[NLA] Fwd: Adult Learners with Traumas

Wed Jan 22 19:10:36 EST 2003

Art, Deb and others:
Thank you, Art and Deb, for your posts.  Art, for your most helpful comments regarding the adult and child with trauma barriers to overcome.  Deb, for pulling a comment about the role of volunteers out of a prior email I had written.
Art, you raised several questions which I feel are worthy of bringing forth here.  I would like to relate them to policy and challenge of policy as originally broached last Sunday by David Rosen.  
For some reason the thread's subject changed from "Discussion:  Policy or Legal Challenges on behalf of Adult Learners with Trauma" to "Discussion:  Adult Learners with Trauma".  It only took a day for it to happen.  But, the focus is to be policy on this listserv.  Right?  And I am really interested in hearing from those who can speak to the issues of that Digest article I read on the ERIC.
So follow me here:
1)  IF there are about 700 subscribers on this listserv and not ONE of them have brought forth a policy in any state in the union, which would give credance to the statements made in the Digest #239 (Horseman 2000b), what does that say?  There *are* none?  Nobody is willing or daring enough to bring their state policies into the sunshine?  Does Georgia have a policy about the ADD ADHD and LD diagnoses revealed in testing?  Or is it too gray an area to write a policy?

2) Where are the "time-limited literacy policies" that people honor according to Horseman?  And how are their literacy services "time-limited" in their state?

3) What is written that causes the counting of absences with the consequence of being dropped from the program?  How many absences is the adult learner allowed?

4) What is the wording in the assessment policies, which supposedly exist as required in the AELS to get allocations, that cause literacy providers to be less "sensitive to the needs of learners with trauma"?

5) (Bringing to this post Deb Yoho's comment at 10:54 this a.m. today about the value of volunteers as "essential") Which state(s) actually has chosen to "build their efforts" using available, caring volunteer tutors who think of the whole person rather than just their reading needs?  It surely isn't >my< state!  My program is a CBO remember.  The ABE programs aren't using volunteers to assist in the GED-prep programing.  Which states are offering training support to volunteer staffing for such issues as the one we are discussing here?

Thanks, too, Art, for sharing the article written by the 17 yr old in your GED prep program.  If we don't know for sure it's happening, let's just >ask< them, why don't we!!  You can bet they will >tell< us!

As I wrote this response throughout the afternoon today - I swear it's been like a >Monday< here! - I got a call-back from a 38 year old male learner in my program.  We talked about how his daily routine had been changing because he has suddenly got his 2 yr old son living with him due to problems his ex-mate is having and how it is going to result in a court hearing for custody by the end of this month and he has to get a job, so he's taking a test at an employment place in the next few days.

Get the drift of stress?  This rapid fire this/this/this phone call was because he had cancelled weekly computer sessions here at the office.  I'd left a message previously with his tutor asking why - asked the tutor to have him call me.  Guess what >I< thought of???  THIS thread!!!  And guess what the resolution was to "his problem"?  Understanding, sensitivity and pause for a break away from this section of his educational program.  And he didn't have to ask for that resolution.  It was offered.

He'll be back - later - I will not "fill his spot" at the computer.  It will be left open for him to learn there -- in the Spring, if it takes that long -- when his life returns to some semblance of order.  Also, my mind was whirling - I'll find some solution for his "gonna be a childcare need" for that hour or two should that arise.

If we don't know?  Ask them.  They will tell us.  Thanks for your comments, all.

Nancy Hansen
sfliteracy at yahoo.com
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
Sioux Falls, SD
 Art LaChance <arthur at ellijay.com> wrote:

Along the lines of this discussion, I'd like to share a short essay that was
generated by an adult student yesterday as a product of a GED essay
exercise. The content of this essay is not a product of prompting on our
part.
She is 17 yrs old and has been working dilligently at this center for
approximately two hours a day three days a week towards her GED while she
maintains a job.
The essay subject is: "Congratulations! You have just been elected president
of the United States for one day. What will you change in America?"

"If I was president for a day I would change how schools are. I would
also make sure every teacher was examined and needed more than just good
grades to be a teacher. They would need compassion and love for their job.
Schools have a 'no tolerance' to weapons, but if they had a 'no tolerance'
to kids being made fun of and taunted then they would have to worry much less
about kids bringing weapons. In every high school shooting the popular
people who made fun of these kids were targeted. And after so long they
snapped. If it stopped where the problem began things would change.
Teachers have a big impact on a childs self-esteem. Whether the problem
be math, reading, spelling etc. They should not be made to feel stupid. When
they are made to feel that way they soon believe it and give up. So if they
quit trying they are no longer stupid, they just don't care.
Teachers should understand 9 times out of 10 when a kid gives up there is
a reason, and not ot write them off as a bad kid, and no matter how strong
the wall is built up show them you care.
Schools should be watched more closely, I strongly believe early school
is where all the problems begin, not when they start acting up."

(I added the quotes around 'no tolerance' to improve readability, but no
other changes to content were made)

art

Art LaChance
Gilmer Learning Center
Ellijay, GA

Alan Toops wrote:

> Andrea,
>
> From: Alan Toops 
> Date: Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:59:35 AM US/Eastern
> To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: Re: [NLA] Adult learners with Trauma
>
> Andrea,
>
> Yes, while EMDR is used by clinicians to treat a wide variety of traumas,
> this specific study was interested in those trauma's that were apparently
> related to experiences in educational settings. Since the focus was on
> educational success.
>
> alan
> On Monday, January 20, 2003, at 10:08 PM, AWilder106 at aol.com wrote:
>
> Dear Alan,
>
> This is very interesting and thanks for the information. I have heard of
> EMDR but have no idea about how it works. You say it is only educational
> traumas that are investigated? I take this to mean trauma that relates
> specifically to school experience. Am I correct?
>
> Andrea
>
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