Scoop on Nashville Convention

[Guest guest]

I was torn about whether to attend his workshops or not and finally chose not

.... only because my daughter is 19, we have lived inclusion and I figured I

already knew what he would be telling his audience. ;-)

It's wonderful to have dynamic speakers that pump the audiences full of

momentum. The stories they tell are so beautiful and moving. But they have also

made me sad at times, wishing I could move to where they were because things

were so much more difficult where I lived.

What I would love to see is these speakers pump up educational professionals

more than parents. We know what our children need, we know why inclusion is

beneficial for many students, we are the choir they are preaching to. We need

these speakers to pump up the teachers, and the administrators. We need these

speakers to help them understand how inclusion works and how to be practical in

it's application.

Now, I just went to a conference that was 98% VA educators and we had Dr. Lou

Brown from Wisconsin telling them about inclusion. He was WONDERFUL! He made

them understand the benefits and the practicality. He gave them concrete

evidence along with the wonderful stories. It was so heartening to hear that

audience respond so positively to the ideology and philosophy. We also had Dr.

June Downing from California State University .... she was a great resource,

full of practical implementation ideas! Of course, I was sad that VA had to

import out of state experts on inclusion ... is it 28 years since IDEA passed

and we still have to depend on out of state personnel to explain the law to our

educators? ;-(

Cheryl in VA

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 7/17/02 5:29:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time,

wildwards@... writes:

> We also had Dr. June Downing from California State University .... she was a

> great resource, full of practical implementation ideas! Of course, I was

> sad that VA had to import out of state experts on inclusion ... is it 28

> years since IDEA passed and we still have to depend on out of state

> personnel to explain the law to our educators? ;-(

> Cheryl in VA

>

She is at Cal State Northridge (there are a LOT of different Cal State

schools.)

I saw her speak at the Cal-TASH conference last year. It was great timing...

I was in the middle of a disasterous third grade year with my daughter and

listening to Dr Dowling I realized what was missing... there was no one in

the school who knew what they were doing when it came to adapting curriculum!

It was an uphill battle... but I advocated for and got the school to hirer an

Inclusion SPecialist as a consultant. What a HUGE difference that made.

Fourth Grade was a wonderful experience.

BTW - for the person who asked about books. Dr Dowling had examples of

stories she adaptsfor her students so that they can share in the classroom

literary experience. She showed us an example of how she turned Harry Potter

into a one page summary for a 12-year-old boy with DS.

- Becky

[Guest guest]

re: " Of course, I was sad that VA had to import out of state experts on

inclusion ... is it 28 years since IDEA passed and we still have to depend

on out of state personnel to explain the law to our educators? ;-( "

I totally agree with Cheryl. I have one extra thought, though, IDEA has

never come close to being funded as it was originally intended to be. 40%

was what was agreed to by the congress who enacted the legislation. 40%!

We, IMHO, need to help the educators (and believe me I'm not close to being

their best friend, esp given our ugly IEP situation) get the funding

straightened out. I think money is, in many ways, at the bottom of this.

Teachers can't get trained; they're scared of not knowing how to teach our

children. They are being held accountable for the tests being used to

measure typical children; resources are scarce and an enormous burden is

placed on the teachers' shoulder with not enough training, resources, help,

etc etc etc.

Really, we need a concerted, all out grass roots effort to get our

congressmen/women to fund IDEA the way it was intended. One less B-52

bomber and a lot more money goes into the pot. Call and write your

legislators. NDSS has a template for how to do it on their web site.

One of our baby sitters told us of how, in her college classes in education,

virtually nothing is being said/done to prepare our future teachers for

inclusion. Not to mention her fellow students don't want to do it. This

problem is systemic and crosses many borders. We have much work left to do.

Eleanor

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 7/17/2002 8:45:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

JimandEleanor@... writes:

> 40%

> was what was agreed to by the congress who enacted the legislation. 40%!

>

<A

HREF= " http://www.reedmartin.com/specialeducationfundingconfusion.htm " >Special

Education Law & Advocacy Strategies - , J.D. - Special

Educa</A>

Please read this article. 40% was never promised.

This article really sets this supposed unfunded mandate straight

Becci

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 7/17/02 7:45:25 AM Central Daylight Time,

JimandEleanor@... writes:

> never come close to being funded as it was originally intended to be. 40%

> was what was agreed to by the congress who enacted the legislation. 40%!

Actually my understanding is the wording was " up " to 40 %. I very much

doubt any of them ever expected to actually fund it at 40%. but the number

sounds nice. :-Þ

Take care

Joy