Through a glass darkly: reflections on our field and its future.

Through a glass darkly: reflections on our field and its future. As my title may suggest, taking a long view of a field from thelimited perspective of one's own career is fraught with peril.There are many opportunities for error, in which case I could be accusedof having the "wrong view;" my perspectives could be poorlyinformed or articulated ("dim view)"; I could wax on like thisand end up presenting "no view". It has been my good fortune,throughout my career, to stand in some high cotton. Specimens of thiscrop also are represented in these pages. I have endeavored to be ascholar of their work. To the extent that my scholarship has beensuccessful, I have some inkling about the topics they will address.Being something of a deviant, I will attempt a slightly different tack. Let me start with a brief personal history. I like to tell peoplethat I began my special education career as a consumer. That isn'tquite true; I was never identified nor received special educationservices. I was, however, adjudicated as delinquent at the age of 17,dropped out of high school and entered the Navy, which provided me withreasonably well-structured time to mature. I exited military servicewith a GED GEDabbr.1. general equivalency diploma2. general educational developmentGED(US) n abbr (Scol) (= general educational development) → and a desire to obtain a higher education degree, so Ienrolled in Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia University),majoring in English and Psychology. A series of events led me to ateaching position in special education, and from there to amaster's degree in school psychology, and doctoral studies inspecial education at the University of Kansas The University of Kansas (often referred to as KU or just Kansas) is an institution of higher learning in Lawrence, Kansas. The main campus resides atop Mount Oread. . Jim Kauffman and I werein the same cohort of doctoral students under Richard Whelan. DickShores was just finishing his program there, and I took over hisposition as a psychologist at the Children's Rehabilitation Unit.We had a wonderful graduate school experience; not only did we studyunder some great researchers and teachers at KU (including Don Baer,Montrose Wolfe, Ogden Lindsley, Earl Butterfield, and Todd Risley), butDick Whelan also brought a number of great special education pioneers asguest lecturers: Lloyd Dunn, William Cruickshank, Newell Kephart, andJohn Johnson, among others. Jim, Dick, and I graduated from KU into a bear job market: althoughthere were not many special education personnel preparation programs inemotional disturbance (ED) at the time, neither were there manyapplicants. We entered the field about the same time as Hill Walker andSteve Forness. Lew came along a few years later (with the dubiousdistinction of having me as his mentor at Kentucky). I hope this discourse hasn't been a terrible bore or seemedself-serving. There are, of course, more comprehensive and scholarlyhistories of our field (e.g., Whelan, 1998). I offer this little summaryto illustrate how intimate is our field, and how compact. Jim Kauffman,Dick Shores and I can trace our roots back to Dick Whelan's mentor,Norris Haring, and his mentor, William Cruickshank. It was Norris, who,along with E. Lakin Phillips, conducted the Montgomery County Project,the first documented attempt to apply a methodology to children with EDthat was based on Cruickshank's work with students with minimalbrain dysfunction min��i��mal brain dysfunctionn.Attention deficit disorder. No longer in scientific use.minimal brain dysfunction. Haring started the Children's RehabilitationUnit at Kansas. Steve Forness did his doctoral work at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los AngelesUCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University)UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX with FrankM. Hewett, who created the engineered classroom. It has been myprivilege to write and present with, as well as enjoy the company of,all these fine persons for 35 years (2). We should have a drink togethersometime. Observations From this perspective (and remember, I'm looking through aglass darkly Through A Glass Darkly is an abbreviated form of a much-quoted phrase from the Christian New Testament in 1 Corinthians 13. The phrase is interpreted to mean that humans have an imperfect perception of reality[1]. ), let me offer several observations. The above commentssuggest the foundations and building of our field, at least some of thepersons who were instrumental in it. I feel lucky to have witnessed sucha phenomenon, which encompasses the development of fundamentalresearch-based methodology, including systematic screening to identifystudents at-risk for externalizing and internalizing disorders (Walker& Severson, 1990, Walker, Severson, & Feil, 1992), curriculumand strategies for educating students with emotional and behavioraldisorders (Haring & Phillips, 1962; Hewett & Taylor, 1980;Anderson-Inman, Walker, & Purcel, 1984; Wong, Kauffman, & Lloyd,1991), not to mention the passage of landmark federal and statelegislation protecting the educational rights of students withdisabilities. Like my colleagues (Guetzloe, 1999; Kauffman, 2002), I amdismayed to see so much of our progress being dismantled by policies andpractices that are nonsensical (e.g., No Child Left Behind,postmodernism), counter-productive (e.g., zero tolerance The policy of applying laws or penalties to even minor infringements of a code in order to reinforce its overall importance and enhance deterrence.Since the 1980s the phrase zero tolerance has signified a philosophy toward illegal conduct that favors strict imposition of ), orineffective with our population (e.g., full inclusion). As I visitspecial education programs in public schools and juvenile correctionalfacilities, I am disheartened to see how many students with staggeringeducational, emotional, and behavioral needs are receiving poorservices, or no services that address their individual needs. And, as Iadvocate for the use of research-based practices (of which we have quitea number in education), I am amazed at their disuse dis��use?n.The state of not being used or of being no longer in use.disuseNounthe state of being neglected or no longer used; neglectNoun 1. , in favor ofpractices guided by political rhetoric or commercialism. How can weleave no child behind while at the same time we insist that students whodisplay undesired behavior have no place in our schools? Guetzloe (1999,p. 94) succinctly observed that, with regard to the policy of fullinclusion "It would appear that those in charge of determining the nature and extent of special education and related services that students need, as well as the most appropriate setting in which those services may be delivered, have read only the first part of the federal mandate for the LRE and have missed the part about supplementary aids and services." Today, we are facing a crisis in special education for studentswith emotional/behavior disorders (EBD EBDEmotional or behavioral disorder ). This crisis begins with ashortage of qualified personnel, both to serve students and to preparethose who do. At the same time, we are having little or no impact on thegeneral education system that is responsible for the vast majority ofour students. Although the National Technical Assistance Center forPositive Behavioral Interventions and Support has been successful inchanging the culture of many schools throughout the country (as well asin Canada) to take ownership of all students and all students behaviorthrough the provision of multiple levels of positive behavior support Positive behavior support strives to use a system to understand what maintains an individual’s challenging behavior. Students’ inappropriate behaviors are difficult to change because they are functional, they serve a purpose for the child. ,this remains a special education initiative. We have not succeeded inpartnering with general education to fund and support this program. Justa few years ago, the so-called regular education initiative emerged andfailed because it wasn't a regular education initiative at all.Have we not learned from our mistakes, or is the "system"really unbeatable, after all? I have to hope that things will change. Even in the brief timeframe of my career, we have seen the pendulum swing: from balance beamsand patterning to Direct Instruction, back to whole language, and now areturn to systematic teaching; from psychodynamic PsychodynamicA therapy technique that assumes improper or unwanted behavior is caused by unconscious, internal conflicts and focuses on gaining insight into these motivations.Mentioned in: Group Therapy, Suicide educational strategiesto applied behavior analysis Some of the information in this article may not be verified by . It should be checked for inaccuracies and modified to cite reliable sources.Applied behavior analysis (ABA) and now positive behavior support. The U.S.Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs issupporting a number of excellent national centers: the Center forPositive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, six Reading and BehaviorCenters, the "Baby Behavior Center," and the Center forEducation, Disability, and Juvenile Justice (which, by the way, also isfunded by the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (or OJJDP) is an office of the United States Department of Justice and a component of the Office of Justice Programs. ). Challenges From whatever advantage comes with age and experience, I offer afew challenges for current and future generations of professionals inour little field. While these certainly are not the only things thatneed to be done, and others may disagree with my assessment of theirrank, they are important to me. Make prevention sexy. Jim Kauffman (1999a) has written an eloquentanalysis of how the public education system manages to ignore orenfeeble en��fee��ble?tr.v. en��fee��bled, en��fee��bling, en��fee��blesTo deprive of strength; make feeble.en��feeble��ment n. practices that would prevent many of the problems that we facein schools and society. Some professionals and probably most laypersonscontinue to behave as if they believe that responding to undesired anddeviant behavior after it occurs with harsh punishment not only iseffective intervention for the perpetrator A term commonly used by law enforcement officers to designate a person who actually commits a crime. , it serves as a powerfuldeterrent for would-be offenders. While we know how far this is from thetruth, our political leaders and policy makers believe quite theopposite. Hence, our society continues to incarcerate in��car��cer��ate?tr.v. in��car��cer��at��ed, in��car��cer��at��ing, in��car��cer��ates1. To put into jail.2. To shut in; confine. more of itscitizens than any other developed country in the word, and we taxpayersare paying $35,000 to $60,000 a year for each youth we lock up(Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,1995). On the other hand, education is the most effective crimeprevention practice (Center on Crime, Community, and Culture, 1997), andthe cost of educating one student for a year is $7,000. Moreover,incarceration Confinement in a jail or prison; imprisonment.Police officers and other law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. is such a stupendously stu��pen��dous?adj.1. Of astounding force, volume, degree, or excellence; marvelous.2. Amazingly large or great; huge. See Synonyms at enormous. ineffective treatment that Morris(1987) suggested that it could be regarded as the "A" phase ina study that demonstrates how the natural environment supportsdelinquent behavior. Shiraldi (2000) demonstrated how the media tends to distort thepublic's impression of youth violence and delinquency. For example,it is common to hear people exclaim ex��claim?v. ex��claimed, ex��claim��ing, ex��claimsv.intr.To cry out suddenly or vehemently, as from surprise or emotion: The children exclaimed with excitement.v. that schools are unsafe and thatyouth are becoming increasingly violent, when, in fact, schools aresafer places than children's homes, and youth violence has beendeclining for the past 10 years. And, contrary to popular opinion,research supports the conclusion that schools having a major emphasis onzero tolerance are in fact less safe (Mayer & Leone, 1999). Itisn't hard to understand how our policy makers have come to accepta distorted view of reality--they get their information from the media,not from us scientists. A few researchers, such as Hill Walker and thelate Mary McElvoy, are well known to their state legislators, but mostof us are not. So I urge you to get on the agenda of your state schoolboard and congressperson con��gress��per��son?n.A congressman or congresswoman. . Ask them why we would want to push morestudents out of school with insane zero tolerance policies? How can weleave no child behind if we fail to take responsibility for helping ourstudents to succeed socially as well as academically? Why should wepromote strategies, like incarceration, that don't work and costtaxpayers huge sums of money? The success of such social marketingcampaigns as using seat belts and Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a nonprofit organization with more than 600 chapters nationwide. MADD seeks to find effective solutions to the problems of drunk driving and underage drinking, while also supporting those persons whose relatives and friends have been killed by drunk ,demonstrate that public attitudes can be changed. Fortunately, efforts to increase awareness and use of effectivestrategies for preventing the social ills that affect many of our youth(e.g., antisocial antisocial/an��ti��so��cial/ (-so��sh'l)1. denoting behavior that violates the rights of others, societal mores, or the law.2. denoting the specific personality traits seen in antisocial personality disorder. behavior, delinquency, and substance abuse) aregaining strength. For example, the National Crime Prevention Council hasprovided grants to six states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Iowa,Kentucky, and Oregon. These states are developing five-year plans toembed prevention in state policy and practice. This and otherinitiatives involving collaboration among disciplines (e.g., theChildren's Behavioral Alliance) lead me to suggest anotherchallenge. Connect the dots. Not too long ago, I observed how we tend tobecome entrenched within our own fields, to the point where researchersfrom different disciplines are studying the same topics, yet apparentlyare unaware of the discoveries of others (Nelson, 2000). Recently, Ihave heard this phenomenon described as "working in silos."Emotional and behavioral disorders impact all life domains of childrenand youth who are afflicted. Education is an important domain, to besure, but students who have needs that go unmet in other domainscan't benefit fully from educational interventions. Therefore, itmakes sense to embrace a collaborative approach to understanding andworking with our population. As schools are adapting to the idea oforchestrating services that address the full range of students'behavioral needs through multiple levels of positive behavior support,educators are beginning to appreciate that providing tertiary support tostudents with the most intensive needs requires transdisciplinarycollaboration and wraparound WraparoundA financing device that permits an existing loan to be refinanced and new money to be advanced at an interest rate between the rate charged on the old loan and the current market interest rate. planning. The Embedding Prevention andChild Behavior Alliance initiatives reflect this focus. I urge you toidentify collaborative initiatives in your state or area. Examplesabound around such issues as school safety, substance abuse and violenceprevention, child homelessness, and mental health in the schools. Talkwith your colleagues in social work, psychology, sociology, criminology,and public health; you'll discover that they are concerned with thesame issues that we are, and may be conducting research on the sametopics as us. My involvement in the Kentucky Center for School Safetyand the state Embedding Prevention Core Team has opened up whole newnetworks and broadened the support base and potential impact of all theprofessionals involved. Zins and Ponti (1990) suggested that school andother settings that are potential "host environments" foreffective practices should be carefully studied to learn how to supportand facilitate change and innovation. If our field is a host environmentfor our work, how much greater influence can we have if this environmentis expanded? Advocate for science. We know a great deal about children and youthwith EBD, and about what works and what doesn't work. In thisregard, our science has served us well. Unfortunately, as Kauffman(1999b) has pointed out, today we appear more confused than confident,and postmodern thinking has encouraged many professionals to viewtraditional scientific inquiry as untrustworthy. More than two decadesago, Lilly and Givens-Ogle (1981) observed that changes in education arebased more on politics and expediency than on science. That seems stilltrue today. Another influence, whose insidious tentacles I fear areinvading our spirit of scientific enquiry, is entrepreneurism. Years agoI quipped that "bad kids are good business" (Nelson, 1981).The proliferation of assessment tools, workshops, and interventionpackages that address school violence and disruptive student behaviorwould seem to support the observation that some professionals are makinga very good living by developing and marketing such products. Let mehasten to add that I see nothing wrong in selling tools and trainingthat help educators do a better job of working with students. I wishthat potential consumers of these wares would ask for scientificevidence of effectiveness before making their purchases. It isgratifying that efforts are being made to disseminate information abouteffective practices more generally. For example, CEC's Division ofLearning Disabilities and the Division for Research have initiated abulletin publication series, Current Practice Alerts and the U.S.Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences hasestablished the What Works Clearinghouse (www.w-w-c-.org). On the supply side of this issue, I urge that you emulate suchcolleagues as Hill Walker, Arnold Goldstein, Don Deshler, and DougCarnine, who have conducted extensive research on the efficacy of theirtools before marketing them commercially. Another strategy is to"go public" with the results of your research. Shiraldi (2000)argues that professionals should be more aggressive in marketing useabledata and real-life success stories to the media, to counteract itstendency to focus on sensationalized stories taken out of context. Conclusion As the time of my "official" retirement nears, I see itless as an abrupt event and more of a progressive transition. Like myother senior colleagues, I plan to continue many of my currentprofessional activities, though not in the context provided for me bythe University of Kentucky Coordinates: The University of Kentucky, also referred to as UK, is a public, co-educational university located in Lexington, Kentucky. , and, hopefully, not at the pace I'vebeen keeping. But I will become more of an Ishmael of the field--anobserver and occasional chronicler. Those of you who will continue withthe daily work have a huge agenda to move through many obstacles.However, you can do it, I know, and you will. Permit me to leave youwith one more request. Fight to keep special education for students withdisabilities alive and viable. Don't let special education be"dummied down" by such policies as replacing one-year IEP IEPIn currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Irish Punt.Notes:The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. evaluations with three-year evaluations, eliminating short-termobjectives, and making annual goals vague and unaccountable. Object to"one size fits all" IEPs that are generated by computer (thereare many excellent uses for technology in our business, but this is notone of them). Advocate for the full continuum of services and placementsfor our students, and work to replace the concept of "fullinclusion" with that of "supported inclusion." And insistthat the support extend to the teachers and other caregivers in theseinclusive environments, as well as students with disabilities. Requirethat this support be in the form of valid technical assistance providedby personnel who have the qualifications to deliver it. I hope my comments have communicated how important it is that weunderstand and appreciate our history. It's an old adage, but true:those who don't know (their) history are doomed to repeat it.Despite some setbacks, we have made progress in our little field bybuilding on the knowledge of the past. I feel proud of my career, andhope that, when you reach this point in yours, you will be able to lookaround you and feel the same. (1) With apologies to Arthur Hugh Clough Arthur Hugh Clough (January 1, 1819 – November 13, 1861) was an English poet, and the brother of Anne Jemima Clough. Early yearsArthur Clough was born in Liverpool to James Butler Clough, a cotton merchant of Welsh descent, and Anne Perfect, originally from . (2) It also has been my pleasure to work with and mentor enormouslytalented young faculty at UK, including George Sugai, Terry Scott, andKristine Jolivette. References Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture (1997, September).Research Brief: Education as crime prevention: Providing education toprisoners. Occasional Paper Series, Number 2. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Author. Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention(1995). National juvenile justice action plan (draft). Washington, DC:Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Guetzloe, E. (1999). Inclusion: The broken promise. PreventingSchool Failure, 43, 92-98. Kauffman, J. M. (2002) Education deform: Bright people sometimessay stupid things about education. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Scarecrowgoes to Wizard of Oz to get brains. [Am. Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]See : IgnoranceScarecrowcan’t live up to his name. [Am. Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Am. Education. Kauffman, J. M. (1999a). How we prevent the prevention of emotionaland behavioral disorders. Exceptional Children, 65, 448-468. Kauffman, J. M. (1999b). Today's special education and itsmessages for tomorrow. Journal of Special Education, 32, 244-254. Mayer, M. J., & Leone, P. E. (1999). A structural analysis ofschool violence and disruption: Implications for creating safer schools.Education and Treatment of Children, 22, 333-358. Morris, E.K. (1987). Introductory comments: Applied behavioranalysis in crime and delinquency: Focus on prevention. The BehaviorAnalyst, 10 (1), 67-68. Nelson, C. M. (2000). Educating students with emotional andbehavioral disabilities in the 21st Century: Looking through windows,opening doors. Education and Treatment of Children, 23, 204-222. Nelson, C. M. (1981). Who's crazy? In R. B. Rutherford R. B. Rutherford was a college football and basketball coach at Oregon State University. Coaching yearsRutherford was the head coach of the Oregon State Beavers football team from 1920–1923. During his tenure there, he compiled a 13-14-6 record. , Jr.,A. G. Prieto, & J. E. McGlothlin (Eds.), Monograph in behaviordisorders: Severe behavior disorders of children and youth (pp.103-108). Reston, VA: Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders. Shiraldi, V. (2000, February). How distorted coverage of juvenilecrime affects public policy. Paper presented at the Loren Warboysnational EDJJ EDJJ National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice forum on Violence and Disruption at School and in theCommunity: Education, Discipline, and the Media. Louisville, Kentucky. Walker, H. M., & Severson, H. H. (1990). Systematic screeningfor behavior disorders, Longmont, CO: Sopris West. Walker, H. M., Severson, H. H., & Feil, E. G. (1995). Earlyscreening project: A proven child-find process. Longmont, CO: SoprisWest. Whelan, R. (1998). Emotional and behavioral disorders: A 25-yearfocus. Denver: Love. Zins, J. E., & Ponti, C. R. (1990). Best practices inschool-based consultation. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Bestpractices in school psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 673-694). Washington, DC:National Association of School Psychologists. C. Michael Nelson University of Kentucky Address: Dr. C. Michael Nelson, University of Kentucky, Departmentof Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling rehabilitation counseling,n counseling started in the United States in 1920 to assist individuals disabled by industrial accidents; originally included physical, psychologic, and occupational training; expanded over the next 70 years and laid the , 229 Taylor EducationBuilding, Lexington, KY 40506-0001