Author: Kim Block

What Does Ableism Look Like in Schools? It Looks Like This!

When a teacher daily allows a student with a learning disability to fail their class, but does not even lift a finger to inform the case manager or parent, that is ableism and its discrimination. Disabled children failing, falling behind and being excluded without accommodations have become the normality of the education system. It’s so common, it is woven into the fabrics of the system.

They just invisibly slip through the cracks, while a detailed IEP sits in a student database system collecting digital dust.

The fact that the Ministry of Education intentionally doesn’t even track information regarding the human rights violations that are occurring across the province is an example of ableism. Disability issues don’t affect them, so they have the privilege to ignore it. Want to know how to systemically keep a marginalized group of people oppressed? Keep them off your radar to begin with. OH…and by the way…the group the people the Ministry of Education are intentionally oppressing, are disabled CHILDREN and their family unit.

What is even more profound is that these teachers who are discriminating are caring people. They love teaching and are inspired by the creations of their students. We think ableist teachers are lurking somewhere in the dark with DON’T CARE tattooed on them, when in fact that simply isn’t the case. When children are ignored and neglected in the education system by good teachers, that is obvious discrimination at its finest. The “other” students get their gifts, and the disabled students get left alone, left behind, and just….left.  There are lovely people out there in the world completely unaware of their own biases and the normality of disabled children failing, just blends in with the wall paper.  It’s not even a big thing. It’s just something that happens. Shrug.

This is very common in the education system, and the ableism these kids experience is then internalized, becomes part of their self-concept, self-esteem and identity. Want to know why kids turn to drugs and crime? Failure in the education system has been proven to be foundational in many of the peer reviewed journal articles. IT’s not that we do not know. It’s not that more studies are need to be done. We have all the information. Government is just biased, ableist and discriminatory and this shows in their government run and funded education system. It oozes out of the pores of all 60 school districts. It’s not obvious to the people who are not impacted by it. You need to look at the system and not just focus on what is there, but what is missing. Who is missing?

We need to flip this education system upside down and inside out. The future of their lives and our society depends on it.

Ministry of Education- It is time for anti-ableism leadership from your government.

Are we on your radar? Or will we continually be swept under the rug?

Why a Diagnosis?

I worked as a school secretary and one day one of the teachers needed support from the principal for one of her students in the class. The principal was new and so she quickly went to the student files, plucked out the child’s file, flipped through it to make sure there wasn’t something she needed to know and then flew off to the class.  I realized in that moment that I should have something written confirmed by my child’s professional of their diagnosis, and not just have this info in emails and verbal conversation. If anything happened at the school, a staff member would check the file and they would be aware.  Wow, I have been SOOOOO thankful that I had that exposure and followed through in making sure that documents were in place for both of my children.

As you can see HERE on the BC Human Rights Clinic page they state:

“In a case called Matheson,[4] Ms. Matheson filed a human rights complaint alleging that she was subjected to abusive behaviour from a supervisor. She had a history of anxiety and panic attacks as well as depression. On two occasions during her employment, Ms. Matheson informed her employer that she was suffering from “stress.” However, she did not provide any medical information that said she had a mental disability.”

The Tribunal dismissed Ms. Matheson’s complaint, stating that “an essential element of a complaint of discrimination in employment on the basis of mental disability is proof that the complainant either had a mental disability… or was perceived to be mentally disabled by the employer.” Click HERE for her case.

Matheson’s case was dismissed because she did not inform her employer (school district) of her disability.  If we do not have a written diagnosis in their student file with the school, as a parent if you file a human rights complaint, the respondents (school district’s legal representation) will cite the Matheson case and your human rights complaint will be dismissed.

We have got to get our kids formally officially diagnosed by proper professionals or your child has no legal human rights ground to stand on.

We need this diagnosis for the following reasons:

  1. Legal human rights processes
  2. Application for disability tax benefits (if applicable)
  3. Navigating the health system for proper medical care
  4. Advocacy in the education system for proper accommodations
  5. Social and emotional reasons – so parents are not blamed for having poor parenting skills and they are able to find other parents who have children with the same disabilities and get support.
  6. For the child – so they understand why they are having specific challenges and they don’t blame themselves for the wrong reasons. For acceptance and self-esteem reasons.

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Here is the wisdom, lived experience, and reflections from parents of children in the education system across BC. Thank you to all who were willing to share.

It’s a diagnosis not a label. I find once my kids knew why things were hard they stopped labelling themselves “stupid, lazy, dumb.”

  • Anonymous

I think a diagnosis helps us to know ourselves….better. it’s been a breath of fresh air to me personally and has helped me forgive myself a bit easier. It’s also helped me identify things that work and don’t work.

On a wider societal scale: .for ADHD, there’s so much stigma, misinformation, out there it’s hard to feel comfortable disclosing..

I ask myself why would I hide my identity/diagnosis? Why do I feel so scared of sharing?

Obvs cuz we are likely to be met with incredulity of “you aren’t that disabled” or they treat you as less than, and that is hard because-as XXXXX said they have power over us.

What they do with that information is the concern….the biases that come into play when they have that information in hand.

But I also know that being loud and proud and dispelling the myths of the neurodivergence I personally have, perhaps can help open the doors for folks around me.

However, I don’t speak from an intersectional voice (I mean not just “being female”). And as such I hope to be an ally to those who do and amplify their voices.

Because there’s even more work to be done there.

My hope is one day everyone can be loud and proud about themselves.

  • Chantelle Movay

And yet WHY should we have to make our private medical information public/known to people who have power over us in order to get support and accommodation? The idea that we have to out ourselves to be able to make a claim is problematic.

  • Anonymous

Our son was diagnosed in 2018 and since then we have seen a world of difference. Because of his formal diagnosis, we were able to get him the support he needed at daycare (1:1) and now in school. He lacked social skills and would only parallel play with his peers but because of his Supports & EAs he has flourished and now plays really well with his peers. The diagnosis has also given him access to speech therapy within the school, an IEP and other tools/resources to help him succeed.

  • Elena Lawson

Human Rights expects this in order for you to be entitled to accommodations. I know that is why it is critical and needed. As for my own child, in general professionals have never been able to give accurate recommendations. People can see “autism” and think they know what my son needs. But then surprise PDA, you actually don’t know shit.

  • Anonymous

I am relieved that you bright this to light. Accommodations and supports/ language/ professional and so on will never be enough. For our family it has been lifesaving – literally. We have found the most inspiring family’s that we could ever ask for. I am grateful for that. 😊

  • Anonymous

Having an early diagnosis for our older child led to assessments and diagnoses for all of us. That has led into participating in groups with others who started traveling the road before us and getting recommendations which, we wouldn’t have heard otherwise. I can’t imagine what family life would be like for us now without that first diagnosis and learning about other options to parenting from mainstream expectations. It’s hard enough as it is, but that would have been awful. In fact, I’m not sure our marriage would have survived. I’m not sure how my partner would have survived mental health crises. Having diagnoses has led to support options through their online school which would not have been available otherwise and which we wouldn’t have been able to provide out of our own limited finances.

  • Anonymous

We had our youngest diagnosed in grade one despite all the comments of “don’t give her a label” from relatives, friends and school admin. It was by far the best thing we ever did to put us on a path of understanding and acceptance. It has led to success in academics and my daughter has become a strong advocate for her needs. There are still some road blocks because of the severity of her Learning Disability but she is well equipped to find solutions to her issues.

  • Cathy McMillian

Without documentation of dx, we run the risk of trying to reinvent the wheel every year. Let’s channel the energy and hopefully the enthusiasm to what works. As well, if everyone could get accommodations by saying junior needs extra time or a scribe or oral exams …. We have to have a measurement or standard

  • Shannon Saunders

Socio-economic privilege provides access to diagnosis. Families in lower classes, disproportionately single parent households, are not provided with this same access. There are additional attitudinal barriers and medical bias that plays into even accessing the inequitable public system, along with personal barriers that are not supported (eg. difficulty navigating fragmented systems). BIPOC children are more likely to be written of as a behavior or family problem, without access to robust multidisciplinary assessment. Assessment and diagnosis are important for many many reasons. But using it as a gate to equity and support puts our most vulnerable families at risk.

  • Anonymous

A diagnosis made it easier for my child to qualify for accommodations in university. Without those accommodations he would struggle to succeed.

  • Anonymous

We missed out on so much due to lack of knowledge of dx and teen attempting suicide and spending 3 weeks in hospital as a result. I’m soooooo very mad at family doctor, psychiatrist, walk-in-clinics, counselors, school, and MCFD. Since dix, I have learned so much more

  • Anonymous

I value this as a way to deflect personal views..refer to medical i always said..but had teachers say we are the professionals..sigh..and another district learning support principal say we dont need reports to know what your child needs..had psychologists come to school to vocalize need..no go on supports..went online..but if we wanted to fight. Yes. Diagnosis would help. Thanks for your efforts..i feel our situation was uniquely bizarre..but sought to leave ir rather than put our girl as psychologist recommended.take her off the battleground..

-Anonymous

The arguing over why certain things were happening and why our child’s behaviour was being blamed on a personality flaw at school was putting our marriage under incredible strain. It was eating away at our son’s self esteem and identity. Once we got a diagnosis everything changed. Not only was he diagnosed but it led to my husband being diagnosed. We all understood and could learn and advocate. The blame and guilt game ended. Proper diagnosis is so essential for life.

  • Anonymous

long story short having documentation changes much of nothing when it comes to public school system. At the end of report from psychologist was around 10 recommendations, a big one was my kid needing 1:1 ea, bell to bell, never happened. Another was he should attend full days of K, never happened. That during school work he should have someone to scribe and or read for him, that happened when convenient for staff. Basically none of the recommendations were used. I had a OT spend an entire day at school, he had lots of good ideas and he too had recommendations, school didn’t follow any of them. His IEP, really was a piece of paper that brought in funding to the district. When my kid was in gr 5 he was at a gr 2 level academically, they tried telling me he was grade level. They say what you want to hear, when your gone, well sadly kids are not treated very well.

They destroyed his self esteem. Two mths in gr 5 I pulled him out of public school, he is about to graduate in a couple weeks and with his Dogwood diploma and he is a A/B student. All of his success no thanks to public school.

Anonymous

GROUNDBREAKING BC HRT – ACCEPTS PARENT ADDED ON CHILD’S HR COMPLAINT

The BC Human Rights Tribunal has accepted a parent to be added to their child’s human rights complaint and the Supreme Court of BC upheld the decision.

The Human Rights Tribunal finds the complaint novel, as the parent loss income due to needing to take a leave of absence from their work to deal with the stress of their child not getting the accommodations they needed at school. The parents complaint is that she was discriminated against due to family status and claims she suffered various financial, physical and emotional impacts. For details see paragraph #11 & #12 in the case below.

[11]      In January 2020, the parent retained counsel. Shortly thereafter, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and this materially impacted the preparation of the proposed amended complaint because the child and her family were at high risk for COVID-19 and were required to largely stay at home. On October 30, 2020, the parent sought to be added to the complaint, alleging that, as a parent of a child with a disability, the parent has her own personal complaint. The amendments sought would add details of the events in the existing complaint, and would add further allegations about the discriminatory effect of the events on the parent personally. The parent’s complaint is that she was discriminated against personally on the basis of family status.

[12]      The parent alleges that she has had to witness her child’s struggles as a result of the School’s conduct, including the child’s distress and anxiety on a daily basis. This was extremely difficult, exhausting and traumatic for the parent. The parent required counselling to address her trauma, and has been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome as a result of the stress. In addition, the parent alleges that she had to take a leave from work to assist with the child, and has suffered various financial impacts.

This paves the path for many other parents who need to take a leave of absence/quit their jobs or experience any adverse impacts due to the discrimination or exclusion their children experience at school and their disabilities not being accommodated under the human rights code.

Read all of the details in this case posted today on the BC Supreme Court website. Link below. April 8th, 2022.

https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2022/2022bcsc570/2022bcsc570.html

Human Rights – Lunch and Learn

I have just attended a free workshop hosted by the Human Rights Clinic. It was wonderful!!! I highly recommend people sign up. Below are my notes that I took during the workshop. I hope people find it helpful.

https://bchrc.net/

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It is our responsibility to prove discrimination at a hearing. The HRT does not investigate.

Decisions are final and binding but not enforceable. We can take the decision to the BC Supreme Court to enforce it.

Discrimination is negatitve treatment or impact that’s connected to a person’s protected characteristic.

Eg. Stereotyping, unfair assumptions, bullying and harassment, singling out, profiling, exclusion, disadvantage

Discrimination can be

  • Overt or subtle, intentional or unintentional (Code S.2), concerned with impact, concerned with equity and fairness) rather than sameness
  • Not all different treatment = discrimination
  • Sometimes treating people the same = discrimination

You don’t need to prove they intended to discriminate

** Treating people, the same can result in discrimination

(Put up the equality picture of people standing on boxes)

Section 3 lists the purpose of the Human Rights Code

2/3 of complaints are related to employment

The focus of the workshop is on employment

HRT protects us from retaliation for making a human rights complaint.

Discrimination can happen outside of employment hours. As long as it is connected to the workplace. For example, drinks at a bar with co-workers after hours, or a weekend conference.

Employer must resolve all discrimination complaints. They must respond with action all claims of discrimination. They are liable for the discrimination.

Individuals can also be held accountable. High degree of personal responsibility. Eg. Sexual harassment.

Complainant must prove they have the characteristic

Need only to be A FACTOR in the negative treatment

Need not be the only or most important factor. Must be connected.

Most are undefined in the Code. Must be interpreted in line with the purpose of the Code.

The complainant goes first.

They have to prove

  1. They have a protected characteristic
  2. They have experienced some kind of negative impact in a protected area
  3. There needs to be a connection between the characteristic and negative treatment of impact

Respondents Case

They need to prove:

  1. Treatment was justified
  2. There is a reasonable explanation
  3. Bona fide occupational requirement
  4. Cannot be accommodated without undue hardship

Facts will be enough to file a complaint, do not guarantee the claim would be successful

A respondent may have a non-discriminatory explanation for their conduct (meaning there ‘s no connection between their conduct and a protected characteristic)

Or they may have a justified reason for their conduct

Evidence and Proof

Standard of proof = balance of probabilities. Prove it’s more likely than not. It’s not proof “beyond a reasonable doubt”

Must look at circumstantial evidence

The facts support a reasonable inference

You can win even without a smoking gun

Circumstances that may justify drawing an inference of discrimination – timing of events, statistics, experience of others

Must convince the Tribunal that the inference of discrimination is more than likely than the respondent’s explanation

The complainant has the burden to prove their case

Even if you don’t have documents or witnesses, you can still win. It’s harder, but they can still be successful. They will assess the credibility of the witnesses. Who they believe. What is the most likely version of events.  It can be difficult, but very much possible.

Physical Disability – perceived of permanence or persistence, be involuntary, affects a person’s abilities

Mental Disability – involuntary, permanence or persistence, mental illness, learning disability, addictions, affect a person’s abilities

Many people are unrepresented without lawyers

Adverse Effects Discrimination (not direct) but the impact

In the context where everyone is being treated the same – If your policy, rule, standard, requirement or practice creates a negative impact on a person due to their disability you must be prepared to justify that policy, rule, standard, requirement, or practice as bona fide and reasonable.

Duty to Accommodate

Employer must show that it could not have done anything else reasonable or practical to avoid the negative impact on the individual

Employer must take all reasonable steps to accommodate

Goal is to ensure that an employee who is able to work can do so

Employer must give a serious consideration to how employee can be accommodated

Requires an individualized case-by-case approach

Must be approached with common sense and an open mind

Flexibility is key

Accommodations are as individual as the people seeking them. Context is important.

Examples of accommodations: Different or lighter duties, toleration of absences, adjustment of schedule, change in environment, staff transfers, unpaid leave, time off to attend treatment or counselling.

Reasonable accommodation doesn’t mean perfect accommodation

Accommodation related to NEEDS and not WANTS

A shared obligation – employee must be involved

Employee must provide necessary information, participate in meetings and discussion, cooperate and facilitate the accommodation process

If a complainant has rejected a reasonable proposal, the respondent has met its duty to accommodate and the complaint will be dismissed.

Undue Hardship

Might involve expense, inconvenient, and or disruption as long as it does not unduly interfere with its business.

The burden is on the employer to show that it has offered a reasonable accommodation, and any further accommodation would be an undue hardship.

Factors: cost, economic conditions, size of employer’s operation, interference with rights of other workers, safety/risk

(Crismer, SCC 199) – Undue hardship

Duty to Inquire

Employer may have a duty to inquire as to the existence of a disability, if the are aware of ought to be aware must inquire before making an adverse decision based on performance.

HRC has webinars posted on their website to watch. In their audio and video section.

Education Case Law

My first law class is now complete.

Here is a poem I had to create about case law for one of my assignments. Cool law professor for making a creative exercise as part of the assignment!!

Case Law

Schools are places of learning
They mold, inspire and teach
But much to my surprise
Educational law is out of reach

As parents you have ideas
How your child’s education will go
Case law doesn’t float through your head
Until you have school conflict woes

As I sat consulting with a lawyer
He told me my case wouldn’t stick
There is no case law to support it
I thought he was just being a dick

I searched through all the case law
And much to my surprise
He was right about my case
I was hoping it was a bunch of lies.

Without educational case law
The people in charge are free
To do whatever the fuck they want
Consequences, they never see


Oh, education case law
It was not meant to be
I guess I have nothing left to do
But get drunk on spiked herbal tea.

The Non-Death Loss for Parents of Disabled Children in Education, All Over this Province

Do you ever just get so tired of walking through the verbal minefield when talking to some school administration? It can be so exhausting. I came out of one meeting and wondered what in the world just happened in there???

Sometimes I feel like I have been taken by some scammer.

Or I just donated to some fraud non-profit organization?

What exotic trip did I just sign up for?

I think we should show up to our meetings with a court reporter.

Set up cameras like in those crime interrogation documentaries.

We’ll all show up in outfits like we just telephoned into The Matrix. Neo, we’re in.

All kidding aside, if you have a serious meeting ahead…drink your coffee before you attend. You’ll need to be on the ball.

Not all levels of advocacy reach this kind of intensity, but if and when they do…you’re not alone.

What emotionally hits me is that when my kids started kindergarten and I remember those visual memories of them entering the classroom for the first time, all of the emotions of your kids growing up, attending their first day of school…NEVER, never, ever did I ever in a million years, think I would end up in the position to be emailing lawyers. Never!

And yet…here I am.

There is a sadness to that. A non-death loss. We lose the innocence and naivety that parents of non-disabled children experience. We know exactly how oppressive the system is. There is grief around that. Why can’t I think public education is sunshine and lollipops too?

Do you take the red pill or blue pill? Do you find out about the reality of public education or do you live in blissful ignorance? If you have a child with a disability, you don’t get a choice. It’s made for you.

I was a secretary at a couple of schools and it was amazing to me, how many parents of non-disabled children didn’t even know the name of their child’s teacher. Seriously.

I on other hand, can recite school legislation, explain the difference between Ministry of Education policy and the Human Rights Code, and define the loopholes in a variety of external complaint processes.

This isn’t what I thought it was going to be like. 

This is a loss that needs to be validated. The loss of innocence.

I am not the only one.

To the parent in the Facebook group who coined the term PTSD – “Post Traumatic School Disorder”. That’s a good one!

5 stages of grieving.

Denial – “Oh the system isn’t that bad…we must just be having a rough year. They aren’t ignoring my emails, they just are really busy.”

Anger – “What the #$@% is going on here, is this for real!?!?”

Bargaining – “I just want to have an honest conversation; I’ll even sign an NDA”

Depression – “What’s the point. Things will never change.”

Acceptance. – “I don’t care, I am filing anyways. Every little bit helps.”

Focusing on the negativity of everything is going to get us nowhere. However, toxic positivity and not even acknowledging the pain isn’t healthy either.

How many parents have gone through the stages of grief? Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. What stage are you in?

Let’s sit here together and acknowledge what this feels like.

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Rejection. Our Starting Point.

When you have a disability, you have a different kind of relationship with rejection than non-disabled people do.  Especially as a disabled child your day is spent in school receiving various forms of micro and macroaggression experiences of rejection all day.  We receive all sorts of distorted forms of feedback that erode our sense of self-worth and question our identity based on other people’s biases. As a child you are not aware of this and internalize people’s ableist perceptions as accurate facts and it shapes a warped version of yourself for you to struggle with. No wonder people with disabilities struggle with accurate self-assessment.  

Rejection is a normal experience that everyone experience. Not everyone is going to like us. Not everyone is going to want to date us. Not everyone is going to want to hire us. That is pretty standard for every single person. The sliding scale of the intensity of that reality depends on many variables.  Depends how close you fit into societies definition of ideal.

There are movements happening. Movements looking to reshape the definition of beauty within the disabled community, accepting the different forms of the human body. Self-help acceptance movements in various disabilities have been building since the 1970’s in various communities and are quite established now. 

When people dismiss the importance of tackling ableism as if it is no big deal, bring the discussion to the topic of rejection.  Rejection is something that we can all understand and it can be a connecting point of empathy. Everyone knows what rejection feels like.

Let’s start there.

Let’s see where the conversation takes us.

Groupthink…Does it Exist in School Districts and on Boards of Education?

Groupthink is defined as “a process of flawed decision making that occurs as a result of strong pressures among group members to reach an agreement”.

“Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for group consensus overrides people’s common sense desire to present alternatives, critique a position, or express an unpopular opinion. Here, the desire for group cohesion effectively drives out good decision-making and problem solving.” mindtools.com

RELEVANCE TO PARENTS: This could be why specialty programs never evolve, why some programs designed to fail are accepted by Boards, why some programs are described as a “dumpster on fire” and how they slip through the cracks. How things that are obviously broken in schools, stay broken, and how systemic oppression to marginalized groups are rarely challenged.

Does anyone remember the NASA Challenger disaster that exploded in space? When they analyzed the process that led to the deadly decisions, they concluded it was partly due to Groupthink.

Groups that are too cohesive, too tightly bonded, too tightly dependent on each other, too tightly socially connected, and are too similar, will bread an environment where it’s best that everyone just agree. Even when the evidence is laid out in front of them, it will be ignored and the pressure to agree will push people to just go with the flow and carry on. Conflict, even productive conflict, will be discouraged. An environment will become the norm where no one speaks up…even when they should. Groups that are too cohesive apply social pressure for everyone to conform.  Disagreement is then seen as a negative trait, insulting to the members, or that person is labelled a trouble maker and their input is disregarded.

It takes a specific type of person to want to be a teacher. Many teachers have similar personality traits and temperaments, a common thread amongst all of them. For the people who have the desire to advance their careers, and for the ones who fit the tight mold of administration, I feel it’s a fair assessment in concluding they are all expected to belong to a very exclusive highly dependent social-work group.

Groups that create an environment where it is safe to disagree with the topic, are the level that we want our district and Boards to function.  Especially because open system groups are the most responsive to change and feedback from their community. **Feedback is a crucial part of the program management cycle.

Points of impact:

  1. Program development and program maintenance
  2. Whistleblowing, staff not being able to bring up concerning issues
  3. Discrimination – exclusion
  4. Racism
  5. Ableism
  6. Policy development
  7. Workplace toxicity (Employee depression, bullying, etc)
  8. SYSTEMIC CHANGE

One way to tell if the Board of your school district is potentially stuck in a Groupthink path is to conduct an interaction diagram.

When you attend Board meetings…is everyone just agreeing? Constructive conflict is healthy. If you are doing an interaction diagram and all you see are support lines…you might have a poorly functioning Board.

Common Roles in Groups:

Task Roles

  1. Defines problems
  2. Seeks information
  3. Gives information
  4. Seeks opinions
  5. Gives opinions
  6. Tests feasibility

Group Building and Maintenance Roles

  • Coordinating
  • Mediating-harmonizing
  • Orienting-facilitating
  • Supporting-encouraging
  • Following

Individual Roles (Non-functional)

  1. Blocking
  2. Out of Field
  3. Digressing

After a few meetings you can start to identify if statements are ones that are asking questions for clarification, which statements are supporting other points of view, which ones are blocking, disagreeing, requesting more info etc.  Pick a few that you observe as repeated the most often and then start plotting. For every statement/question put a line. The arrows that go into the center of the group are statements that are said to the group. The arrows that directed at a specific person go directly to them. Then for any repeats of similarly purposed statements get a tick on the same arrow. This allows you to get a visual of how they function as a group. Too many supportive statements aren’t necessarily a sign of a functioning healthy group.

If school districts are interested in auditing their staff meetings from time to time, to get a birds-eye-view so to speak of how they function, the person doing the tracking, can’t be involved. Some meetings move really quickly and it will take practice for people to quickly identify and assess the types of statements/questions made. This is a quick way to take a pulse of the group for anything on the surface, and groupthink could be obvious.

For the parents attending board meetings, it’s great practice. Board meetings tend to move slowly so it’s a great place to practice and build your skill. Soon, you’ll be able to identify roles people play in PAC or school meetings.

Ideally, we want Boards of Education and district teams to have a high level of trust and respect in the group, where discussion or disagreement is welcomed, critical thinking is expected and they are open to feedback.

Sites of interest:

 * https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2020/10/07/how-groupthink-played-a-role-in-the-challenger-disaster/

https://sma.nasa.gov/news/sma-news-archive/watch-out-for-groupthink

https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-the-6-fundamental-concepts-of-systems-thinking-379cdac3dc6a

https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/systems-thinking#:~:text=Systems%20thinking%20is%20a%20holistic,the%20context%20of%20larger%20systems.&text=According%20to%20systems%20thinking%2C%20system,of%20reinforcing%20and%20balancing%20processes.

Twinkie Theory

What object is this?

What object is this?

Does anyone remember a Twinkie? Do they even still make these?

Cut it half down the center and it will look like this….

This is one point-of-view, one perspective.

Cut it length wise…

This is another point-of-view, another perspective.

If you looked at the last two pictures individually, you could easily think you are looking at completely different objects. When in fact, you are looking at the same twinkie. Two different perspectives, same object.

I have worked in public schools. I am also a parent/advocate in the school system. Two perspectives. Same Twinkie.

If you are ever in the middle of trying to bring two conflicting groups together…look for the Twinkie in their communication. The reason they are arguing in the first place, is because there is one!

I think educators and parents have a lot more in common than we think. I think we often feel we are looking at two different objects, when if fact we are looking at the same thing with sometimes different understandings of how to arrive at the same goal.  Sometimes. Sometimes we are looking at the same Twinkie.

Let’s larger the scope beyond parents of disabled children and front-line staff. There are many stakeholders in education. A mixed bouquet of perspectives. Do we all share a common goal?

So…when it comes to inclusive education…what is the Twinkie?

IEP Meetings in Public Education

Tis the season…

For some people there are four seasons in the year. For parents of children with disabilities we have a fifth season. It’s called IEP season.

An IEP is a lifeline to your child’s education. IEP stands for Individual Education Plan. The IEP has been undergoing some changes in recent years and the role of what inclusion means for all children has been evolving due to very passionate education advocates with very high disability literacy skills.

We live in a social stratification system. That means that our social structure is layered, a hierarchy, like bricks layered to form a wall. The layer you are in, will dictate your access in life. Not everyone has equal access to information, choices, safety, health care, education, relationships, etc. The list is a long one. Social stratification is almost universal, in all cultures. Those who have privileges don’t really notice it. It is weightless. The people who are not part of the privileged layers do feel it. It’s felt every single day. Heavy.  Taking up space in society when you are not part of societies cookie cutter pop out shape, can feel like a protest.  Advocacy is a part of daily life.

Parents play a key role in their child’s education. Ableism is blended into our society and chasing the dream of true inclusion in the classroom is often a dream that parents spend years chasing. The expectation of inclusion and anti-ableism is changing.  Parents and students have had enough of being excluded from the classroom, either physically, mentally or emotionally.  The struggles are real. There are wonderful stories out there and there are also horror stories.  The pandemic has brought to light the inequities of society even more and the inequities in education are no different.  To say this year has been stressful for many families with children who have disabilities is an understatement, while other children have flourished with the adaptive distant learning options.

It starts with the IEP, and in May and June, IEP meetings are all a buzz to review the year.  Emotions are high and advocates are in full swing. For those of you who are busy getting ready for this year’s seasonal planning, your advocacy efforts are a puzzle piece of a much larger picture.  You may not realize that your individual fight for your child’s rights to access an education, are part of a larger cause. The movement is growing. Anti-ableism is part of the inclusion movement, and the movement is building, one IEP meeting at a time.