Cameron Marlow of the MIT Media Lab is collecting data about Weblogs. If you maintain a blog or contribute to one, you can help the folks there develop a statistical picture of the people who contribute to blogs by completing an anonymous survey. I gave at home. The image is a link.
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Page 2 of 2
SCHOOL VIOLENCE (AND THREATS THEREOF) AND PREVENTION
Our local (Charlottesville) newspaper (Daily Progress; see www.DailyProgress.com) has carried front-page stories recently about issues involving school safety. Yesterday (5/20) the story was about 4th and 5th graders bringing guns to school in a nearby county school system. This morning’s story (5/21) is a continuation of a story about the arrest and trial of two older students (a girl, 15, and a boy, 16):
Granted, the students have not been tried and convicted, and opinions about the students are varied. But I wonder what incidents like these say about our society and our willingness to confront the issue of prevention.
According to the newspaper story, the boy had previously brought a knife to school and held it to an other student’s face (for which the paper reports he had gotten “into trouble” (consequences unspecified). He is described by his mother as “a very gregarious and positive kid…. He’s always been a very nice kid. I relize that the way this has been presented it doesn’t seem that way.” He had been homeschooled until this year. A probation officer testified that the boy “is currently on a suspended probation period on two felony burglary charges, three petit larceny charges and one charge of vandalism.” Advocates for the girl requested “that the proceedings be closed to the media because it would involve testimony about the girl’s mental health.” The judge ordered that the hearing remain open; the girl’s attorney declined to present evidence.
Reports like these make me wonder about our attitudes toward punishment and prevention. As a society, we seem to believe that more severe punishment is more effective, but the research data do not support that notion. What is more effective is punishment that is consistent, appropriate for the age of the offender and the seriousness of the offense, and corrective (instructive). The punishment of offenders in our society, including kids who behave inappropriately in school, is often way off the mark. And then there is the matter of early and effective intervention to prevent the kind of incident that makes the news. In most cases, we find a history of troubling behavior (aggressive behavior, aggressive talk, prior offenses) that are ignored, justified by someone, and allowed to escalate to far more serious levels before parents or school personnel or anyone else takes them seriously.
But, of course, early intervention and prevention demands taking risks on the side of false positives. False positives are not desirable, but they’re probably less undesirable than false negatives. It’s the false negatives (no, this kid’s behavior is not a problem, really) that I think should worry us most. Nobody has been able to invent prevention without intervention, and nobody has been able to invent the perfectly accurate method of identification (so that there are no false positives or false negatives).
Sphere: Related Content
Just about anyone would probably feel like a piker when comparing him- or herself to Jim’s academic qualifications, and I’m no exception. Nevertheless, let me add an entry to this Web log recounting my background.
I, too, have taught children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders, having worked for the L.A. County schools and a couple of private schools in the L.A. area in the 1960s and 70s, as well as having spent time asking as a parent for four children from a state hospital whom Pat Lloyd and I had live with us in the early 70s. I share with Jim substantial concern about the quality of education available to students with EBD. To that end, I have taught prospective teachers and researchers about special education since the late 1970s. After a brief affiliation with Northern Illinois University’s special education program, I joined the special education faculty of the University of Virginia Curry School of Education in 1978.
I have written about special education and hope to use this forum to promote provision of helpful services for students with EBD by commenting on what I consider appropriate and inappropriate in the current and evolving situation. Also, see my more-detailed notes on Teach Effectively!
Sphere: Related Content
Here’s a little information about me (Jim Kauffman; for more about me, you can visit my Web site). I am now Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia, from which I retired in June, 2003 (although I’m still teaching a doctoral seminar and coordinating the doctoral program, which I will do through the 2005-2006 academic year). At UVA, I have been chair of the Department of Special Education, Associate Dean for Research, the Charles S. Robb Professor of Education, and the William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor of Education.
I received my Ed.D. degree in special education from the University of Kansas in 1969. I am a past president of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children), and among the honors I’ve been given are the 2002 Outstanding Leadership Award from CCBD, the 1994 Research Award of the Council for Exceptional Children, and the 1991 Outstanding Service Award from the Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavioral Disorders. I’m also a former teacher in both general elementary and special education for students with emotional and behavioral disorders.
I’ve authored or co-authored numerous publications in special education, including the following recent or forthcoming books: Characteristics of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth (8th edition, 2005), Cases in Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (2005), Learning Disabilities: Foundations, Characteristics, and Effective Teaching (3rd edition, 2005, with D. P. Hallahan, J. W. Lloyd, M. P. Weiss, & E. A. Martinez), Special Education: What It Is and Why We Need It (2005, with D. P. Hallahan), The Illusion of Full Inclusion: A Comprehensive Critique of a Current Special Education Bandwagon (2nd ed., 2005, edited with Daniel P. Hallahan), Exceptional Learners: Introduction to Special Education (10th ed., forthcoming about April with a 2006 copyright, with Daniel P. Hallahan), and Children and Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: A History of Their Education (forthcoming about July with a 2006 copyright, with Timothy J. Landrum).
I am a skeptic about nearly everything, as future blogs will no doubt confirm. Probably my skepticism and low level of acceptance of statements about special education (or education more generally) that just don’t add up are best captured in a book I published in 2002, Education Deform: Bright People Sometimes Say Stupid Things About Education.
I do not believe that much of the current reform legislation, including the No Child Left Behind Act or the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, is rational or helpful (usually–actually, in almost every case, I suppose–irrationality doesn’t make good policy, good science, or acceptable practice). Perhaps my thoughts on these matters are best captured in the just published article, “The President’s Commission and the Devaluation of Special Education” (Education and Treatment of Children, 27, 307-324, in which there are quite a few typesetter’s errors, I’m sorry to say) and the forthcoming article in Phi Delta Kappan (the March, 2005, issue), “Waving to Ray Charles: Missing the Meaning of Disabilities.” If you wish the typescript of either article, I’ll be glad to send you an electronic version as an attachment.
James M. Kauffman
jmk9t@virginia.edu
http://www.people.Virginia.EDU/~jmk9t/
I’m using “emotional or behavioral disorders” (EBD) in place of “serious emotional disturbance” in this space. In U.S. law, the latter term was still is use until recently, despite the sensible reasons for using the former term, when the adjective “serious” was dropped. It’s a topic that requires more discussion than I can muster at this moment, but there are plenty of sources for those who would like to examine the topic of what we call those students who have so much difficulty over an extended time relating to adults and peers that their school learning suffers. Steve Forness and Ken Kavale discussed it in a book I co-edited in the 1990s: Forness, S. R., & Kavale, K. A. (1997). Defining emotional or behavioral disorders in school and related services. In J. W. Lloyd, E. J. Kameenui, & D. Chard (Eds.), Issues in educating students with disabilities (pp. 45-61). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Regardless of what we call them, these students need help. In this space, I plan to discuss the
- rationale for serving indivuals with EBD,
- some issues in the nature and causes of EBD, and
- methods for assessing and treating EBD.
[Edited 19 April 2006]
Sphere: Related Content
EBD Blog Comments