Thursday, September 29, 2005

Voluntary Tag

I ,again, put my hand up for Jamie to ask any questions, I have to answer them and list a reason why. Here's the rules for any one who dares.
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying, "interview me".
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each persons will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Jamies questions of me:

1. What is your favorite childhood memory? Standing on the fence by the milking shed watching the cows get milked and seeing how happy they were, the smell(?), the coldness of the air, the freedom of it.
2. What is the most important thing that you teach your children?
Acceptance and understanding, with these they will I hope be better people in a world of hate and suspicion.
3. If you were to leave one thing behind when you die, what would it be and why?Tangible, my wedding ring, my mothers wedding ring and my grandmothers wedding ring, all of which I wear now because all signify the unity which allowed the next generation to be born. Intangible: happy, laughing memories for my family
4. What one thing would you change about your past, if you could?That my mother did not die when she did or that I was not so ANGRY with the world for so long about her dying and me and mine having to live without her.
5. Thoughts on reincarnation?My religious teaching tells me that the soul goes to "heaven", my logic tells me it is the "soul plus something else" unsure of what, my experience has shown me that those who have gone come back in some form when you need them.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

SLD but still no help.....So where does it start??

Got Mr 5's SP report yesterday, short of boring all and sundry with the techno terms; it boils down to the fact that he has a Severe Language Disorder (SLD) but as his Clinical Evaluation Of Language fundamentals-Preschool (CELP-P) test shows his receptive language to be 69, expressive language to be 69 with a total language score of 67, the mean being 100 and a standard deviation being 15..He still would not qualify for help in the Govt system as his score needs to be 55. This is despite him being "delayed in articulation skills as he can be unintelligible and the word and phrase level" and that "these factors will have a significant impact on his learning and language skills".

Yes, I know I have beaten this dead horse so much, but the fact that there are so many kids out there with similar issues; they have a problem which does not fall into a clear cut category in the world of DET but the refusal to acknowledge that these condition/s will ultimately affect a child's learning abilities seems to be lost on the Minister and her cronies. Given that parents can fight and fight but soon wear out, leaving their child to struggle in a supposed learning environment without PSG's(Program Support Group) or even an IEP(individual education program) without the therapies promised or even any at all...Where is the responsability to the child? Where does a educational facilities role as an educator cease to be feasible because of the child's condition/s? Who makes such a call and who declared them God? State schools only obligation is to get the child to Grade 2 level of reading/comprehension, I know parents who have questioned the help their children are/are not receiving to be told this by principals. Where do teachers obligations now lie? With keeping to budget and not making it too hard for themselves? Or are there still the unjaded ones who are in it for the "right" reasons and genuinely care enough to help, support and encourage??
I can fight, I can fight for my child FOREVER for what he needs, but what he and all kids who fall in the "cracks" of the system really need is a voice, lots of them, loud angry ones full of upset, soft spoken voices of reason, voices who speak through the power of the pen, negotiator with a clear mind, advocates who can speak objectively, everyone has some of these attributes and more for a child; be it their own or another.
People need to not accept the restrictions placed on support services supplied to their children based on the Government policy (and I am speaking of whatever Govt..Not inasmuch a political party) Ministers need to be "EDUCATED" in what their decisions mean to the children at the coal face and what it means to the teachers of these children. Until we do, our children will remain without a voice, will have lost the opportunity to be the future and have had the right to forfil their own potential taken from them.

Holiday fun for Everyone

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16744832%255E2862,00.html
Makes for interesting reading, I don't even read this paper but a relative called today to tell me Sunbury was back in the news, or at least someone from Sunbury was. "Police Fireworks Over Saucy E.Mail" Incidently, I believe the term "cannons" like "guns" are a term used by body builders for their biceps/arms in relation to the musclature.