National Center for Law and The Handicapped, Amicus, fell from the shelf. The cover said, “LEGAL RESOURCES FOR THE HANDICAPPED- WHO ARE THE ADVOCATES? CHOOSING YOUR ATTORNEY-PROCEED WITH CAUTION.” Nothing as good has been published since. If this Amicus had no date, it could have come today and you would be glad to get it. All of the ground has been readied. We’ve known the nature of the problems since P.L. 94-142 was passed in 1975. Nothing has changed, except for the worse. We know everything we need to know in order to make special education work and have its garden grow. We must have faith that we can make the changes that are needed, the intelligence to know when we are being conned, and the courage to take action. Get your hands dirty. Warm those closed buds. See how lovely they are as they begin to bloom upward towards the sun and the promise that the cycle of life and of opportunity will not stop on our watch.