Home About Us Media Kit Subscriptions Links Forum
APPEARED IN


View All Articles

Download PDF

FAMOUS INTERVIEWS

Directories:

SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS

HELP WANTED

Tutors

Workshops

Events

Sections:

Books

Camps & Sports

Careers

Children’s Corner

Collected Features

Colleges

Cover Stories

Distance Learning

Editorials

Famous Interviews

Homeschooling

Medical Update

Metro Beat

Movies & Theater

Museums

Music, Art & Dance

Special Education

Spotlight On Schools

Teachers of the Month

Technology

Archives:

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

1995-2000


JUNE 2007

Dr. Bonnie Brown Honored as Special Educator of the Year at First Citywide Special Education Conference

By Sybil Maimin

“Long before there was No Child Left Behind, we left no child behind,” exclaimed Dr. Bonnie Brown as she received the Outstanding Special Educator of the Year award at the first citywide Special Education Conference. Currently responsible for 23,000 students as Superintendent of District 75 in Brooklyn, Brown has been teacher, principal, and administrator during her thirty years in education and her vast experience comes through as she speaks with toughness, authority, and compassion about the long battle to adequately serve young people with special needs. She notes the “incredible number of changes in thirty years” and the “struggle to keep abreast of what is going on in the field” while always “maintaining a focus on the children entrusted to us and their parents…That’s what special education is all about.” This veteran educator who has been in the trenches, marvels, “Everything old is new again. We knew about No Child Left Behind thirty years ago…and regardless of political climate, have always looked at the needs of our kids and focused on what goes on in the classroom.” Advising, “You can’t educate a child without a good teacher,” Brown has come to see that the best professional development takes place in the classroom where master teachers can model and demonstrate skills. While conferences and famous speakers can energize instructors, mentoring is the most powerful tool. She recommends study groups for teachers to share experiences and online professional development sites with breakout rooms where participants can speak with each other and with experts. Brown has seen some improvements in the world of special education. “We have moved up from the basement,” she acknowledges, but “still fight for the same things—use of the library, gym, and lunchroom at reasonable hours.” The graduation rate has climbed slowly but steadily as well as the numbers going to college. She is disturbed by the growing influx of children with autism and the large number of African-American and Latino students who drop out of school. We do a great job in K-4, she explains, but success plummets by middle school. Funding for older students is not available.

A recurrent theme at breakout sessions at the conference was the difficulty of accessing appropriate programs for children with special needs. Lack of good guidance and support, long wait lists for programs, and a Department of Education that focuses on K-3, ignores middle and high school students with special needs, and does not always know what placements will be available make planning frustrating, if not impossible. Angela Mouzakitis, a lecturer in the Graduate Program in Special Education at Queens College, advised, “You must fight for services. They will not be handed to you. You must dig for programs.” Parents, savvy and full of questions, spoke of the need to be “very pro-active, to be an advocate for your child.” The process of figuring out where a child will fit and applying for a slot is “exhausting, frustrating, and alienating as you sit and try to sell your child in different ways.” Most parents find it necessary to retain a lawyer to fight for special accommodations or funding if a private program is the only suitable option. Dr. Jacob and Bonnie Chachkes uprooted their family and moved from Atlanta, Georgia to New York City seeking an education for their special needs child. They have run into obstacles and alternate between wooing those who can help them with flowers and chocolates and fighting in the courts. A teacher said she could predict which of her students would end up in jail, pregnant, or dead because their families could not afford intervention. “Rich kids are at a great advantage,” she offered. “If kids are lucky enough to get into a great program, amazing things can happen…unfortunately, the majority of New York City kids fall through the cracks.” Dr. Thomas E. Brown of Yale University Medical School noted that even families with money could face obstacles if they do not agree with a diagnosis or treatment plan. School politics and the refusal of a school psychologist to acknowledge a learning disorder can be an obstacle to special services. Dr. Lynda Katz, president of Landmark College, remarked that despite research in brain chemistry and much evidence, some people insist learning problems are behavioral and dismiss the need for special treatment. Dr. Jess Shatkin of the NYU Child Study Center advised, “It takes an extraordinary amount of time to deal with these difficult problems. Ideally, start early and have a lot of money.”#

COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE

Name:

Email:
Show email
City:
State:

 


 

 

 

Education Update, Inc.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2009.