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djasbridge
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 4th, 2007 |
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Posted: Sun Mar 11th, 2007 04:14 pm |
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I, like you, could probably write 60,000 pages about "my vision" of RWOL! Why aren't there fifty RWOL books on the market anyway?
I keep asking questions. I think we should keep asking questions about what we do -- not just show up to work every day, test, write the report, present at the IEP meeting, and place the kid in a special class. I think RWOL can help us ask important questions about what we [so many times] are forced or expected to do in our profession.
As individuals, I think we all have our own methods and philosophies. For example, I try not to test kids to death, I write brief reports, I present briefly at meetings, centering in on what's important, and I insist that any diagnosis are always team diagnosis. I am sometimes criticized for that approach by others who expect to see a 27 page report with my diagnosis... sorry, I'd rather spend my time working with students.
"Any time spent not working with students is wasted time."
In working directly with students I emphasize brief strategic interventions when possible, rather than signing the kid up for a lifetime of therapy. I work with all students any time on real life problems -- I don't diagnose them when they come in (don't get me wrong, if a kid needs services that I can't provide, I'll refer them to the appropriate source).
As an existential phenomenologist (are there any others out there -- am I the only one in the country?), I listen to the student, try to understand their perceptions of reality, and try my best to help them solve problems and make great choices in their own lives... and then return to real life.
Although I have never been formally trained by Glasser, much of what I do utilizes principles from reality orientation/therapy (e.g., deemphasis on punishment and labels, use humor, etc.). I guess I'm a neo-Glasserian in so many ways. Whatever happened to "Schools Without Failure?"
There's room to criticize anyone and sometimes my peers have criticized me because not everything I do is necessarily "research based." First of all, I don't want to sit around and wait for twenty-five years for someone to do the research -- this is my great frustration being twenty years ahead of my time. As a professional educator, I'm just going to do what is necessary to serve students. You go do the research if you want it.
I do utilize the sciences -- there is a difference between the scientific methods and research based interventions. I see science misused on a daily basis in our profession. For example, if a kid is struggling in math, here's one of the first things I hear: "I wonder if he has a learning disability?" Such thinking is a distortion of the very foundations of science (misuse of the null and alternative hypothesis). For example:
If a teacher comes to me to consult and says, "I'm very frustrated... I just haven't been able to help John improve his time on task," would I reply, "Well, I think you probably have a learning disability -- let me give you some tests and we'll get you out of that frustrating situation!?" Much of what we do in educaiton just seems, uh, sorry, backwards to me.
And I believe school psychologists are professional educators from the school of arts and sciences. As a professional educator, I -- like you -- consider the ethics of what we do. I believe much of what we do is, gulp, unethical in so many ways... I sometimes have a very hard time looking at myself in the mirror after I was earlier that day part of a process that called a kid "learning disabled" and put him or her into the special education system, often for a lifetime. I hope the system helps the kid (sometimes it does), but we all know the data.
I have a real hard time calling anyone learning disabled when it is quite evident to me that none of us know what a learning disability is!
Thus, my view of RWOL is probably a little different than the standard NASP position paper or your view. I think it will take a [peaceful, nonviolent] revolution through a grassroots movement by millions of ethical citizens from a variety of fields for this change to occur. You see how the RWOL position paper has been around for almost twenty years and still nothing has happened. I'm 100% for educational reform, but I'm just not that optimistic... still, we have to start somewhere...
Observe how the behaviorists legislated the philosophy of behaviorism in the 1995 (or was it 1997) IDEA and here they are, ten or more years later, still scrambling around trying to implement their behavior plans and the new, um, RtI idea, which, given another ten to twenty years, might start being utilized in varying degress in about twenty to fifty percent of schools. There's an example of how "educational reform" seems to occur.
I guess I'll stop there for now. You'll notice that when I write, there is sometimes a thin line between "a great idea" and "ranting and raving." I guess you will get to decide which is which, but either way, I have the courage to present my views. I hope you will too.
I can't wait to hear your visions of RWOL and I'm looking forward to discussing and debating these important issues with you here on the RWOL Forum.
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