Comments of The President and Founder
Hello again,
While working on a Masters of Community Psychology and Social Change at Penn State University, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, I had the pleasure of enjoying an Education class with a wonderful professor and person, Dr. Jane Keat. Dr. Keat, York, Pennsylvania, was teaching a course that dealt with Early Childhood Education, assessments, observations, and evaluations . This course was filled with future teachers of our children and I was the only non-teacher in the class. Up until this point I really didn't have too many things good to say about the teaching profession and in a way, to me, it fell close in comparison to the profession of attorneys (let me clarify, some attorneys).
Dr. Keat, gave me the belief of hope for the quality of our future teachers. She does more than teach out of a book, she shares life experiences and relates them to the human aspects of teaching. She teaches teachers to do more than teach for the sake of testing, but to recognize the student as an individual and a human being, and this, not treating students as human beings is one of the many direct causes for the "School to Prison Pipeline". I would like to take this moment and say, thank you, Dr. Keat, you are one of my few "Hero's".
While in Dr. Keat's class there was discussion about Autism and TSS's (Therapeutic Staff Support) in schools. At the time, I was aware of this disease, but didn't know the facts. Being the strong believer that you should not make claims of knowing something or teach others something unless you have had hands on experience yourself. I guess we all can read and use others work to justify ours, this is easy. I wanted the hands on experience in understanding this disease. It was at this time that I contacted a wonderful agency named Philhaven, www.philhaven.org. This is an outstanding agency and I will tell more of them later. Philhaven gave me the opportunity to work with a young man named Timmy.
Timmy, a 9 year old black male, turned 10 years old while I was working with him. Timmy has Autism with some aggressive behaviors and limited communicative skills. I was with Timmy for about 6 months. Now, that I look back at it, I didn't believe that I would last. After about 3 days I found myself questioning if I could work with Timmy, due to his constant needs and aggressive behaviors. I think about this statement and I think about Timmy's family, and his mother Vivian, who lives and support him every day. I now truly understand the meaning of "strong family". To have a child with Autism you must be strong, not only as individuals, but as a famiy unit, and my heart goes out to all of the parents and guardians of children with Autism.
My next few upcoming comments on this page I will talk about my 6 month experience with Timmy and with two of the best teachers, one of which is now supervising this site information on Autism, that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. These teachers are incredible and I have come to appreciate, admire and respect them. It's obvious they are not expecting to be rich someday in this line of work, and it is obvious that they have "heart"
So please check back for more of my experiences with Timmy and another child, Dana.
After assisting Timmy into the van which transported him to and from school, another one of Timmy's classmates would look at me and say:
"Mr. Charles (and as he holds up his very small two fingers) Peace" |
