THE BILLY PROJECT
The Danny Story
Laura S: With more metal awareness over the years, we are realizing statistically that we have more students in our class with needs. We try to “fix” behaviors, but in reality, it's not something I can fix. With this awareness, it's helped me feel like it's not me who isn’t good enough or doing my job. There’s more to it than my skills. Danny from last year came from a difficult home life. His mother is crying for help. He was suicidal. He would threaten to jump out the window, stab himself with a pencil, draw pictures of horrible things. You know there’s more going on than what you can fix.
Me: How was Danny’s CST process?
Laura S: It was difficult because he had a first year teacher who was “better at handling him”. When I was showing signs of needing help, I got the “go to that teacher and see what they did”. Turns out this child had accelerated issues that were more advanced than in first grade.
Story Findings
Here is a change over time story. With the progression of mental awareness overtime, parents are becoming more educated about invisible developmental disabilities. Now, teachers are able to see issues and discern normal from abnormal. The pressure to create "fixes" for mental illnesses are being relieved, now that information on the issue is more accessible. Teachers don't have to "fix", instead they are asked to "manage".
But even with this language shift, the issue is inside the child's head. You can manage behaviors and symptoms, but only specialists have the training to show a child how to manage themselves.
Another story of change could be how this age, 2nd grade, is a pivotal point in child development, where quirky behavior is differentiated from disability. The preconceptions about "kids just being kids" with their attention seeking behavior makes it difficult to determine and explain when a child goes from bad behavior to cognitive or social disability.