Kevin's New School

Unfortunately Kevin's introduction to his new school did not go as well. He was up all night worrying about it the night before so was tired to start off with. The roads and bridges and tolls and parking all add tremendously to the stress. He has spent a long time comparing routes. He had to have cash to pay the $8 toll to get back into the city each day. The van was almost empty when he left town and he stopped to get gas before leavingthe city. The gas pump would not take his card and it was also refused inside the gas station so we drove on into New Jersey. He didn't want to stop at the ones between the interstate lanes because gas was $3.19 there so he went on to his school. He had planned to eat at school and did not pack anything. He had a $20 bill for the toll and his debit card for the gas. The vending machines only took $1 and he didn't want to have to spend so much as they charged for the school lunch, so he went hungry all day. On the drive home he stopped at a different gas station that did accept the card and he was able to get gas. Amazingly he had no problems entering the city. Usually the traffic is stopped waiting to get onto the bridge. He was starving and exhausted when he got home. Dinner wasn't done yet and we had to leave right away for orientation at Abby's school, then the fire in the building. But we finally got home, ate supper, and he told us briefly about his class.

There are 8 students a teacher and 2 or 3 aides. The students are autistic and have some severe behvaior issues. Kevin was really disappointed because he does not want to work with autism and actually this is the reason he applied at Columbia instead of accepting a position in Massachusettes our original destination. I imagine we are going to have lots of discussions about the appropriateness of sending severly disabled students to a regular public school. Learning cannot take place when you have children that scream, bite, hit, and masterbate in class. This is a group of boys in 3rd through 5th grade. Previously Kevin has worked in special education rooms with children from 3rd grade through high school who have learning disabilities. His main interest is Teacher Education and to some degree Special Education. Autism is a field in and of itself. The classroom experience is part of earning his degree and he does earn a paycheck so hopefully he can ride this out. This weekend he will have a chance to tell more about what he will be doing and what the room and main teacher are like. He may have found 2 others to carpool with which would save a lot of money on tolls. You get a discount if there are at least 3 people in the vehicle.