We suggest that you build your presentation around the award-winning video tape, How Difficult Can This Be? This simulated workshop allows viewers to experience firsthand what it is like to be a learning disabled person themselves, and offers concrete suggestions on how to make the lives of such persons easier. We are pleased to announce that this, and other excellent tapes on special needs, can now be ordered directly from PBS and in the PAL format. To see a preview of this tape and to access the ordering instructions, go to www.ldonline.org and click on the video section. Perhaps your local international school already has a copy you can borrow. If not, perhaps your club could buy one and donate it to the school tape library when you are finished with it.
At your next board meeting, get approval for your project and select a date for your presentation (if possible, at least 2 months in advance) that will not conflict with the venue and other programs. You want to be the main program for that meeting, and you want the chairs arranged so that you and the TV screen can be seen. You will need to find out how long your presentation may run and let them know what audio/visual equipment you will need. If the venue is a large room or auditorium and you expect a lot of people, you will probably need a microphone and speakers. You will also need a TV set and VCR.
Once you have your approval and date secured, start advertising.
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Ask for a short speaking slot at all the general meetings that will precede your program. Feel free to read bits and pieces of Students Who Learn Differently to your audience to whet their appetites.
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Publish part of the report in your newsletter. We are happy to send any requested sections via email so you don't have to retype, or you can download directly from the Internet (http://studentswholearn.fawco.org). You might like to summarize the report. One rep wrote, "A statement that we received this report did nothing to arouse interest, whereas a 1 ½ page summary did get some response. I expect to hear more."
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If it is all right with your club, go out into your community and invite interested persons to your presentation. Host country as well as international schools might be interested as well as any support groups in your area. You might also consider inviting host country officials who are involved in the juvenile justice system. Outreach into your community will strengthen both your club's and FAWCO's image, and your club members are more likely to respond when they hear your information presented in different ways and in different locations.
If you know that someone in your club would be particularly interested in such a program, ask for her assistance.
Ask a local expert to help with your presentation. For example, a local school psychologist or special needs teacher could be asked to be present to answer any questions. If an expert is unable to be present on the day itself, try to arrange that one would be willing to answer any questions that you don't feel qualified to deal with at a later date.
The presentation:
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The amount of the video you will be able to show will depend on how much time you have been allotted. The video itself runs for 70 minutes, too long to show in its entirety at a general meeting.
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You want to be sure to leave time for questions, especially if you have invited a guest expert.
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You could offer to show the rest of the tape at the end of the meeting to those who are interested, if that is a possibility, or make other arrangements for viewing the remainder at a later date.
- To introduce your program you are welcome to use any of the information
in Students and any part of the speech which was given to introduce
Addendum 2001 to the Luxembourg Conference, which is reprinted below:
LEARNING DIFFERENTLY: YOUR PERSONAL CONCERN AND YOUR FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION
"What you do to children, they will do to society." Karl Menninger
(1899-1966; famous American psychiatrist)Learning differently, the condition described by such buzzwords as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, hyperactivity and attention problems, is your problem. It is not just the concern of learning-differently students and their families and their teachers and their school and eventually their employers. It is your personal concern and your personal financial consideration.
What do we know about learning differently? Well, there is a lot we know and a lot we don't know. One of the things we do know is that these students are not stupid. They are also not dumb, they are not lazy, and they are trying hard enough. What don't we know? We don't know why some brains are "wired" differently than others, why otherwise perfectly healthy, intelligent individuals are not responsive to many conventional teaching methods.
In order to receive a diagnosis of being a learning-different or LD person, the individual must be of normal or above normal intelligence. All of the senses, like sight and hearing, must register in the normal range, the person must not be suffering from any emotional or mental disorder, and the person must have had the opportunity to learn. In order words, LD students look just like the majority of their peers. Because of this, LD is often referred to as a "hidden disability." Others, however, have referred to it as a hidden gift. There are always two sides to the coin. But for our purposes today, we will only be looking at the problem side.
It is precisely because it is hidden that most of the problems occur. If you break your leg, you are automatically given special consideration, even by strangers. They open doors for you, make sure that you have a place to sit, maybe even fetch something for you to rest your leg on. But when people can't see your problem, they are inclined to think that one does not exist. And when you are unable to perform like your peers, you are found to be at fault. In school, you aren't listening hard enough or you're not paying attention. And to make matters even worse, there are some days when you can respond to conventional teaching methods, when you can do well on a test, when you are organized and everything seems to fall into place. This is what is known as "performance inconsistency" and it is a very real problem for LD people because it leads others to assume that you really can do it, you're just not trying hard enough.
So all this is very interesting, but how does it affect you? Neither you nor any of your family members have any LD problems of which you aware. Although you might be surprised. Studies are showing that as much as 20% of the population, 1 in 5 people, are people who learn differently. I personally think it's closer to 1 in 4. But because LD people are bright, or even very bright, they often develop compensatory techniques on their own that see them through most tasks.
But what about those who can't, or those who are not taught how? What happens when you take individuals of normal or above normal intelligence and legally force them into an environment for 16 or 18 years where they cannot succeed or only succeed poorly. What happens to these individuals' self-esteem when they are constantly told that it is their fault that they are failing?
Experience shows that they will find ways they can succeed, and they will engage in activities that make them feel good. Unfortunately, these ways are often socially unacceptable and even sometimes criminal. Feeling good can be found for some in drinking too much or taking drugs. Recent research in the US found that 52 % of a sample of prisoners was dyslexic. In the UK, studies have shown that 70 to 80% of inmates were. An astonishing 91% of residents screened at a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation center were found to be dyslexic. The probation officer, Wally Morgan, who conducted the study, found the resulting feelings of inadequacy and rejection were the underlying cause of their addictions.
Therefore, you can perhaps now see where your personal and financial concerns are evident. Surely you are concerned about your personal safety and that of your loved ones as you walk the streets, and when you leave your homes unattended, theft might be a worry. As Mr. Morgan wrote, "If we can give dyslexia a much higher profile, if judges and lawyers, prison officials and teachers can acquire a better understanding of it, if people would realize that dyslexia in not an excuse but a reason, we would quickly see a significant reduction in offending."
Financially, think how your tax burden might be lightened if we could more than cut the prison population in half. Think of the additional savings if we could help prevent drug addiction and alcoholism. And think how these savings would not only be financial.
Remember, you can make a difference both to your personal well-being and that of others by helping to educate your community so that it might direct its priorities in the most constructive directions.
As Margaret Mead, the noted US cultural anthropologist, noted: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
- To introduce your program you are welcome to use any of the information
in Students and any part of the speech which was given to introduce
Addendum 2001 to the Luxembourg Conference, which is reprinted below:
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Students Who Learn Differently
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