Fish
by Ellen C. Braun
Filed under Get to know Ellen
Due to the feedback that you have given me, I would like to revise the fish slide in the Animal School movie so that no hard feelings are generated.
The slide currently reads as follows at the beginning of the movie:
The fish quit school because he was bored. To him, all four subjects were the same, but nobody understood that because they had never seen a fish.
And at the end of the movie:
The fish is a child who really requires full special education and should not be in the regular classroom.
Please keep your suggestions to approximately the same length, so that the music need not be re-looped!
Many Thanks!
{EDIT Sept 12, 06} Scroll down to comment #318 for the updated fish slide! (You may need to hit “control F5″ on your keyboard after the movie begins to clear your cache and view the updated Animal School.)
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I too, enjoyed the story as is. Although I would like to add, the fish got borded of trying to think like others with no way to apply it to his own life. Also he quit because of the servival instinct. A Fish can’t live out of water.
Nancy
I wanted to say that while I was not totally comfortable with the fish – it had nothing to do with anything PC. I think it is fine that the fish was a total Sp.Ed. representation…. but does it make sense to say that the fish left school because all of the subjects were the same and noone had ever seen a fish if we are going to say he needed a 100% placememnt? When it started with noone had seen a fish I thought he was going to be the one that fell through the cracks. The 100% placement kids are with people who “should” have seen a fish before – albeit itis hard to get LEAs to agree to that type of placement in the current climate of IDEA.
I just felt that the fish being one “noone had seen before” and then being a 100% placement didnt fit together well.
I’m not sure how I would fix it…both are good points (those who fall through the cracks, and those who dont conform to the PC way of inclusive thinking) because both types of children exist. I think animal school got blurry on this point of who was who and how to write an analogy about it…. other than that – animal school is WONDERFUL. My agency has downloaded to use at our community, child care, and teacher trainings.
I think the whole concept of this story is perfect! INCLUDING THE FISH!!! I appreciate it, and read it almost daily! You can’t please ALL the people ALL the time!
Hello again,
I really appreciate all of your heartfelt comments. Some of you wrote true words of wisdom, and a lot of you have a good sense of humor!!
In the beginning I had thought it was pure politically correct madness that stirred people up regarding the fish slide.
Then, I started to think more, and I wondered, why should the fish be excluded from the regular classroom? Sometimes it is appropriate and other times it is not appropriate, so it is not necessary to have a generalization which is not always applicable.
After lots of thought, here is the new fish slide.
Some of you will like it, some of you won’t. While I wish I could please everyone, I know that’s impossible!
“The fish is a child who requires full special education and cannot shine a regular class environment.”
If any of you have purchased the movie at this link http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/download-animal-school-movie.html please contact me for a fresh download link to the updated movie.
To our children’s success,
Ellen
I wonder how many of you who commented have children who are fish?
I floundered very long in school and through life..( no pun intended ) I waited to see and read all these comments from the highly intelligent, some maybe not so, advocates for many who cannot express themselves.
1.We are all are made equally in the eyes of God. Just not in the eyes of our fellowman yet!
2.I having been there as well as advocated, care planned and taught other children who learn differently have treated all children the same way. As intelligent Human beings.
3.All those involved with children who learn differently have the challenge of finding what works for each one.
4. I do not know any student who mirror each other in method, memory techniques, study techniques. We all are unique.
5.As A adult who has had many disabilities as a child without support of special techers or parents even I have made it. My disabilities are still there and show often. Remain to perplex others at times. I understand me very well and all of my great friends and my daughter as well. I seek guidence to deal with the ignorant out there.
I being a fish and maybe every one of those animals at one time or another have never seen any offense to anything within the original tape. Only with those who watched it… sorry if I offend anyone…I do not mean to. But this is how I feel. patricia
I too liked it the way it was…but I like it just as much now. Thank you for the awesome movie!
The slide is perfect just the way it is. Think about how much more the child could “shine” if he was not in the regular classroom, but in a
special education setting. I have these kids in
my classroom & they would benefit greatly if they had less inclusion where they could be more successful.
…all four subjects were confusing…The fish is the child who requires a special environment and will flourish in special education.
I enjoyed the presentation and was thinking of all the people I could forward it to as I was watching it until the fish conclusion. It seems I wasn’t the only one that felt that way. I do like the change you made but would love to see the segregation part left out completely. As the mother of a son who has Down syndrome I have seen the great benefits of having him in an inclusive classroom setting with the assistance of an aide. He has a different learning style and benefits by increased visual learning aids. Other non-disabled students have also benefitted by the additional visual cues and have enjoyed learning sign language. The parents of the other children in his class love having him in their childs’ class. The students enjoy playing with him and have included him beautifully. I don’t feel that a segregated classroom environment would be beneficial to a child like our son which is why when I read that the fish needed a special classroom I felt a little uneasy. I appreciate your efforts to be inclusive of children with special needs
It is perfect the way it is – my son is 5 and Autistic I think he is part fish and part bee.
)
Leave it like it is for it says it perfectly!! Love it! You did a great job. Thank you!!!