Doesn't Fit

Did you happen to catch the Hallmark movie on Sunday, Front of the Class? It was a semi-autobiographical presentation about a young man with Tourette Syndrome and his struggles in public education. The young man eventually prevailed, in spite of the public education setting, and is now a teacher--I believe he is still in Atlanta. It was a good movie and a pretty accurate portrayal of how Tourette's was dealt with in the public education setting 20 years ago. I wish that I could say that a lot has changed, but sadly it hasn't. Sure the Americans with Disabilities Act and Individuals with Disabilities Act ensure that children with Tourette's and other mental health or physical health issues are not discriminated against and that they can attend public schools. The problem is that nowhere is there any funding to provide support for teachers who teach these youngsters. Teachers do their best, but if the child doesn't fit nicely into the "normal" catagory, things can get ugly. I have a lot of empathy for the parents as well as the teachers. It is a difficult situation and with large class sizes, quite challenging to meet everyone's needs. One of my roles as a school nurse is to help explain the different conditions and their impact on the child's educational experience. I also try to help provide the much needed support but I am only at my buildings on a part-time basis. What I really hope to accomplish is to help the teachers understand where the student is at, what they are capable of, and that it may or may not be realistic to compare them to their same-aged peers. We just need to accept them where they are at and help them achieve from there. I am in no way trying to say that people with mental health or other disabilities cannot be successful or that they should be pigeon-holed into a certain stereotype. What I am trying to say is that in the public education world we need to make an extra effort to accept everyone as an individual with their own unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses. This takes a lot of effort. I guess what brought this discussion to the forefront was the movie on Sunday, thinking about how my own brother struggled in school because of an undiagnosed mental illness and learning disabilty, and several recent meetings regarding students who do not fit the "mold" and teachers are struggling--struggling with how to manage behaviors, struggling to know how to best help the student, struggling to find ways to engage students in learning. Unfortunately not everyone is going to fit the easily into the "normal" catagory. It's been about 20 years since the man from Front of the Class was in school. I wish I could say that now it is so much better, but it isn't. Public education still tries to stuff everyone in a box. In the public education world, if you have a physical or mental health disability, you still very much are a square peg living in a round world.