Mr. Digby and me, aging in place together

In 2 days, Mr. Digby, already geriatric, will be 16 years old. Actually, he’s advanced geriatric; the term as it applies to a dog sets the age 11.5 for a small breed such as the D-dude. Just as with humans, the senior and geriatric dog experience similar declines and deficiencies which may include changes in sleep patterns, eating habits, daily routines and waning interest in things once enjoyed. Mr. Digby has, in a word, become persnickety.

I  am a senior. By definition, in medical terms, senior is more a function of chronological age - a number. As to geriatric, we think more in terms of health, of physicality, of overall well-being and how the body is performing or perhaps not performing.

For people and pets, fragility includes various combinations of the following: weakness, fatigue or exhaustion, weight loss, impaired balance, decreased physical activity, slowed motor performance, social withdrawal, mild cognitive dysfunction, increased vulnerability to physiological stresses.

It’s important to pay attention to cues that suggest insufficient nutrition, which contributes to significant declines in all aspects of daily living . Perhaps it’s time for a dentist appointment to check for cavities or disease that compromise proper chewing which would impact nutritional input. Ill-fitting dentures would also warrant investigation if eating has declined, particularly if there is noticeable weight loss.

From the outset, to promote exercise, Mr. D. was fed 1/4 cup of kibble morning and evening via a food dispensing ball. In recent months, however, he stopped ‘working for eats’. Hard kibble was the culprit. I started feeding him in the dish he came with, measuring out the portion and pouring warm water on it. His morning repast included an extra 1/4 cup of nutrient dense food to to counter the effect of weight loss due to chewing deficiencies with concurrent tooth loss. Though he’s shown no interest in the food ball, attempts to put it away failed. He wants it left right where it is! 

Persnickety entered the examination of Mr. Digby’s aging when he suddenly didn’t want kibble in his dog dish. Now, he enjoys fine dining from a cereal bowl, with a soft biscuit on top. He’s gone from a crunchy biscuit to a soft one, but he still takes it to the living room to eat before he comes back to the kitchen to have the main course. There’s still a lot of mental engagement and he enjoys the routines of his day, whether it’s eating, having play time on the floor with me, or going outside, tethered with Miss Lexie to enjoy the fresh air. One thing I’ve noticed that he no longer does is ‘sing’ along to his favourite Jukebox Oldies; Connie Francis was a regular singing partner. At least I have a few recordings of him belting out the tunes.

Many of the same habits apply to geriatric men and women who may be finding it difficult to eat; using utensils to cut up food is exhausting so it may be time for family members or other givers of care to present meals with cutting already done, and condiments at hand, so that all the older person has to do is enjoy the meal. As well, adaptive dinnerware and cutlery significantly enhances the eating experience, allowing the diner to eat without having to fight to keep food on the plate, fork or spoon. Interestingly, red dinnerware has been demonstrated to stimulate eating. Red, is after all, a power colour and my personal favourite.

In the absence of dietary restrictions, smoothie nutrition provides an immediate energy boost. Though I have the metabolism of 3 men and a boy and eat like a lumberjack, I still have a smoothie almost every day. The dogs enjoy a slosh of blended berries, banana and yogurt, too. For the senior or frail geriatric, proper nutrition also ensures better health overall with less likelihood of contracting a cold or becoming otherwise unwell.

Mr. Digby has issues with sleep and wakefulness and nocturnal ‘anxiety’; the disturbed sleep pattern is part of the canine cognitive disorder, not unlike Alzheimer’s in humans. He’s been on 5mg of melatonin each evening for the past few weeks and is doing very well. Though they’re berry flavoured quick dissolve tablets, he won’t take them in anything but yogurt. For my own good sleep, a sleep mask and room darkening blinds rule the night. We both sleep like babies, though one of us snores terribly. No, it’s not me!

And so, to honour old dogs and old broads with dogs, a contribution to your local animal shelter or rescue group wouldn’t go amiss. They’re always looking for volunteers, too. Dog walking is a great way to connect with the community. Leave cell phones at home and be fully present with your canine companion. It’s a dog’s life, after all.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca

Micro-housing can break the cycle of homelessness

Micro-housing in Fredericton will be great news for so many people, most of all for those who are in need of safe, healthy housing. Why is it then that there’s always that ‘someone’ who, straight out of the gate makes a pronouncement that it will fail, that it will draw the wrong crowd and that people really don’t want to get off welfare? How do they know? Do they possess a crystal ball that allows them to predict outcomes of people they don’t know? Those attitudinal barriers must be broken down if people in need of a hand up are going to appreciate any sort of peace and harmony in the lives they’re trying to establish for themselves.

One online comment about the story, as it appeared in this paper, was both surprising and sad —  “good concept if the people are quiet and behave. My bet and common sense says the cops will be visiting there every day. And they have better things to do.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s comments like these that serve only to diminish the positive/good aspects of initiatives that are geared to help those in need to better help themselves. 

Micro-houses by virtue of design are not meant to be permanent homes. They should be viewed as a stepping stone to permanent housing. That being so, the powers that be, the purse string holders, could make significant impact on the homelessness situation by rethinking the meaning of ‘family composition’ when it comes to adjusting monthly allotment of financial assistance. Why are unrelated persons in the same apartment, both receiving assistance, considered economic unit? Why can they not be viewed simply two people living under one roof who happen to be recipients of financial assistance, whether in the short- or long-term? In their unity is their emotional and physical survival, out of the reach of  homelessness. The system, thought to be unfeeling, sets the stage for the crash and burn as the financial bottom falls out of their world, when they’re essentially penalized for helping each other overcome or avert an emotional or physical crisis.

Landlords may be eligible for rental conversion programs which  provide financial assistance to owners/landlords to convert non-residential properties into affordable self-contained rental housing units and/or bed-units to be occupied by low income households. Yet another mechanism that contributes to breaking the cycle of homelessness. 

Many of us take housing for granted — a place to call our own, whether we rent it or own it, is often seen as a measure of a life on track; that we’re doing well since we have a roof over our heads.  Under the roof and behind the doors, are different stories of people and their challenges.  Lots of adults in Fredericton and around the country have never had a place of their own — circumstances of life tripped them up and they fell down. Some got back up but still struggle. So many others never got back up again. Some are living out years and decades behind bars because the challenges of life didn’t quite fit with their abilities to cope in societally acceptable ways. 

We are governed by laws — checks and balances. Initatives such as micro-housing, which is very much needed, contribute to creating a balance.

Melanie Laviolette and Emily Tingley, nursing students at UNB, addressed the issue of homelessness and its impact on health and wellness, reporting that people they see at clinic have issues that could be resolved were they to have a roof over their head; a shelter in the short term, but a place to call home in the long term is the ideal. It should be a goal that the powers that  that be more fully expand, particularly as a physical address is a requirement to access government financial supports.

The Out-of-the-Cold Shelter and other such housing accommodations provide a valuable service to the disenfranchised and every effort should be made to keep them open for the support of people in crisis. As those being helped get a solid footing in a new and healthier life, a fresh start, they invariably see it as their obligation to help others along that same path. The reality is, though, that mental health issues compromise success; for that reason it’s imperative that we  open minds and resist the urge to paint all with the same brush. 

Those of us who’ve never had to struggle day to day and who have always had enough of the necessities of life actually insult those who don’t by suggesting that they will abuse the system - that they don’t need to be homeless at all, that they abuse the shelters and that they don’t deserve subsidized housing such as the micro-housing schemes would provide.

To them I say - open your eyes. In a single moment, you could be where ‘they’ are.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca

We need a better culture of asking for help

Photo: Gavin Young, PostMedia Network

“Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself?” asked Thomas a Kempis, a copyist and writer who lived a monastic life in the 1400s.

Overcoming ourselves. What does that mean, exactly? In some lives, it may mean overcoming a toxic upbringing with parents who, for whatever reasons, were never able to meet your needs. In spite of that you decided that somewhere deep inside you was the stuff you needed to rise above the madness and confusion of that early start. You did it!

I came into this world as a person with disability and I will leave it the same way. Persons with challenges to daily living strive every waking moment to overcome that ‘thing’ which makes life exhausting. Parents of children with challenges go through every day wondering if they’re doing enough, striving to overcome their own fears about whether they’re doing it right. They and we are striving to overcome ourselves. We can create a better version of ourselves with hard work and a stick-to-itivness while being open to allowing others into our world. Everybody needs a little help sometimes. My age and changing abilities make asking for help essential to continued independent living.

Our province has many opportunities within the ranks of the 50-80 year old set to accomplish great things. Think about the vast resources of knowledge that could be tapped to benefit youngsters just starting out, particularly those about to enter the world of academia with their first day of school. It’s time for developing more inter-generational programs and services and ensuring they are sustained.

At the same time as our aging population is, well, aging, they could be enlisted to share their stores of experience, particularly with regard to their worklife and what attributes they see as critical to success. For me, reading and writing come to mind. While our aging population involves itself in providing service through volunteering their time and energies to youngsters and the community at large, the powers that be have a duty to support them in their healthy and safe aging. Aging in place, though the ideal, poses inherent challenges and is becoming more of a struggle for those who have had to let go of doing even the most routine of daily tasks. Things pile up, even important home maintenance requirements fall by the wayside. All some among us need is a hand up; it’s not always about a hand-out of the monetary kind, though that does help. 

Make no mistake about that — a hand out, an extended hand to help a neighbour who needs it is not just a nice thing to do, it’s a necessary thing to do. Necessary, given that in our own daily lives, we have family and friends who are aging in place but we can’t always meet their needs because we live in another province, perhaps, in another country. We help when and where we can and hope our old neighbours are picking up the slack, doing for our families what we cannot do. We’re doing it for someone else in that new place we call home.

The unfortunate nature of the beast is that the cost of living is so wrapped up in dollars and cents. What about the physical and emotional costs of living? Seniors still living in their own home are often overlooked when it comes to goods and services and taking a look at what they need to stay healthy, well and safe. Often, they’re overlooked because so many seniors don’t ‘sign up’ for services, fully convinced they can do it all on their own. Until the great fall!

In the broader sense, it costs far less for the overseers of programs subsidized by government funding to  be proactive in advance of full-time need of service. In expanding in-home services that are affordable, seniors would be better equipped to overcome themselves and their age-related deficiencies without feeling that they’re useless and totally helpless; self-defeating talk only makes the situations worse. As a consequence, the likelihood of extended period of independent living is made possible and care plans that include leaving the home and hearth of decades can be put on the back burner. 

Long nursing home wait lists and hospitals congested with waiting patients have been plaguing systems of care for years. What if the very space that will work is right under the roof of the person in need of extended care? Imagine that! Government entities responsible for overseeing budgets and placements can overcome themselves by more clearly seeing what’s right in front of them. and those seeking assistance can contribute to ovecoming their own worst impulses by asking for help. You don’t get if you don’t ask.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca 

Childhood poverty significantly limits potentials and opportunities

Childhood poverty compromises every aspect of the lives of those so affected, as they try to make their way in the world that is very often unforgiving of those who don’t fit the pre-cast mold set up by the ever-elusive ‘they’.  In essence, there’s a failure to thrive.

The label ‘failure to thrive’ was assigned to me when I was an infant. In my late 20s, I learned that it was still applied, as part of my ‘medical condition’; being undeweight, often a function of cerebral palsy and galloping metabolism that sucks up calories faster than I can take them in. 

As to children in poverty, failure to thrive is often impacted by spotty nutrition, with children and families relying on food banks and the like to top up requirements each month when funds get low. Failure to thrive is evidenced in school performance; a hungry child cannot concentrate. A child worried about being laughed at because he’s wearing jeans that are dirty and too short cannot effectively learn. He’s a victim of circumstances out of his control. 

Lessons in empathy need to be part of the daily curriculum so that those children who don’t experience such struggles are made aware of the needs of schoolmates who work and play around them. Across the ages, civility is waning and we need to pull it out of the gutter, dust it off and build lessons around it. Where better than in the classroom, at the beginning of the journey of formal education?

A dilemma for those who want to help is how do we help and who do we help? We tend to  take a broad brush to the issue of poverty, putting Group A over here and Group B over there.  We decide, without benefit of facts or family history, who is deserving of our largesse and who may be less so. Hmm. Here’s the thing — people are people. We all cry. We all laugh. We all live. We all die.

Children living in poverty are at risk on so many levels aside from what the mainstream sees as the obvious - food insecurity, inadequate housing and lapses in effective parenting from adults in their world. Lapses in parenting may well contribute to school absenteeism.

Being forced to live on the fringes during their formative years, during their school years, from K to 12, impacts a child in ways that may leave lifelong scars. That’s the reality of their world but there are so many among us who can help change outcomes by getting involved in our community with attention given to those who need us most. Call your local elementary school and offer to be a reading buddy. Your contribution will help boost literacy scores. Boosting literacy helps take a bite out of poverty. Think about that.

In today’s world, yesterday’s curriculum isn’t doing the job; we need to provide students with a more ‘in the world’ hands-on approach to learning. Certainly, sitting down and listening to instructors impart their knowledge about particular subjects needs to be part of the process but it could be expanded to incorporate exposure to  material beyond the pages of a book, or the information on a chalk board. Is it boredom that’s keeping children out of school? Layered learning might be the solution. Learning that’s designed with input from the students. Learning that is more inclusive of the broader community; inviting them in to teach. To learn themselves.

Young people living in poverty who are of working age, often miss school so they may earn money via part-time jobs to top up the family pot of funds required to just get by. Many families come to depend on their teenagers’ part time jobs to put extra food in the cupboards and cover costs of school supplies or special ‘school recommended’ sneakers or jackets.  Some families simply cannot afford any extras. Most may not even have a savings account that has sufficient funds to cover an unexpected emergency. That’s the reality of poverty for so many.

Making the school curriculum more relevant from the outset, beginning in 1st grade, may well be the best way to ensure a continuity of attendance. Engaging students in activities physically, intellectually and emotionally will ensure the creation of long-term memories with a skill set that will ensure that they are able to get off the poverty wheel going nowhere and establish themselves in careers they love with jobs that will be fulfilling with opportunities for advancement.

Childhood poverty is real. It is a problem. It can be made less so with greater and sustained involvement of those in the community who have the time and resources to make a difference. Could you be such a person?

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca 

Reading, writing and manners, oh my!

Photo: Tyler Anderson/Postmedia News

       Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in great measure, the laws depend. Manners are what vex or smooth, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us . . . . According to their quality, they aid morals, or they destroy them. [Edmund Burke, British Statesman]

I agree with Sue Rickards’ recent comments that “schools must teach life, work and academic skills by encouraging teachers and students to take more responsibility for their own education.”

The cookie-cutter model doesn’t work; it never did and it never will. Though I’ve never taught in the formal 4 walls box with the sit down and listen to me theme, I have taught ‘out in the world’ via hands on learning, primarily with intellectually challenged children and young adults. Today, my teaching involves online text based guidance of parents of children with challenges to daily living. I also mentor young adults with disability, mostly young women with cerebral palsy. 

  Ms. Rickards’ leading comment “must teach life …” is the hook. The key. Teaching about life is going to be the way to reach students so that they will be inspired to learn the readin’ and writin’ components of academia. Part of life teaching was lost when vocational training programs were dropped from the curriculum — we need to bring them back. They’re critical to the sustainability of all that book learning that we hold as so important. Learning how to do basic home repairs. Critical! Learning how to make a grocery list, how to budget, how to shop for the best deals. Critical! They involve developing good communication skills, the ability to co-operate effectively. They also involve reading and writing. It’s all part of the same package — life and living IS learning.

In Japan, as example, children don’t take exams until fourth grade. The first 3 years of their schooling is focused on establishing good manners, which invariably contribute to good character. Those two building blocks must be solidly in place before any substantive book learning or lecture learning begins. 

Being reminded of the importance of manners and character building for children in kindergarten, I recalled the case of a teacher in the United States who failed her entire grade one class, being of the view that they lacked the maturity to sit down and listen; they were disruptive to the entire class and the teacher was spending more time correcting behaviour of a few than teaching the group. The majority of the youngsters did not have the basics of numbers and letters, begging the question - where were the parents/caregivers during that early learning phase? Teachers were left to teach manners and the value of caring and sharing as well as do sheet work, teach numbers and letters and basics of early reading. Children who struggled through without establishing a solid grounding in manners and good conduct are now adults who are still struggling; frustrated by the demands of high school, struggling in the work place, struggling in relationships with spouses or signficant others.

We don’t get a do-over and those people who are still floundering with unfulfilled lives still have an opportunity to correct course; that is, if they have the fortitude/get up and go to do it. Re-evaluating what’s important in your day to day is one way of making the decision to change course. Replacing the lust for tech toys with a commitment to taking an night class is a start. Pleading not enough money or no money is, dare I say, an easy out. How many cups ofcoffee did you buy today? Multiply that by 5 days. By 7 days. How many times did you eat fast food this week? Calculate the cost of a single night course that appeals to your interests and aptitudes. You do the math. You make the choice — a choice that may well change your life and open opportunities that are currently lost to you.

Adults in the world of a child who instill in them the value of please and thank you, paying attention, being respectful of others are providing those children with tools that will allow them to make more solid choices as they mature into who they are trying to be and who they will ultimately be, as they take their place in the community. 

Children who are allowed, yes allowed, to run roughshod over the rules of fair play and be disrespectful to those who are charged with teaching them are a challenge to everyone in their world. Parents who may have unwittingly set the stage for the behaviour, throw up their hands and remove themselves from responsibility. Hmm. There has to be accountability. And people, let’s be very clear. It begins in the home.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca 

Make your ‘just a minute’ count each and every day

“Lost time is never found again.” Benjamin Franklin’s words are just as relevant today as when he first said them.

How many years got away from us, with opportunities missed? Opportunities to do it better. Do our part. Pull our weight. Help and be helped.

Some may feel their contribution would pale in comparison to that of others but how would they know if they don’t get out there? Those who hang back, uninvolved, may well shine in the realm of community service, finding it brings to them something that was missing in their lives.

If you express your own feelings about caring and sharing, isolation and abandonment, others might decide to get involved and participate in being part of a change in your shared community, beginning within their own lives, with those near and dear and with those who are near  — the neighbour they really don’t know, the aftershool program that could use extra volunteers to help children with reading, the local hospital that is always seeking extra pairs of hands to do this or that, the community sponsored suppers that always need potato peelers and salad makers. The list of what you CAN do is endless. The list of what you SHOULD do rests with you and your conscience.

Along with aging citizens, we are province of  declining population growth rate. That being so, the need for people to serve, to assist those who are less able to meet their own daily needs, is at a critical mass. If you’re sitting home alone and are able to get out and about, DO it. Find out what’s going on  in your community and see where you might fit. Ultimately, what stops you is YOU!

For myself, giving comes in a form that is somewhat unique, due in large measure to the implications of my own life circumstances. I write. I write about what I know and I write about what I live and I may very well be a voice for many out there who are in a similar situation with regard to lack of access. Perhaps my written voice gives them the courage to finally speak up, to finally stand up and ask for help when needed.

Within the parameters of my online presence, I make myself available to assist young  parents with writing letters requesting devices and services necessary to improve the quality of life for their youngster with disability. I help parents through the maze of often confusing jargon aka gobbledy-gook when they get another denial letter from an agency they thought would help them. The ‘blue book’ needs to be rewritten to accommodate the real needs of real people. Yet again, to repeat an oft-used phrase - ‘one size does NOT fit all!’.

The gift of availability can be transmitted from one person to another, bringing a community to life, whether that community is online or in our daily touch it, feel it, hear it lives.

One couple I’ve ‘known’ online for several years demonstrates clearly the importance and the  need for more neighbourliness. As my online friend says, “we have been isolated by our very ‘composition' by virtue of accommodation.  We have always been blessed with at least a couple of friends or neighbors who accepted us, but we always had to make the most effort.”

Her husband of over 20 years, is a vent dependent quadriplegic. Injured in a high school football game in his teens, he’s been a quad for over 40 years! Imagine it! Forty plus years of not being able to do almost all the things that we so easily take for granted. Over the course of their marriage, they were Mom and Dad to several chosen children who, sadly, have passed away; all had challenges to daily living. Quite frankly the fact that this couple has to ask for help is beyond sad and unfortunate. It’s just wrong! 

All around us are folks who used to ask for help but felt they were imposing and stopped asking, plodding along — sometimes to their detriment. 

Plodded along until the day when the old man who lives across the street from you fell off a ladder while changing the battery in his smoke alarm. One of those ‘shoulda’ moments you missed. “I shoulda gone over to ask Mr. Jones if he needed help,” you said to yourself. Now he’s in the hospital with a broken hip and has developed an infection. How long does it take to change a smoke alarm battery?

Living with disability is not pretty and growing old is not fun. Asking for help is a tough pill but we have to swallow our pride and just DO it if we are to be safe. Will you DO your part in your community, on your street, to ensure that a neighbour in need stays safe? Perhaps that will be your next ‘just a minute’.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca 

Teaching our children well goes beyond classroom curriculum

       

       

According to German author, Jean Paul, “the conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.”

Take a moment and re-read those words and think about what they mean. Think about what they meant when you were growing up, when you were raising children, when you’re influencing grandchildren.

Now, think about all those children who grew up and are growing up without many or no positive influences to guide them and help set their ‘moral compass’ and build an emotional quotient. Today’s latchkey children are in trouble, people. They are barely getting by because there is not enough consistency with active adults in their world doing what needs to be done. Children were not meant to parent themselves.

Then, think about 12 such children with no on track moral compass in a classroom joined by10 others who have been schooled, coached, encouraged, included, praised and gently pushed into being productive, contributing little citizens in their communities. Each of them, in a second grade class, sitting at a desk, with the adult standing at the front of the room. She calls out the class list. All present and accounted for; the lesson begins. It was to be a math lesson with a counting game and flash cards and M&Ms. The teacher referenced Tiny Tim and Christmas and being poor and how much things cost in the days of A Christmas Carol. Most 7-8 year olds know about Tiny Tim.

Three of the children who’ve not yet mastered the ‘sit down and sit still’ MO of classroom etiquette are up and wandering around at the back of the room; one of them is playing with a truck and the other 2 want a turn zoom, zoom, zooming it on the floor. Did they forget that class is in session? The teacher quietly makes her way to the three ‘lost little lambs’ and herds them back to their seats, picking up where she left off. Ten minutes have passed while she was talking about the story of Tiny Tim, with many hands raised anxious to ask their question. One of the three didn’t raise his hand. He just blurted out a question while standing up by his seat, pulling on his sweater and weaving back and forth. He was asked to ‘sit down, please’, but he was having none of it. Off he went to go through a box of games the teacher made available for children staying in at recess. Again, he was asked to take his seat. He started screaming. The entire class collapses into chaos. Has the teacher lost control? Hmm.

The teacher does something totally unexpected; she takes her chair and puts it into the corner and sits down, facing into the wall. All goes quiet. The children who were disrupting the lesson are back in their seats. Waiting. She continues to sit, not moving. Silence!

After what seems ages, the teacher turns around, facing the class, to let them know that the  children who would not sit down really hurt her feelings. She tries so hard to make their days fun and interesting and it’s hurtful when some of the children won’t sit down and paticipate. She realizes that some children learn by being busy and noisy and into everything, but part of the lesson requires that they sit still. She would rather have the days filled with different types of learning but she has rules to follow; a curriculum. She turned to face the corner again. She waited. More time for everyone to settle.

Across the province and across the country, teachers are faced with numerous challenges that fall outside the realm of curriculum delivery. The emotional health of certain children in their class may sometimes dictate course direction and/or correction.  Meeting their needs with a unique teaching method is a way to educate the entire class. There’s method in the madness.

The teacher’s plan to have a math lesson was shelved; instead she opted to have a discussion — a discussion about feelings. The unsettled children were asked to form a circle and the others joined. Each in their turn, starting with the ones who couldn’t sit still, was asked what they did that morning before coming to school. The mornings for a few of the children didn’t get off to a good start. Those who received positive regard from Mom and Dad offered some advice. The teacher sat quietly and listened to the unfolding lesson as children exchanged experiences and feelings and ways to make things better for tomorrow.

Teaching and learning isn’t always about sit down and sit still so when the situation warrants devoting the entire class time to sharing feelings, that’s the way to go. Ultimately, it will have more staying power than learning  the multiplication tables. There’s time for 9x8 another 

day.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca