Few critical avenues for film are as widely known and celebrated as the Academy Awards, the Oscars; they are like the Pulitzer Prize of cinema. Films that are recognized by the Academy Awards’ nominating committee deserve high honors and acclaim. Two such films in this year’s Oscars race point to an interesting trend in society that has implications in how we educate and work with those who learn or think differently from how we learn and think; these two films, The Artist and Moneyball, both “Best Picture” nominees this awards season, demonstrate two unique views of working within the field of academic diversity. Now, before you say, “What do silent films and baseball stories have to do with Special Education,” allow me to explain…

The Artist is the story of a silent film actor who, at the dawn of “talkie” films, refuses to change with the times. It just so happens that “talkies” break out as the 1929 stock market crashes, so this out-of-work actor whose pride and ego deny him the ability to break into this new avenue is left to pick up the pieces of his once-great but now-shattered existence. Moneyball, on the other hand, is the story of Billy Bean, the General Manager of the 2001-2002 Oakland Athletics ball club; the film examines how he, using statistical analysis and economic predictions, is able to assemble a team on a shoestring budget who are able to break the record for most consecutive games won in all of Major League Baseball history. The film’s narrative arch explores the trials and tribulations of breaking with tradition and taking a new direction. While I don’t want to spoil either film’s ending (as you’ll likely want to see them both), I will say that their narratives point to the two trends in Education as well as the general trend in the corporate world too when it comes to innovation and those who think differently.

What both films demonstrate is that when things change there are two major schools ofthought. The first, as exemplified by the protagonist of The Artist, is the group convinced “This too shall pass.” In Education we often hear, “This is just another fad. It’ll be gone in five years.” This group stubbornly digs in their heels in the belief that how it was done will prevail over how it is now being done; they are often the first to ridicule new approaches to teaching and the last to “jump on the bandwagon” if they don’t retire first. The second group, as exemplified by the protagonist of Moneyball, is made up of those willing to risk it all for the purpose of changing a deeply-held but false structure in society. In the film it was baseball scouting, but in the Education world it’s the folks who are knee-deep in Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Dewey’s Experiential Education, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory, Montessori’s Student-Centered classroom, Tomlinson’s Differentiated Instruction, or McTighe’s Understanding by Design. These people don’t just “drink the Kool Aid”; rather, they’re the ones mixing it and encouraging other to take a sip.

These two schools of thought inevitably meet, and the results, if not managed with an air of mutual respect, may lead to pedagogic and organizational brawls that split faculty and destroy collegial relationships. Members of these two schools of thought really do exist on different planets, as it were, because one school cannot exist without the other’s philosophies and behaviors yet they believe the other to be “off their rocker” and “naïve and misguided.” However, if each side took the time to reflect on their areas of similarity, many arguments could be ended or even avoided.

So what does all of this have to do with including academically-diverse students? Well, the Oscars will award the film that best conveys its central message through its use of visual rhetoric and skilled direction; but history will judge our era as one where we were confronted with the need for change and even provided innovators of change. Our political, economic, professional, social, and academic worlds are at a cross-roads, and we get to decide which direction we go. Our destiny will be decided based on how wereact to this change, what practices we embrace, what archaic beliefs we discard, and what values of camaraderie and egalitarianism we instill in the next generation. Only through collaboration and a clear vision will we be able to succeed in giving our students and colleagues innovative outlooks for a brighter future.

And the award goes to…

Matthew Ratz, M.Ed. is an educator who has taught middle school, high school, and college-level English writing and literature. He is certified in the areas of English, Social Studies, and Special Education, and he has taught student populations in suburban, rural, and urban public schools; his most-recent position was as the Learning Specialist at a private, Jewish school in Maryland, and he is currently an Adjunct Professor at a local community college. Matthew’s master’s degree focus was on the positive effects of creative, authentic assessment on a high-school English literature class. Additionally, he has studied academic diversity and differentiated instruction under Dr. Scott Goldberg (at YU) and Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson (at UVA). His areas of continued interest include engaging instructional practices, student-centered curriculum development, the use of humor and popular media in the classroom, and the transformation of education for the 21^st Century and beyond. He can be reached at mjratz@gmail.com.

Our middle son Jacob was diagnosed with ADHD at eight and with Asperger syndrome at 15, he was not treated any differently than his peers. School staff treated him like everyone else with accommodations based on his needs. Jacob has many strengths including public speaking and was the spokesperson for his Confirmation trip to Senator Paul Wellstone’s office.

Jacob’s public school could have learned some lessons from Jacob’s synagogue school treating students with disabilities with dignity and respect.

To them Jacob was a label with troublesome behavior and troublesome parents.

Frustrated with the endless “Mrs. Christensen” calls I boned up on special education law to learn Jacobs’s rights. When the principal called to say that he was giving Jacob in – school suspension for “poking a hole in a concrete wall with a pencil” my second reaction (first being “are you kidding me??) was “I will not allow you this unless you can prove how you intend to provide Jacob with a FREE APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION in the LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT!” My words were taken directly from the special education law of the land, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

A few months later my husband and I went to conferences. I noticed was that three staff members waited for us, while other parents had one. I thought, “here we go again.”

Agenda Item: How to discipline Jacob the next time he poked a hole in a concrete wall with a pencil.

“Mr. and Mrs. Christensen. We know you don’t like in school suspension,” said the special education teacher.

“Not without a Free Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment,” I reminded him.  He spoke again. “We have a plan.” He barreled through his remarks without taking breath. “The next time Jacob acts up, we’ll put him in a cab to the school bus depot with a toothbrush and he can clean buses.”

“WHAT?!” My husband and I looked at each other in disbelief. “You’re joking, right?” I asked, marveling that someone could even come up with such a ridiculous plan.

“No.”

My husband spoke quietly. “The answer is no. This is no way to provide a consequence for behavior. In any situation I can think of. No.”

Later I learned that “Brushing the Bus” was district-wide policy to punish misbehaving students.

We moved Jacob to a new school district that mirrored the core philosophies of Jacob’s synagogue school.

Treat each person as a unique individual. Teach each child according to his or her needs. Parents, educators and the student work together as a team.

Amazing things happen when we all work together.

Shelly Christensen, founder of Inclusion Innovations, is a consultant and speaker working with synagogues and  Jewish organizations to facilitate inclusive practices based on Jewish values. She is co-founder of Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month (JDAM) and co-chair of the Access to Lifelong Jewish Learning Task Force of the Union for Reform Judaism. Shelly is the author of The Jewish Community Guide to Inclusion of People with Disabilities. shelly@inclusioninovations.com

Participation in this study is completely voluntary and anonymous. The survey will not ask you for any identifying information and you are free to withdraw at any time. Additionally, any information gathered from the study will be written about collectively so that no one person’s information will be displayed. All data will be kept on a USB flash drive in a locked filing cabinet, which can only be accessed by myself and my academic adviser, Dr. Lewis Schlosser.

If you are at least 18 years old, Jewish, the parent of a child with a developmental disability, and are willing to participate in this study, please click on the following link:  http://asset.tltc.shu.edu/servlets/asset.AssetSurvey?surveyid=4941 and type in the password “shalom” (all lower-case and without the quotation marks) in order to complete survey. Your completion of the survey will serve as your consent to participate in the study. The survey will be running between January 2012 and December 2012. If you do choose to participate please visit the website between those dates. In addition, I would appreciate your help in forwarding this e-mail to any other Jewish parents of a child(ren) with a disability, whom may also be interested in participating.

Directions: Download and print the Purim Four Square. Name each Purim symbol correctly and color in its box (each child playing should use a different color).  The person to complete the most squares of 4 boxes is the winner!

Check back later this week for a visual no bake Hamentashen recipe!

More than 13.5 million children under the age of 18 in the United States have special health care needs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That translates into nearly one in every five households with at least one child requiring costly specialized education, medical care and related services.

These children’s needs may range from such chronic medical illnesses as diabetes or cerebral palsy, to such emotional or behavioral health problems as autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), sensory impairments, or learning disabilities.

The ratio of special-needs children in Jewish households is likely no higher than the national average. However, the financial stakes and personal sacrifices can be far greater for parents wrestling with ways to provide their children with a suitable educational and social environment within a Jewish communal framework.

In effect, Jewish parents of special-needs children often face a trifecta of battles: with school districts, health insurance companies, and their own ability to pay yeshivah or day school tuitions. (Read more…)