This chapter brought up a very interesting issue. In the beginning Torey talks about how the school she is currently at is promoting a new reading program. The program seems great to all the adults, but that is BECAUSE they are adults. The books really aren't realistically helpful for children, and the adults buy them because they are catering to more adult audience and have higher level vocabulary than what would be used for elementary-aged children. Since Torey usually works with the younger or failing students, she immediately noticed that these books were not only NOT helping the students, but were taking shots at their self esteem. When asking the publishers of the book about these problems, they told her that the students were actually exactly where they should be, which really angered Torey, because it would only make sense for students to understand that if they are not reading at their "grade level" then they are not where they need to be. One quote I liked from this part was:
"And of course nothing could ever be said to these children who were reading fourth-grade books in sixth that would convince them that they were anything other than stupid. It was nothing more than statistics to the publishing company. For the kids it was life. That was such a bitterly high price to pay for an aesthetically pleasing book."
Reading this really made me think about the content of books in schools and who they are really aimed at helping. Although t his book was written almost thirty years ago and I strongly believe that things have improved since then, it is still important to think about what is best for the students, rather than what is more interesting for the teacher to use.
This created a segue into the next part, which specifically talked about Lori again. Lori, who already has trouble in school, was having even more trouble with these new books. It did not help that her general education teacher did not believe that special education students should be in a 'normal' classroom and referred to them as 'slowies'. Her teacher, Edna Thorsen, also believed that Lori was only doing poorly because she was trying to act defiant towards to teacher, so it was more of a behavioral issue than a learning issue. Torey knew that this of course was not true. This part of the chapter was really sad to me because I cannot imagine having a teacher that did not believe in me and who openly stated that they didn't want me there. It would be so heartbreaking to be ANY age and to have to hear that, and feel like you couldn't do anything to make things better. Edna ends up making Lori stay in from recess when she doesn't finish her workbook pages correctly, rather than letting her go to Torey for help later on in the day. When Lori continues to struggle, Edna decides to keep her after school. One day Lori has an outburst in class out of frustration, and is sent to the principal's office for a 'paddling'. When Torey hears of this, she immediately walks to the office and asks if she can take Lori into her classroom for the rest of the day.
It is unbelievable the an adult can know so many of the circumstance of a child: sexual/physical abuse, brain injuries, pre-natal issues, etc. and still be so heartless and misunderstanding of a child. Reading things like this make it more clear to me that it is extremely important to try to gather all of the facts before making assumptions of my students.
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