EBD Blog

The Council for Children with Behavior Disorders has announced it’s fall conference. Here’s an excerpt from the mailer sent to members of the organization:

CCBD, in partnership with the Dallas Independent School District, announces its 2005 conference which focuses on meeting the needs of children and youth with learning and behavioral problems. Through this conference all of us who provide direct or indirect services to this population of students can learn more effective and efficient ways to ensure that appropriate and quality services are available. The conference theme this year is MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF CHILDREN/YOUTH WITH LEARNING AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS: PROVEN PRACTICES FOR PREVENTION/INERVENTION IN THE SCHOOL, HOME, AND COMMUNITY.

The dates of the conference is September 22-24, 2005 at the Omni Mandalay at Las Colinas (Irving), 221 East Las Colinas Blvd., Irving, TX 75039.

Some relevant links:

• Conference Website
• CCBD’s Website.

This may be a call for the services of someone who knows how to work with Emotional & Behavior Disorders. There are apparently some birds that use inappropriate words in public.

My link is to an RSS entry at the Annals of Improbable Research.

According to the BBC, a group of teachers in the United Kingdom believe that parents should be held responsible for students’ misbehavior. At a meeting of the Professional Association of Teachers, a UK teachers’ union, “Delegates voted that ministers should take ‘action against’ parents whose children misbehave.” Ann Nuckley, a school administrator told the the group,

“Poor parenting fosters lack of respect and no manners.

“No wonder then that, having no guidelines, children enter education with limited knowledge about appropriate behaviour.

“Staff in education are expected to teach social skills which should have been learnt at home.

“They find themselves ‘policing’ classes rather than teaching.”

The comments are a response to a proposed policy of the UK’s Labour party. An aspect of the policy is dubbed “Parent Power” and includes increased parent authority for failing schools, emphasis on basics, Zero tolerance for disruption, and other features.

I can understand her concern about teaching in schools where there are fewer disruptions, but Ms Nuckley’s comments raise a host of questions. Here are a few.

1. For what behaviors should the parents be responsible? Fighting? Cussing? Kissing? Crying? Arguing? Talking? Running?
2. How will they be held repsonsible? Will parents be summoned when a student behaves in a particular way? Will they be fined?
3. Will classroom environments fostered by teachers be held unimpeachable? Will those environments contribute nothing to students’ behavior?

What do you think? What are the merits and problems with holding parents responsible for misbehavior?

• Link to the BBC story about the PAT conference.
• Link to Times Education Supplement story on Labour’s “parent power.”
• Link to a Guardian story on “parent power.”
• Link to a statement about education policy from Labour’s Web site and to a PDF stating policies.
• Link to the PAT’s Web site.