In response to Sandy's letter, I sympathise
with her. However I also must point out
that as a tertiary educator and a parent
with of a child multiple disabilities I
have been called so often to collect my son
that my job was in jeopardy having
exhausted sick leave, annual leave and
family and community service leave. This
was despite a constant flow of information
regarding those events that would prduce an
outburst of unacceptable behaviour. I was
told he would just have to get used to it
(eg if noise was a trigger he would still
be made to sit through assembly with the
manadatory recorder ensemble). Please
Sandy consider working with the parents to
create a durable plan to keep children
experiencing difficulities in the school
rather than using exclusion as the first
line of managment of unsatisfactory
behaviour. The parent cannot directly
control the behaviour of the child in the
school environment. Why is the child
acting up? What is motiviating their
behaviour? Are they bored (do they need to
escape), have an undiagnosed learning or
psychiatic disability (autism is now 1 in
100 children), are they stressed or
unwell? Does the teaching style in use
clash with their learning style? Take a
long hard look to the left and the right
before we set our sights on parents. Let
parents and teachers support each other as
we support our children.

jenny, hpa@iprimus.com.au,
12/12/02

This month's letters: