Since the auto and other manufacturing industries and other related businesses have either left Michigan or downsized, LDA of Michigan has heard from many displaced workers with reading disabilities who have found it difficult to find work. Many are in their 40s and 50s, too young to retire, and very uncomfortable with the idea of returning to school to upgrade their skills. Adding to the problem of being displaced is that even very well-qualified workers in their 40s and 50s are finding it hard to re-enter the workforce in jobs equivalent to the ones that they lost. They may need to piece together several part-time jobs to make ends meet, and may have to forego benefits and pension plans in the process. The latest AARP Bulletin has an article about the problems of getting jobs equivalent to the ones lost.
The critical issue for most of those who call us is that their long-time difficulties with reading have made it nearly impossible to find work. Many left high school to work "on the line" or in shipping or hauling. Lacking high school diplomas didn't matter at the time they entered the workforce, but the lack of a diploma now is a serious handicap for re-entry.
Here are some of the issues that we've helped callers to the Learning Disabilities Association deal with:
You can dial 211 anywhere in Michigan on a "land line" telephone to reach United Way information and referral. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They link people with food, housing, health care clinics, prescription supports, and a host of other public assistance programs and services. They try to link callers with services in their zip-code areas.
Prescription Support: Walmart, offers 30 day supplies of some generic medications for $4, and so does Target. Call these store pharmacies to check if your medications are covered, or if there is a generic equivalent for medications you are taking. In addition, Meijer pharmacy provides prescription Metaformin (a diabetic medication) free of charge; it also provides certain prescription antibiotics free of charge. These are services available to all.
If prescription medication support is needed, beyond what Walmart, Target or Meijer offer, call the Partnership for Prescription Assistance Michigan at phone number 888-477-2669. They answer calls Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For employment, if a worker has a disability, Michigan Rehabilitation Services may seem overwhelmed with the numbers of displaced workers in manufacturing fields. However, working with a case manager at MRS may improve a person's chances of re-employment. It helps to be assertive about your needs. If support is needed in getting a GED or a high school diploma, or additional training, then applicants to MRS need to make sure that this is understood to be a priority. Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services offers help negotiating with MRS through their Client Assistance Program. If you're really stuck, contact them.
In addition, getting some assistive technology evaluation and training may be very useful to allow a person with severe dyslexia compensate for reading and writing problems. Recent open source software developments have made it possible to add accessibilty to any PC through a flash drive, without loading the software onto the computer.
SSI Disability income: Social Security representatives in the field offices usually obtain applications for disability benefits in person, by telephone, by mail, or by filing online. The application and related forms ask for a description of the claimant’s impairment (s), treatment sources, and other information that relates to the alleged disability. There are also incentives for people with disabilities to re-enter the workforce through Ticket to Work, with a variety of income and health supports to ease the transition.
Michigan Assistance and Referral Service also has online resources and applications for different kind of help, like support from the Department of Human Services.
The statewide system of Centers for Independent Living are also resources for a variety of supports and services, and may help with advocacy support if needed.
Literacy Tutoring, Adult Education, and GED Preparation. Call your local school district for the adult education and GED programs nearest to your location. They will also be able to refer people to literacy tutoring programs, where trained volunteer tutors work one-on-one with adult learners to improve their reading skills. Some tutors may have additional skills working with adults with learning disabilities.
Since many adults are overwhelmed by their many needs, it helps to set priorities. It is helpful to choose one problem at a time to work on. Choosing ones' priorities may be the first step towards empowering an adult who may be feeling very defeated by the system. Just as it is important take care of physical needs and upgrade skills, it is also important that adults in this situation be given the opportunity to regain their dignity and self-respect.
The Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan offers support mostly through identifying other agencies that can provide needed services. In the process, we also try to offer moral support and encouragement. Our volunteers often will be able to refer you to a variety of resources that they have used, and can guide you in working with resources in Michigan.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
"Journey into Dyslexia", Standardized Education, and the Need for "Shop Class"
I'm watching this scene on HBO right now -- Steven J. Walker who manufactures wood pellets (to fuel a special type of woodstove) is telling the story of his painful experience as a kid with dyslexia, except for high school shop class and a great shop teacher. He breaks into sobbing tears as he tells how the school district discontinued shop classes and sold off all the equipment, which ultimately leads to his starting the pellet business. Well, tech ed has come a long way, but the emotional attachment that this man conveys is the one constant.
The documentary is "Journey into Dyslexia", now showing on HBO. It's a collage of authoritative, narrative and personal perspectives on learning disabilities involving reading. One of the talking heads is Guinevere Eden, a neuro-scientist whose studies of brain imaging confirm differences in how people with dyslexia process the written word. Another is David Connor, a disability studies scholar, who discusses inclusive education as a civil right, and suggests that although others may conceive of dyslexia as "disability" he prefers to consider it a natural part of human variance. Still another is Jonathan Mooney, who engages the rebel in me as he rails at the dismissive attitudes of the many unsympathetic adults with whom he dealt while in school. The overall theme of the documentary is that this kind of human variance (dyslexia) leads to such positive phenomena as entrepreneurial risk-taking, creativity, toughness and perseverance and other great things. But, I notice that the people with dyslexia featured in this documentary also talk about how painful it was to grow up with dyslexia. I know from my own experiences (as a teacher and a mother) that many kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities are not nearly so resilient. I think I should probably re-watch this film and seriously consider its narrative, and counter-narratives.
When my son entered high school (he has language-based learning disabilities), he and his one best friend, a boy with autism, ended up at two different schools. He was crushed. The deal I made with him was that if he could successfully make it through a year at the big high school (a huge adjustment in itself), I'd entertain the idea of his "dual-enrollment" the following year at the big high school he had to go to and the small alternative high school where his friend attended. Dual enrollment meant that he would use his lunch hour to take a bus from one school to the other. It meant that he had to take care of responsibilities at each school while he was there. And, it meant that he would have to manage his obligations at each school with limited support from teachers. As an incentive for toughing the year out, we went through the course catalog for the big high school and picked some CTE classes that were in areas of his interests. So he happily took Computer Assisted Design (CAD), TV production, Know Your Auto, and Intro to Electronics. For his freshman year, he only took three of the four core academics to make room for the CTE courses. That year, he passed all his classes, and discovered that he had become a leader and self-directed learner in CAD. (The last time I recalled having teachers make favorable remarks about his school accomplishments was when his third grade teacher told me that he was the "go-to" artist for drawing sharks and jellyfish during their unit on oceans. Kids with all manners of learning disabilities often experience a huge praise deficit. Rick Lavoie's video-talks give a great deal of insight about this.)
The following year, even though his 9th grade science teacher recommended he take Intro to Biology (scornfully called "Science for Dummies" by my special education colleagues), we suggested that he be allowed to take "Foundations of Science" at the alternative school, instead. This interdisciplinary, experiential science course had kids "doing science" and reporting out on their findings, using a variety of technologies, and much more tantalizing than "Science for Dummies". He also took courses in Film Studies at the alternative school and, the following year, transferred out of the district and into a technical middle college at our local community college. He achieved a high school diploma, an Associate's degree, and tech certification in digital media production at the middle college, and finished a B.A. in the field at a neighboring university. He now works part-time as a camera-person for a community television station, and is building a solid resume of his experience.
Career and Technical Education saves lives. There is no doubt in my mind that this is true.
Unfortunately, in this age of standardization, core curriculum, and a push to make all children "college ready", CTE has taken real hits. Here in Michigan, the enrollment reports for CTE courses have been on a downward trend since 2003 (the data only goes through 2007, currently). People in the field report that each year, there are fewer enrollments, and fewer programs in the high schools. And they attribute the decline to a devaluation of skilled labor--the kinds of skills that are taught in CTE programs. The other day, on the companion blog to the public radio program "on Being" was a post "The Work We Value, The Intelligence We Ignore: Is the Work that Made America Great Valued Any Longer? It features the comments of Mike Rowe, the creator and host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. In his testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Rowe said: "I believe we need a national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor. A big one. Something that addresses the widening skills gap head on, and reconnects the country with the most important part of our workforce." It's not that we don't need the skilled trades, it's that we have so devalued them in the rush to make all children "college-ready", that kids who would benefit from learning their academic content through hands-on, authentic work experiences are no longer able to carve out time in their schedules to take these courses.
On the MAISA website, there are samples of what districts have done to make math courses more accessible, and there are samples of courses and curriculum crosswalks that show how academic content can be embedded in CTE with resulting student success. I've focused on the math, since this field has been dominated by a very rigid and didactic structure--the sequence of Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 seems to be unshakable--not so much because they are "naturally" sequential and dependent on each other, but because of some sort of religious adherence to this being the "one right way" to teach mathematics.
Derrick Fries, Ph.D., a professor at Eastern Michigan University, has collected data that shows a strong association between poor student performance in 8th grade math and those likely to fail to complete Algebra 2. Since a Michigan diploma is contingent on completion of a semester of Algebra 2, this means that we can predict which students are at high risk of dropping out, or failing to attain a diploma. If we can alter these outcomes by offering more tangible, work-related courses with the core academic content embedded, we can improve graduation rates. If Mike Rowe is correct, we also are filling a gap in the labor pool by creating a new generation of skilled laborers.
We know that young people who fail to complete high school are more than likely to face lives of poverty. We also know that the dropout rates for students with disabilities are disproportionately higher than for the general population. And, we also know that many students with a variety of disabilities flourish in classes where they are able to learn by doing. CTE classes are prime examples of learning by doing.
I repeat, Career and Technical Education saves lives.
The following year, even though his 9th grade science teacher recommended he take Intro to Biology (scornfully called "Science for Dummies" by my special education colleagues), we suggested that he be allowed to take "Foundations of Science" at the alternative school, instead. This interdisciplinary, experiential science course had kids "doing science" and reporting out on their findings, using a variety of technologies, and much more tantalizing than "Science for Dummies". He also took courses in Film Studies at the alternative school and, the following year, transferred out of the district and into a technical middle college at our local community college. He achieved a high school diploma, an Associate's degree, and tech certification in digital media production at the middle college, and finished a B.A. in the field at a neighboring university. He now works part-time as a camera-person for a community television station, and is building a solid resume of his experience.
Career and Technical Education saves lives. There is no doubt in my mind that this is true.
Unfortunately, in this age of standardization, core curriculum, and a push to make all children "college ready", CTE has taken real hits. Here in Michigan, the enrollment reports for CTE courses have been on a downward trend since 2003 (the data only goes through 2007, currently). People in the field report that each year, there are fewer enrollments, and fewer programs in the high schools. And they attribute the decline to a devaluation of skilled labor--the kinds of skills that are taught in CTE programs. The other day, on the companion blog to the public radio program "on Being" was a post "The Work We Value, The Intelligence We Ignore: Is the Work that Made America Great Valued Any Longer? It features the comments of Mike Rowe, the creator and host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. In his testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Rowe said: "I believe we need a national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor. A big one. Something that addresses the widening skills gap head on, and reconnects the country with the most important part of our workforce." It's not that we don't need the skilled trades, it's that we have so devalued them in the rush to make all children "college-ready", that kids who would benefit from learning their academic content through hands-on, authentic work experiences are no longer able to carve out time in their schedules to take these courses.
On the MAISA website, there are samples of what districts have done to make math courses more accessible, and there are samples of courses and curriculum crosswalks that show how academic content can be embedded in CTE with resulting student success. I've focused on the math, since this field has been dominated by a very rigid and didactic structure--the sequence of Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 seems to be unshakable--not so much because they are "naturally" sequential and dependent on each other, but because of some sort of religious adherence to this being the "one right way" to teach mathematics.
Derrick Fries, Ph.D., a professor at Eastern Michigan University, has collected data that shows a strong association between poor student performance in 8th grade math and those likely to fail to complete Algebra 2. Since a Michigan diploma is contingent on completion of a semester of Algebra 2, this means that we can predict which students are at high risk of dropping out, or failing to attain a diploma. If we can alter these outcomes by offering more tangible, work-related courses with the core academic content embedded, we can improve graduation rates. If Mike Rowe is correct, we also are filling a gap in the labor pool by creating a new generation of skilled laborers.
We know that young people who fail to complete high school are more than likely to face lives of poverty. We also know that the dropout rates for students with disabilities are disproportionately higher than for the general population. And, we also know that many students with a variety of disabilities flourish in classes where they are able to learn by doing. CTE classes are prime examples of learning by doing.
I repeat, Career and Technical Education saves lives.
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