Paces

The woman who changed her brain - in 1978

Coincidentally, another 'brain' piece. (Yesterday, I posted about an Observer article Who's in charge - you or your brain?) This time a piece from the author of the recently published "The woman who changed her brain" (which I haven't read, btw, just this article "Why I wrote 'The Woman who changed her brain'"), Barbara Arrowsmith-Young.

The writer, recounting her own experiences, seems to understand implicitly that her success was 'self-taught', with an emphasis on 'taught', implying teaching and learning, albeit she was both teacher and learner, and yet, in the article, seems more comfortable with the vocabulary of 'exercises' and 'repetition' - just one technique for teaching and learning. One suspects, on the flimsy evidence of this article, there was more to her successful transformation, than 'exercises' and ' repetition'.

This is what she herself writes though:

"I the­o­rized that a per­son could trans­form weak areas of the brain through repet­i­tive and tar­geted cog­ni­tive exer­cises. With much read­ing and an intu­itive under­stand­ing of the brain’s func­tion­ing, I invented a series of cog­ni­tive exer­cises to “fix” my own brain."

This, though, and perhaps quite remarkably, was 1978, when she was a graduate student in psychology. She does well to remind us of "the 1950’s and 60’s when the brain was viewed as unchange­able" and as a consequence she, and others like her, were advised - and expected - to "live with her limitations". 

It is an era that I also grew up in and, like the author, went to school and started teaching, quite assured that our limitations - and our potential - were set by our brains. Not until I met conductive education (to my regret, having, unlike the writer, ignored an introduction to Luria and Vigotsky at postgraduate teacher training college in 1968-9), did I understand something I had begun to suspect - we can learn and we can be taught all our lives.

Anyhow, she writes of 1978, a time, as she writes, "long before the con­cept of “neu­ro­plas­tic­ity” was widely under­stood. At the time, the sci­en­tific com­mu­nity believed this kind of trans­for­ma­tion was impos­si­ble, but the exer­cises did indeed, in my first-hand expe­ri­ence, rad­i­cally improve the func­tion of the weak­ened areas of my brain."

I wonder how differently she might have accounted for, and recounted, her own first-hand experience, had she been, not a pschologist, but a pedagogue?

Hanif Kureishi can't skip .... but he is an artist of his own life #CondEd

Here's an article I think most of us in Conductive Education will understand. Unfortunately, it's in yesterday's Sunday Times Magazine section, behind Rupert's paywall: Think and You'll Miss It by writer Hanif Kureishi.

He begins with an amusing admission that, having recently tried, he cannot skip with a rope; his 13-year old son, on the other hand, to whom he handed the rope, "did the whole thing backwards, singing a Beatles song".

Which leads him shortly to:

"My son who can skip and sing, found it difficult for a long time, to read and write at the level of others his age. At primary school he was castigated, even insulted and punished for his inability. After the experts were called in, he was investigated and berated some more, and finally labelled dyslexic and dyspraxic.

"There is, at least, some relief in diagnosis. One is not alone, joining a community of others who have, it appears, a similar condition. But can the inability to do a particular thing be described as a "condition" at all. Would the fact that I can't do the tango, read music or speak Russian be considered a "condition"? Is it a failure of my development? Am I ill?"

He then considers that he was "not much impressed by the imagination and curiosity of the experts" who used an "awkward, objectifying language" and quickly began to talk "fashionably, about brains and chemicals", observing that "Biological determinism is one of psychology's ugliest evasions, removing the poetic human from any issue." ... "What I'm talking about here, I believe, is the attempted standardisation of a human being, and of a notion of achievement that is limited, prescriptive and bullying".

I doubt I can do justice to the main part of his article, but here goes. An 18-year old known to Kureishi, mentioned having been given Ritalin to help him focus, "his mind, he said, kept going off in numerous directions". Rejecting Kureishi's suggestions for alternative causes, the young man, says Kureishi asked himi if "given the choice, I wouldn't prefer to focus at will". This leads Kureishi to consider his own teenage years when "I wanted to be good at things, but, like the Ritalin boy, I fell badly behind at school, finding myself not only unable to learn but at the bottom of my class".

He then goes on to make a powerful case for the value of distraction, provided that the individual be able to "distinguish between creative and destructive distractions by the sort of taste they leave ... and this can only work if he is, as much as possible, in good communication with himself - if he is, as it were, on his own side, caring for himself imaginatively, an artist of his own life."

"There might be more to our distractions than we realised we knew. We might need to be irresponsible. But to follow a distraction requires independence and disobedience; there will be anxiety in not finishing something, in looking away, or in not looking where others prefer you."

It's a challenging thought.

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All the italics here are mine.

 

Inspire me today? Glenda certainly does.

Glenda Watson-Hyatt has written a great piece at "Inspire me today".

I'll not add anything to what Glenda has written but just let you take a look for yourself.

Except this: it seems to me there are people we meet who understand almost instinctively the transformational potential in and for our lives of learning and doing - and are an inspiration to the rest of us.

Pensioner overcomes 'locked-in' syndrome

What should we in conductive education make of the story of Graham Miles? 

I first heard his story - told by Graham Miles, himself - in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme around 8.45am yesterday. This morning I came across it again while scanning news headlines online: "Pensioner tells how he beat 'locked-in syndrome' after massive stroke."

Following a stroke, Graham Miles was left with movement only in his eyes. He now drives.

As reported here in the Daily Telegraph, the story has been set in the debate about assisted suicide. But I found much more interesting listening to Graham Miles' own account of his recovery. He attributes it to the exercise of will-power and tapping into 'unused brain capacity' (a popular misconception, I believe, but let that pass).

I also found interesting, especially in listening to him on the radio, that he says he was offered no medical explanation for his recovery. His doctors were, according to the account in the Telegraph, "amazed" at his recovery.

If, as Dr Hari nearly said, conductive education is about "enhancing the quality of intention to achieve" then the story of Graham Miles might be telling us something. But what?

You are not your brain

From time to time, Andrew Sutton has posted on Conductive World commentary on neuroscience.  Those who have enjoyed Andrews postings might be also be interested in a book published earlier this year:  "Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons From the Biology of Consciousness" by University of California at Berkeley philosopher Alva Noë. 

"We have become too reductive in understanding ourselves, argues philosopher Alva Noe. Our thoughts and desires are shaped by more than neurons firing inside our heads."

I came across it by chance at Salon.com where you'll find a longish review.

If cerebral palsy is a physical disability, why is it so important not to walk on the cracks?

The boy, he couldn't have been more than 4, head down, intent, totally focused, nearly collided, head-on,bang into Sarah's wheelchair. Just at the last moment, he swerved sharply left, and, still stepping carefully to avoid the cracks between the floor tiles, he was off after his Mum, shopping in Meadowhall. (Shopping centre. Mall. In Sheffield.)

We were amused at the lad's total concentration on the task that he'd set himself. Utterly oblivious to all else. His brain buzzing with the skills. Did he share, with his Mum, his triumph in not stepping on a single crack? Did she congratulate him for achieving such a challenging goal? 

What was going on in his head? How was his brain growing and developing and changing with the learning? What was he learning about what he could do and what could achieve and who he was? How important was his Mum's praise? Or did she tell him "Look where you're going. You nearly walked into that lady's wheelchair!"  We guessed she enjoyed her young explorer conquering and making his world, as much as we did.

Sarah watched him, with us, for a moment more, then we headed on, smiling, to the coffee shop.

Xavier support

I have this week sent the following letter to Ms J Haddrell, Assistant Director General, Department of Education, Training & The Arts, Queensland, Australia.

Whilst fully respecting the importance of the issues Andrew rightly raises and the contributions to the short but important debate that followed, I decided that some sort of action was required.  I had an acknowledgement from the Northern Ireland Assembly re Buddy Bear,  but haven't heard further news as to whether they won the financial backing needed.  I shall be interested to follow the Xavier story further.

Most of all, I would like to contribute to a growing sense of confidence in the international conductive education community that, no matter what our internal and professional debates within conductive education, we can collaborate across the world through the internet in ways that we can barely begin to imagine.

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23 June 2008

Ms J Haddrell
Assistant Director General
Department of Education, Training & The Arts
Level 22, Education House
30 Mary Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
Australia

Dear Ms Haddrell

Re: Xavier Special Education Unit

You may be surprised to receive a letter from England in the matter of the future of Xavier Special Education Unit. However, I trust you will not find the communication unwelcome.

My simple purpose is to draw to your attention two very recent scholarly publications from the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, of which Australia is a member nation.

The first, Evidence in Education: Linking Research and Policy (OECD 2007), based in studies initiated by a 1995 CERI report and centering on a series of international workshops held between April 2004 and July 2006, addresses the increasing pressure felt by all within the education community for greater accountability and effectiveness and also the increasing prominence given by governments to evidence-based research in setting education policy and in allocating public resources.

The second, Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science (OECD 2007), the outcome of an international CERI project launched in 1999, aims at encouraging collaboration between policy makers, researchers and the education community “to open new pathways to improve educational research, policies and practices”:

We are all familiar with the importance of peer-reviewed, evidence-based practice in medicine, and the thoroughness with which theoretical and scientific knowledge are fused with professional experience. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive of modern medical practice without its emphatic foundation in scientific research across a range of disciplines.

Like medicine, education relies for its theoretical foundation (the understanding of learning and the practice of teaching) on other disciplines, such psychology, philosophy and sociology.

Unlike medicine, however, the theoretical foundation of education is “pre-scientific” – which is to say it lacks as yet either predictive or explanatory power. How children learn is not sufficiently understood to offer a guarantee of educational outcomes. The practice of education is still an art, not a science. The understanding of learning and practice of teaching are not as yet underpinned by a secure base of scientific and theoretical knowledge. This applies as much to the learning and teaching of children in mainstream schools as in special education.

Clearly, one conclusion might be that “more research is necessary”. In the interim, another conclusion might be that for as long as we must depend upon the judgments of professionals and parents as to what works and what does not, we should value, and even celebrate, the schools we have that command the support of these same professionals and parents.

From the late 1940s, a Hungarian physician, Andres Peto, elaborated his theoretical and professional insights into learning and the practice of teaching to create a unified system of education of children with motor disorders now known in the English-speaking world, perhaps losing something in the translation, as Conductive Education. 

The Executive Summary of Understanding the Brain states: “It is possible to take advantage of the brain’s potential for plasticity and to facilitate the learning process. This calls for holistic approaches which recognise the close interdependence of physical and intellectual well-being and the close interplay of the emotional and cognitive” – precisely the position taken by Andras Peto and conductive education.

There is, of course, much more to be said about conductive education as a unified system and, speaking personally, I might well wish to debate theoretical differences with the professionals and parents at Xavier Special Education Unit. Nevertheless, the work at Xavier is internationally known, through conferences, congresses and reports. Their work brings recognition and credit to Queensland and enhances the reputation of Queensland Education.

The OECD, in its reports, confirms both how much in education practice is still to be supported by research evidence and also the challenging but still elusive potential being proposed by neuroscientists.

A bold, innovative and forwarding looking education authority might do a great deal worse that to cherish embryonic education systems and practices which appear to offer ways forward, such as Xavier Special Education Unit; to work in partnership with those committed parents and professionals; and together to seek ways of better integrating the work at Xavier into the mainstream.  Who knows, Queensland Education might consider its most valuable contribution to such a partnership to be funding a post for a full-time conductor and contributing to a research project?

Yours sincerely

Norman Perrin
Chief Executive
Paces Shefield

Special educational needs initial teacher training

An informative table comparing provision in 20 countries for the training of teachers of children with special educational needs can be downloaded from the INCA website. The countries in the table are listed in blocks: ‘UK and Ireland’ (5), ‘Europe’ (8) and ‘the rest of the world’ (7).

Of the 20 countries, 9 offer "specialist initial teacher training": Germany, Spain, Hungary, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Singapore, USA. 

18 of the 20 countries are said to offer "post qualification specialisation", the exceptions being Hungary and Spain.

14 of the 20 offer some element of "Special needs education [as] part of initial teacher training".

2 of the 20 rely solely on "post qualification specialisation" as the only means of training teachers of pupils with special educational needs.

In addition to the Table, for each country it is possible to  discover, by means of a simple search facility, a wealth of information about arrangements for the training of teachers of children with special educational needs.  For instance, I copy below an extract from the information on England.

As I read this extract, I am struck by (i) the intellectual and academic poverty of the "basic knowledge and skills in the field of special educational needs" required of all newly qualified teachers; (ii) the question as to whether there is any such "field" as that of "special educational needs" and (iii) a curiosity as to the reason why teachers of children with sensory impairments - and not other disabilities - are required to obtain a "recognised specialist qualification within three years of appointment" as a Mandatory Qualification. 

Is it fair and reasonable to conclude from this that when newly qualified teachers in England (and presumably the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland) begin their first day of teaching in a special school for children with cerebral palsy, they are largely bereft of the slightest clue what they are doing and why?   

As I read this extract, I am also reminded that Conductors have undertaken 3-4 years of specialist initial teacher training to work with children with motor disorders before setting a first step in a classroom in earnest.

In The Times today is the story ("How could my boy be racist") of a boy with Down's Syndrome being charged by the police with assault and racial abuse after an incident at a college between him and an Asian girl also with special needs. Remarkably, The Times allocates nearly two whole pages (minus a very large photograph) to the story. The parents comment on the lack of training and of specialist knowledge of children with Down's Syndrome. This is supported by David Congdon, Head of Campaigns and Policy at Mencap:  ".... it is surprising and concerning that more attention has not been given to the support needed by suspects with learning disabilities" and "Better training about the needs of people with a learning disability would equip police officers when dealing with suspects."

I would stress that my point here is not to criticise the police generally nor those in this case specifically. Indeed, the parents of the boy are reported as saying that the officers who first interviewed the boy "were very pleasant". 

But in the light of this report and the extract quoted from the INCA research, I cannot help but wonder: why would a society that decides against the initial training of specialist teachers to work with pupils with special needs regard as a proper, effective and efficient allocation of scarce resources to the specialist training of police officers?  In a similar way, I once asked my daughters home carers what they new about cerebral palsy. I'll leave you to guess the answer.

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Extract from the 'England' section of the INCA database:

7.5.2 Types of training institutions and courses

There is no longer any initial teacher training (ITT) focusing on special educational needs as a specialist subject. All initial teacher training courses in England must provide all student teachers with basic knowledge and skills in the field of special educational needs (SEN).  Requirements have been introduced to ensure that all newly qualified teachers are:

• Familiar with the "Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs" (see section 1.2.1.)
• Able to identify students with SEN in their classes and know where to obtain help to give positive and targeted support. 

SEN teachers are usually classroom teachers with several years of teaching experience.

Specialist SEN training

In addition to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), teachers of classes of students with hearing impairment (HI), visual impairment (VI) or multi-sensory impairment (MSI) must, in addition, obtain a recognised specialist qualification within three years of appointment.  This qualification must be approved by the Secretary of State as a so-called Mandatory Qualification (MQ). Institutions are approved to award MQs. 

The First Step is Failure

One blog I link to regularly is Sharp Brains: "Your window into the emerging field of science-based Brain Fitness, its implications for Health & Wellness, Education, Leadership, and more."  It challenges me to think 'outside of the box' of my prejudices and much, much further than my intellectual "comfort zone".

With the stimulating Author Speaks Series Sharp Brains is seeking "to provide a platform for leading scientists and experts writing high-quality brain-related books to reach a wide audience".  So far, six guest authors have contributed essays or interviews.

One such contribution is "The First Step Is Failure" by Joanne Jacobs. I was hooked the moment I read: "It’s OK to start school not knowing how to read. It’s not OK to stay that way." In other words, if education, learning, schooling is not transformational, it's nothing.  Joanne Jacobs message is that: "Schools won’t improve until administrators and teachers can admit the problems, analyze what’s going wrong and try new strategies."

These couple of sentences chase all sorts of thoughts round my brain. Not least, I minded of those reported first contacts with conductive education by disability activists who rejected conductive education on the grounds that it did not accept disable children for themselves but sought to challenge them to change, when what the disabled activists would have everyone do is see the need for change only in our environment and culture. (I will try to search out a link).

The quote above, about reading, follows: "I remember a children’s book about a badger (or suchlike) starting school who’s afraid to tell his teacher he can’t read. In the denouement, the teacher assures the badger that she “loves” him “just the way he is.” Surely not. Teachers can’t love all their students in any meaningful way. And the whole enterprise of schooling is about changing children from what they are, such as illiterate, to something better, such as literate."

Parents. Conductive Education. Western Australia

Trevor and Charmaine White have a campaigning weblog with the 'headline' mission statement: "To find a cure for Mitochondrial Disease and Save Our Son". Brave people whom we can only wish every success. Let's hope they avoid the burn out that afflicts so many parents who set out on similar courses. I have lost count of the number of times over the past years that I have wondered whether, if I had known what I know now, I would have ever have begun the journey. (And that is no counsel of despair or defeatism. Just reality. "KBO" was apparently how Churchill signed off his transatlantic phone calls with Roosevelt. "Keep buggering on.") 

Trevor and Charmaine also have a website, which is just as well. There are many disabilities and conditions that I know nothing whatsoever about. Mitochondrial disease is one.

Apart from yet another set of brave parents battling "the system", the posting on their blog caught my attention in other ways too:

- Trevor and Charmaine's enthusiasm for conductive education, and for an unexpected condition;
- their understanding that CE is a school-based system of learning - near enough, I reckon; especially compared with those who still use the language of therapy;
- that the mainstreaming funding for the CE programme is under threat sounds all-too-familiar;

But two thoughts, especially, struck me: the first, here is another powerful parents' blog, like "Terrible Palsy"; where are the blogs from UK parents setting out their battles, for instance, for conductive education for their children?  I'd be delighted to learn of any. The second, how many CE programmes are there across the world, with mainstream or Government funding. It might be interesting (and politically useful in campaigns) to have a list. How might we go about compiling such a list?

I'd like to end this post with what drives parents, time after time - Hope.

"Its amazing how much Jack has developed in 18 Months, from the first day he attended the program until today. I literally have a new little boy, one who is learning to do things for himself unaided. We are a long way from walking but we hope he may crawl this year."

Trevor, Charmaine - my wife and I said the same 20 years ago, when we first encountered conductive education, the same Hope.  I have only this to tell you: it's not about the walking, it's about "the new little boy" Jack is, about his "learning", about doing "things for himself". From one parent campaigner to two others, my very best wishes to you both  - and to Jack too.