A2 CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 22,1980
Education’s stepchi

Aid for the handicapped

A Castlegar reader sub-
mitted the following article,
taken from the May 28 issue
of the Vancouver Sun;

By NOEL HERRON
Principal of University Hill
Hill Blementary School.)

“THE DATA outlined in
this summary are intended to
draw attention to aspects of
learning assistance which
may require policy develop-
ment or change. The data
presented in the report pro-
vide greater detail and may
suggest many other such
areas of policy concern.”

With that quiet under-
statement of concern, ex-
pressed in a report published
last fall, the Eduation Re-
search Institute of British
Columbia opened the debate
on an aspect of educational
policy and planning that has
hitherto been sadly neglected
in this province.

Despite the initial con-
troversy surrounding the
publication, which led to the
issuing of amended data, the
report enables one to piece
together a comprehensive
overview of the present
status of learning assistance
in B.C.

What the amended 100-
page ERIBC report presents
us with is a shockingly frank
assissment of a host of gaps
and deficiencies in learning
assistance programs.

The broad concerns in
this report according to the
B.C. Association for Children
with Learning Disabilities,
accurately reflect the drift
and disarray that have char-
acterized the develpment of
learning assistance policies
since the early 1970s.

ed on the opinions of
those “in closest contact with
students and their needs" —
the 958 teachers and 411
principals and other educa-
tion officials who were inter-
viewed or surveyed — the
ERIBC report is the first
province-wide overview of
learning assistance in B.C.

Learning assistance is a
school-based program that
provides help to students
whose learning needs cannot
be met in a regular classroom
alone. Those students gener-
ally encounter difficulty in
one or more academic areas,
such jas reading and math-
ematics. Individualized or

‘oup instruction is pr-
ovided daily.

Some of the report's
critical conclusions on learn-
ing assistance are:

e "Learning assistance is
a service without a (provin-
cial) curriculum in the form of
a centrally mandated set of
procedures, content or met-
hod.”

e Only 45 of BC.'s 75
school districts surveyed pro-
vided detailed documentation
on their learning assistance
programs. Among those that.

Girl Guides of Canada
are celebrating 70 years of
guiding in Canada this year.

did respond, the “document-
ed learning assistance ser-
vices varied widely from ohe
district to another with no
over-all pattern apparent in
terms of comprehensiveness,
specificity, or range of con-
tent materials.”

The failure of 30 school
districts to respond raises
questions about the avail-
ability of even skeletal learn-
ing assistance programs in
those districts.

eA startling 60 per cent
of learning assistance teac-
hers identified learning dis-
abilities and diagnostic as-
sessment as areas

e@ Only 87 per cent of
those assigned as learning
assistance teachers with
some specialized training ha-
ve gone into learning assis-
tance voluntarily.

“A further nine per cent
said they applied for regular
classroom jobs and were
assigned to learning assis-
tance despite lack of training
and another six per cent
reported they first applied
for jobs in learning assistance
without appropriate training
because regular classroom
jobs were not available.”

e Twenty-five per cent of
the principals in the study
reported that their schools
were short of learning assis-
tance teachers and a further
40 per cent claimed that in
learning assistance “we are
coping but no more.”

What emerges from this
report is a mosaic of learning
assistance policies and prac-
tices without direction or
guidance. And nowhere is the
lack of direction more evi-
dent than in the absence of a
provincial learning-assistan-
ce curriculum,

The report alludes to an
incredible maze of seven
documentary sources found
in handbooks, circulars, and
booklets put out by the
ministry of education, which
currently make up the frag-
mentary framework for a
provincial learning-assistan-
ce curriculum,

There is a need for a
sober spelling out, in a
provincial program, of ad-
mission priorities, referral
procedures, parent consulta-
tion, and support personnel
involvement.

What is needed is not a
rigid prescriptive policy buta
comprehensive set of guide-
lines that provide direction,
not control. The ministry of

education will soon issue a
set of guidelines to replace
the current outdated and
inadequate directives. How
comprehensive and how ef-
fective these directives will
be remains to be seen.

Perhaps one of the most
discouraging things revealed
by this report is the pattern
of widespread inadequacies
in B.C, in teacher qualifica-
tions needed to conduct a
successful learning assista-
nce program.

That is borne out in part
by the fact that 43 per cent of
the learning assistance teach-
ers had taken at least part of
their post-secondary training
out of the province.

What about the students
in the system? How are they
faring? Learning assistance
for secondary school students
is contrasted with that avail-
able for elementary students
throughout the report.

With a few outstanding
exceptions, learning assist-
ance at the secondary level
“consists of little more than
an isolated teacher trying to

JOHN C. SALIKEN, son of
Florence Saliken of
Castlegar and John F.
Sali of Blueberry
Creek, recently r ed
his Doctor of

degree from the Univ.

of Calgary. A graduate of
Stanley Humphries Secon-
dary Sclicol, he studied at
the University of Victoria
and later at the University
of Alberta in Edmonton,
where he received his
bachelor of science
degree, prior to his recent
graduation in medicine.
Saliken and his wife, Lynn,
are presently residing in
Halifax, Nova Scotia.

¢ COURT N )

Randloph Corbett, 20, of
Genelle pleaded guilty Tues-
day to having a blood alcoho!
count of over .08. Corbett
was fined $350 or in default
15 days in jail.

oe «

Two Castlegar youths
pleaded guilty on two counts
each of violating the city's
noise bylaw. Terry Duff and
Brian Smitheram both 21
were fined $100 on each
count.

Guides of Canada

Celebrating 70 years

In order to celebrate the

ing zinnia seeds in many

birthday across Canada, the areas in its respective dis-

organization has been plant-

tricts.

help students who are in’
difficulty” and “effective tho-
ugh some of these efforts
may be, it is only by a stroke
of the imagination that they
can be referred to as educa-
tional programs.”

The sense of isolation
and disaffection among sec-
ondary learning assistance
teachers is characterized as
“a malaise.” The strength
and prevalance of negative
sentiments expressed by sec-
ondary learning assistance
teachers is “disturbing” and
“depressing.

The report concludes on
an upbeat note with a des-
cription of what is termed an
outstanding secondary school
learning assistance program
in the’Prince George school
district,

The ERIBC report is a
searing indictment of the
educational backwater where
learning assistance has stag-
nated for the past decade.

It further points out the
stepchild position of the
special-program branch of
the ministry of education.
Lacking priority status and
support, the branch seems to
have been ignored and under-
funded.

The combined weight of
the 61 recommendations in
the two reports forcefully
underscores and in many
instances expands on similar
concerns and shortcomings

‘cited in the ERIBC report.

It would be naive to
assume that we can expect
prompt action from the min-
istry of education on these
three reports. For example,
the Learning Disabilities Ad-
visory Council to the former
minister of education, Dr.
Pat McGeer, was among
other things commissioned
“to address secondary school
problems for learning-disa-
bled children.”

Dr. McGeer accepted
only two of the advisory
committee's 51 recommend-
ations, none of which dealt
directly with secondary ed-
ucation.

The relatively low prior-
ity aecorded: education in the
recent provincial budget in-
dicates that despite the good
will and openness of our new
minister of education, Brian
Smith, the chances for mean-
ingful change in learning
assistance seem remote.

In the mid-1970s - an
international team of ex-
aminers commenting on ed-
ucation in this country wrote:
“The problem of providing
full education opportunities ©
for handicapped children is a
task that has, with a few
honorable exceptions, been
grievously neglected in Can-
ada.”

‘Regrettably, when it
comes to learning assistance,
B.C. is not among the honour-
able exceptions.

The Castlegar-Robson
Brownies, Guides and Path:
finders planted the seeds at
Raspberry Lodge, to help in
making a beautiful garden
spot to be enjoyed by the
senior folk. All the girls
visited the citizens of the
lodge, chatting and talking
with them at this time.

After the seed-planting,
many parents, girls and lead-
ers met at the Robson Rec-
reation Hall to have a camp-
fire sing-song indoors, due to
weather conditions. Follow-
ing this, tea, coffee and juice
were served with a piece of
birthday cake donated by the
Medical Clinic of Castlegar.
The cake was inscribed with
“Happy 70th Birthday” in
Brownie and guide colors.
Happy Birthday was sung by
all taking part in celebrating
thi. world-wide organization
of Girl Guides of Canada.

Balloons have also been
purchased and shared by all
the groups; so if you see a
balloon flying in many colors
with the guiding signs, you
will also share in the cel-
ebrating of 70 years of a
worthwhile organization for
young girls in the district.

many assist in leader-
ship to keep the groups
active. If anyone would care

“te help, the organization

we appreciate hearing
from you.

STAMPEDE! Not quite. These grade one and kindergar-
ten students at Castlegar Primary School hada cowboy Ferguson and Leanne Anderson.
day on Thursday. Left to right are Joanna Glueheisen,

Last Month For Gas
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Travis Cahill, Shayne McAfee, Elana Poznikoff, Tommy
—News/Mirror Foto by Terry Gilbert

David Ambrosimoff

Fat es APES RE Se

, June 22, 1980

__ The South Slocan Doukhobor Sports
Day was a success for all. From a
watermelon-eating competition to bingo
and baseball games, everyone had a
goodtime. ) os.