Oct 21, 2018, Bozeman (MT) Daily Chronicle: Bozeman students learning social and emotional skills https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/bozeman-students-learning-social-and-emotional-skills/article_1c4cdc68-d927-5f80-9c72-a68c57d2fb25.html … That’s why the Bozeman School District has adopted an array of programs to teach children social and emotional skills. Some aim broadly to teach all students to cope with everyday playground conflicts. Other programs are targeted at kids struggling with more serious issues. … She and Emily Dickinson [Elementary] teachers and counselors explained social and emotional learning at this week’s lunch visit by the eight Bozeman School Board trustees. … This year Emily Dickinson is “totally full” with 531 students, an increase of 56 in one year, Hays said. Some 15 kids don’t yet speak English, 12 are getting counseling for trauma, some are homeless, and a handful are at risk of harming themselves or others. A few have lost parents to murder or suicide…. One of the best changes happened three years ago, Hays said, when the school district hired licensed school counselors to meet state accreditation standards…. Wade Harper, the school’s counselor and psychologist, said he gives one-on-one counseling when students’ behavior is really affecting the classroom. He counsels kids in small groups who are struggling with issues like friendship, self-control, conflict, calming down and divorce. He also counsels students dealing with trauma…. Hays said the school tries to make the playground a positive experience, by emphasizing what kids can do instead of what they can’t. Still, there have already been 10 suspensions this year for misbehavior, she said. “There are consequences.”
top of page
Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
bottom of page