Aug 4, 2018, Herald: Northern Health School https://www.nzherald.co.nz/savvy-magazine/news/article.cfm?c_id=1504330&objectid=12100668 "They might have eating disorders, anxiety, sexuality issues or post-traumatic stress disorder from some catastrophic event that has happened. Occasionally we have students suffering from psychosis, which can, at times, be drug-induced." Some are taught one-on-one bedside, both in hospital and in their homes. The remotely-based can sometimes receive tuition via webcam. When they are well enough, they attend the student support centre in Whangarei, which runs Monday to Thursday mornings. In the classrooms, there is a steady hum of amicable activity with students sitting alone or in pairs, some with earphones on laptops, others poring over books. The kitchen area is often used by a food technology student, sewing machines are lined up in another corner. Several teachers will be with students, guiding their work. It's a place where students feel safe and free of judgement and they are used to people coming and going in the class, from specialists to parents and school counsellors…. Then there was the 15-year-old girl with high levels of anxiety around her own-age peers, who transitioned to NorthTec this year and is studying alongside older students, having obtained early exemption. …
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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
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