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 ,,~ l-

Teaching Exceptional
Children and Adolescents
A Canadian Casebook
Second Edition

Nancy L. Hutchinson
Faculty of Education
Queen's University

PEARSON

Prentice
Hall

Toronto

~
 For Hugh, with love-
you inspire me and sustain me

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Hutchinson, Nancy Lynn
Teaching exceptional children and adolescents : a Canadian casebook I Nancy L. Hutchinson.
- 2nded.
ISBN 0-13-121667-8
I. Inclusive education-Canada-Case studies. I. Title.
LC1203.C3H87 2004 371.9'046'0971 C2003-90 1989-6

Copyright © 2004, 1999 Pearson Education Canada Inc., Toronto, Ontario.

All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission should be obtained
from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmis-
sion in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise.
For information regarding permission, write to the Permissions Department.
ISBN 0-13-121667-8
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---
PEARSON

Prentice
Hall
 case 17

Kids in the Hall

Malcolm Buterra had hall duty again. He rushed out of his math room, telling the stu-
dents waiting outside the door, "No noon-hour chat today. Sorry, I have hall duty. It is
Thursday, isn't it?"
The students laughed and teased him, "Sir, calendars, a great mathematical inven-
tion, you should get one."
Malcolm knew it was something he would say to a student who had forgotten to
bring an assignment and tried to claim ignorance of the due date. Malcolm particularly
liked when students made connections between the mathematics he taught and the life
they lived in the early 21st century. He smiled to himself, and then he remembered why
he couldn't spend the noon hour challenging students with brain-teasing problems, or
regaling them with stories of how mathematical inventions had changed the course of
history. Malcolm had found math and history a particularly invigorating combination to
study when he was in university and still loved both disciplines passionately. He had
once been afraid that his cerebral approach to teaching might put students off, but he
had learned in 20 years of teaching how to share his passions so students caught them.
But he had never learned to appreciate the custodial aspects of teaching-like hall duty.
"Why is it always Thursday?" he muttered to himself. "This is a waste of time."
"What'd you say, Sir?" Malcolm saw that the question had come from Tom, a stu-
dent in his only Grade 9 class this term. Since he had become department head,
Malcolm rarely taught Grade 9. Tom was sitting on the steps leading to the math and
sciences wing of the school. Knowing that Tom was falling further behind every day in
his math class and having heard in a recent staff meeting that other teachers were frus-
~d by Tom, too, Malcolm sat down beside Tom on the stairs.

1 1s6
 Case 17: Kids in the Hall 157

MALCOLM: [gently] Hi, Tom. How is it going?

TOM: [hesitantly] I know I'm really screwing up in math, but believe me, things are
going good in art and technology! I like those two, I can do them.
MALCOLM: [more like a question] I've noticed that you're not handing in the activi-
ties for the math-around-us unit in our class?
TOM: [unconcerned] I didn't think it mattered. Mine aren't very good and I never
thought we had to.
MALCOLM: But I explained on the first day, they go into your portfolio, and you can
choose the best ones to have graded. They go towards your mark.
TOM: I guess I wasn't listening. I find high school pretty hard. And people are always
picking on me. I want to have some guys to hang around with, but I don't know any.
MALCOLM: Is that why you seem to be finding the time long at noon hour?
TOM: I don't get it...urnm .. .l didn't say I'm finding it too long.
MALCOLM: Do you know what it means to find time long? I can see that you think
this is an odd expression. I find time long when I'm sitting in traffic, and I just want
to get to the Muskies hockey game to watch my son play goal. Or when I'm waiting
for my daughter to finish her swim practice, and I've forgotten my book. What do you
think it means to find time long?
TOM: I get it, to be bored or have nothin' to do.
MALCOLM: Bingo! You got it! And when people are bored, they often get into trou-
ble. One day when I was waiting for my daughter, I was so bored I agreed to become
the assistant swim coach. And I can barely swim. I really got myself into trouble,
because then I had to get out of it, and I thought I was going to have to lie. But I final-
ly thought to show the coach what a terrible swimmer I was, and he told me he didn't
want me. But being bored can really get us into trouble.
TOM: Lunch hour is boring. I don't know many people. But I am not getting into trou-
ble. I don't do anything. They pick on me.
MALCOLM: But two teachers told me they saw you harassing other students in the
basement corridor and in the art room at noon. Other students who saw these incidents
also reported you were the aggressor-taunting, tripping, and teasing. And I heard that
you accused the other students involved. Are you sure you don't find time long at
noon?
TOM: Well, if you don't have anyone to eat lunch with, an hour is a long time. My
friends all went across town to Baldwin High. I guess you could say I find the time
long. But I still think that's an odd thing to say.
MALCOLM: You know, I find the time long, too, at noon hour. So most days some stu-
dents from my classes come to eat their lunch in my room, and we talk about mathe-
matics in history and we try brain puzzlers. Usually they are puzzles with numbers in
them, but sometimes they are optical illusions or word puzzles, anything we think is
158 Teaching Exceptional Children and Adolescents

odd, that challenges us. You are welcome to join us. Do you know Maddy, oops,
Madeleine, in our math class? She is the only Grade 9 student who has found out about
us this term, until you. You see, people have to find out about us before they can join.
TOM: I'm afraid I'm not very good at math. Never have been. You see, I have a learn-
ing disability.
MALCOLM: I read about it in your file. But I didn't really understand. I thought learn-
ing disabilities usually affected people's reading and writing, not their math.
TOM: Well, I got behind. In reading, math, almost everything. My math is awful. I
never really got what we did in decimals and stuff like that in Grade 5 and around there.
So I think math is as much of a problem as reading for me. But not for everyone. Most
people are like you said, mostly reading and spelling and writing.
MALCOLM: So what are you good at, Tom?
TOM: Actually, my photographs win prizes at the Notwood Fall Fair, at least they have
the last three years. And I sing in the choir at my church, even though I'm not very
good at reading music. I have a darkroom now, paid for with money I earned last sum-
mer. I set up a booth at the Riverside Water Slide Park. People paid me and I took pho-
tographs of them with my instant camera, and put the pictures in frames I had made at
home and brought to the park with me.
MALCOLM: Tom, what help are you getting here at Pearson Collegiate, given that you
have a learning disability?
TOM: Well, I get tutoring. I think they call it learning assistance. But they only do it
in reading and writing, not in math. So I am getting frustrated in math.
MALCOLM: Well, I don't know that much about learning disabilities. But I think Mr.
Rippler does. Do you know him? He's one of the counsellors. Maybe you and Mr.
Rippler and I could talk about some ways to stop other kids from picking on you, or to
stop you from picking on them-whichever it is that is happening. I think you would
like Mr. Rippler. Sometimes he has lunch in my room with me and the students who
come by, and we talk. He sometimes helps teachers and students make plans for how
to have more success in high school. I think he could help us to figure out what we
should be doing in math, so you can learn in spite of your learning disability.
TOM: I already go to the learning assistance centre for reading and writing. Why can't
they just help me with math, too? Why can't you? You're my teacher. Now you want
me to see some counsellor, too. And eat lunch with a bunch of people I don't even
know. I don't want to do all this extra stuff. I shouldn't have to. In high school, teach-
ers always tell you to go see somebody else. They should just help you themselves.
Like they did at my old school-Victoria Public School. Everyone says how great it is
to go to high school. But I don't think it is so great. People pick on me, and then I get
blamed. No one wants to eat lunch with me. And the teachers all pass you on to some-
body else. As if they don't care. Just teach me the stuff I don't know, like decimals.
Instead of teaching me algebra that I don't get. That's what would help me. Can't you
do that?
 Case 17: Kids in the Hall 159

MALCOLM: I'm not sure I can do that. But I know I want to help. What about after
school? Can you meet me then, for a few days, and I will review decimals and frac-
tions and other topics that might help.
TOM: Yeah, but I go to the camera club on Tuesday and Thursday after school. And I
may have choir practice on Mondays. But I might be able to come on Wednesdays. I'll
see.
With that Tom walked away.
Three weeks later Malcolm Buterra was talking with his friend, Hal Rippler, in the staff
room. It was Wednesday afternoon, about an hour after the end of the school day.
HAL: Well, did Tom show up today?
MALCOLM: No. I've reminded him in class. That is, when he comes. He misses once
or twice a week for no apparent reason. And I've sought him out in the hall, when I'm
on hall duty. And he always says, "I might do that, I might come, I might hand in that
assignment," but he doesn't. I think I want him to learn more than he wants to learn. I
am putting a lot of energy and worry into this. And he doesn't seem to be putting any-
thing into it. And I can't learn it for him. I can do a lot to ensure that he learns what I
am teaching this year, even if he misses a few classes, but how can I help him to under-
stand decimals and important concepts that underlie most of later mathematics if he
won't meet with me for individual help? It's like he doesn't want to learn these things
that he has already failed at, and if he doesn't want to learn, what can I do? I can't
reteach decimals to the whole class, can I...or can I?
HAL: Well, Malcolm, I've dealt with lots of students who act in ways that appear to be
self-destructive. I usually find that what they are doing makes sense from their point
of view; for example, maybe it is all they can handle. I am quite sure he isn't doing this
simply to annoy you. To him, somehow, this behaviour meets his needs, or maybe it is
all he can deal with. Let's arrange to meet with Nicole, who runs the resource room,
and find out what he does there and how she reaches him. Maybe she can do the tutor-
ing in math, if she already has his confidence. I'll put it in my daybook, so I bring it
up when I have my weekly meeting with her tomorrow. Give me some times when you
could meet.. ..

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Identify the facts of the case briefly.
2. Describe Malcolm Buterra, the math teacher. What do we know about the student,
Tom?
3. Describe the situation as seen by Tom, the student who does not respond to his math
teacher's offer of help. As seen by Malcolm Buterra. By Hal Rippler.
4. State the major dilemma(s) in the case.
5. What are some underlying issues that might be important to consider in coming to an
understanding of this case?