From: Maia <maia>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 12:29:46 -0800

I haven't yet read "Joey...", but some of the comments posted here have made me wonder if this a book for kids, or for adults about kids? Monica seems to have some concern over using it with her students at all; others have spoken primarily about the effect that the book has on adult readers who recognize "Joeys" in their own life... ?

I also have to admit that I was thrown by Tina's description of discussing disabilities in class. Wow, talk about putting those kids on the hotplate -- the comparison that comes to mind is discussing female sexuality in a class of thirty boys and one girl. Oh joy.

I'm not saying that class discussion is necessarily the wrong thing, but it sure would make me nervous to try to carry it off. If I were to make the attempt, I wouldn't use labels. Theories change quickly (yes, the sugar hypothesis was stated as FACT when I was growing up), but kids labeled by those theories remain that way for a very long time. And we each carry dis?ilities, but we don't hold them all up for class examination. Should we discuss the child with sociopathic tendencies, the child with no affect due to a chilling home environment, the child who self-mutilates as a cry for help? Sure, we discuss these things in general (e.g. for sociopathy, Hitler), but rarely with labels, and never regarding actual, present, children.

The "A" labels (ADD, ADHD) are such a mess right now; there really isn't a consistent diagnostic or treatment approach. The which makes me even more leery of permanently marking those children, especially in the minds of their could? friends... that's a kind of "tracking" that goes far beyond anything that was done in my day. Talk about stacking the deck...

Maia

-maia at littlefolktales.org www.littlefolktales.org the Spirited Review: www.littlefolktales.org/reviews
Received on Tue 30 Jan 2001 02:29:46 PM CST