How Autism Came to Be...the Spiritual Dimension

 

Can Autism be a form of Spirit-Possession?

Here is a question that I pose to Master Li Hongzhi of Falun Dafa after reading some articles at PureInsight.org this morning and also Lecture 3, the section on animal or spirit possession. Of course in light of today's scientific world, there is a scientific explanation for everything, and to even hint at a spiritual cause is to invite all kinds of attacks of superstition. Nevertheless I want to explore this possible connection and how to deal with it with an open mind.

Question for Master

Master has a fair explanation on "How Humans Came to Be" at Pureinsight.org. 

One question arising with me lately as an educator is, what about those who have mental disorders? 

We are seeing an over 200% rise in autism cases over the past 20 years in United States. Some believe there is a correlation with the schedule of over 80 vaccination shots that babies in the USA receive. Their baby was normal at birth, then at about 1.5 years, they began to develop autism. 

Being in a classroom with over half the children (ie. 10-12 autism) students is very difficult. They are taxing emotionally, psychologically, and socially. They cannot understand simple logic. 

When you leave at the end of the day, at night, you have very strange dreams. Some will seem to even project an intelligent para-consciousness that is communicating using words and utterances that are predictive, prophetic. It is as if in another dimension they are trying to take over you, and have you fix them, because their para-consciousness recognizes that they are not normal, but they want to be cured.

Master has said that for those with serious health issues, they cannot be fixed. However those who put their mind and effort into learning cultivation will naturally have their health improved. 

Well, I am not sure they can be taught to cultivate, 

In the United States, I doubt they will allow me to teach Falun Gong meditation especially in public school. Can and should they be taught to cultivate? If they cannot do this or practice Christianity, what will become of they? Are they destined to, if not already, "animal-possessed"? 

I am not sure, but for a few, unfortunately, I do think so. The reason is because their defectiveness makes it easier for them to be prone to or controlled only by the basest of instincts, like animals. 

Sadly, some Special Ed teachers even able and abet this, thinking they are offering support and encouragement by giving them lots of junk food to eat. If they are given a handful of Skittles and Cheeto balls in the middle of the classwork even when nothing has been done and they are ignoring any instruction, what does that do? 

My observation is that those already prone to hyperactive ASD will be much more excited by the stimulants presented them than in any schoolwork. But it is not just the teacher. Parents send their children lunchboxes that contain nothing except bags of chips and cookies. The students become addicted to eating only junk food even for lunch. 

Adult Animal Possession

Another concern is that parents and teachers are animal or spirit possessed. They are at least eighty pounds overweight, they exhibit ravenous appetites, and they even take the leftovers from school lunches back to the classroom to eat for lunch or later on. 

If the teacher herself is sort of animal-possessed, or if the teacher assistant is spiteful and predatory, won't that eventually cause the students to become even more prone to animal and spirit-possession?

(The advantage of Dafa is that one can often sense when people are not as sincere as they appear to be, for instance, they sing sweetly because they are incentivized mostly by name-fame-gain rather than sincere love for the children.)  

What should I do to protect myself from these threatening Selves and Sub-selves emerging during day or at night under altered consciousness? 

According to Master, if one cultivates with mind-and-body, practicing the Falun Law (Truth, Compassion, Forbearance) and doing the exercises, one can progress and the Law Wheel will protect one from harm. The condition also is that one must make a good effort and improve one's character and xinxing (heart fate). Theoretically, the Law Wheel guides you but also protects you from the worst kinds of harm. Even if you have to pay your karma all at once, it will have been paid for by your virtue.

Karma Test 

Since I have been doing cultivation for a long time, I should be able to come to some conclusions.

Maybe I will even improve on those answers once I open my mind and heart to their hope for change. 

By cultivating Dafa, even with this karmic test of suffering a bad cold because one of the students coughed in my face, and another "wished me dead," and the teacher had a lack of strict behavioral consequences, I can try to recover my health. 

Even if I doubt these students can cultivate now or maybe ever, they are there to learn pro-social skills, and I did model pro-social and cognitive learning skills. Even if the TA and the teacher were instilling some cognitive dissonance or mixed messages, that should not dissuade me from the primary purposes for attending school. If this were School A conditions, the students would learn more self-control, classroom integration, and ultimately more inclusionary opportunities. 

In the Chinese cultural sense, they can learn about and gain "De" or "Virtue." By gaining and storing up De over time, they will evolve into a better character. In their next reincarnation, they will live a wholesome and fortunate life with many blessings. 

This is the classic Buddhist explanation for why people are born misfortunate and what can be done when you cannot help them personally. They are paying for karma from a past life, but if they improve by the end of this life, their next life will be better. 

Conclusion

Is it prejudice to say that ASD is the result of karma? 

In my humble opinion, it is somebody's karma whether the medical system, the parents, the newborn fetus, or their past lives. 

And for all of us who are in the industry of teaching, empowering, and cultivating these children, of course it is a struggle of philosophies. I routinely run into adults who sincerely believe that "over-coddling the youngster" is the best way to cure all issues. 

I don't think so. I told a librarian the other day about a young student sitting in the adult computers section and standing in his chair, why he can't go to the empty children's computer section (where the height of the tables are lower). She told me he could do whatever he wanted. The youngster simpered at me and made a face while peering and looking at what I was doing on my computer. 

I told the librarian that I had seen many a high-school student breaking down come graduation time. They were angry, they were frustrated, they knew they were going to be cutoff from their support system, and they had never developed the tools and self-learning skills they needed for the real world. 

They never connected the dots between cause-and-consequence because they were "coddled."

Our system of capitalism loves for everyone to hide in escapism, fantasies, virtual games, and learning about anything other than hard news, finding out the truth about America's new reality, and how we are being beaten down by those who would have us sitting and watching ABC News all night. 

If adults cannot practice personal self-discipline and higher spiritual goals and ambition, what of the children?

Only with the help of cultivation, the truth-finding alter can be honed and one can eventually rediscover the true-self and our real destiny and escape final disintegration. Even if one does not succeed in cultivation and reach the final achievement, there is this, a parallel version with Christianity one might say, that we must try to be charitable and bear our burden while leading others towards the light. 

"Suffering enables one to cultivate; suffering allows one to atone for sins and karma. Amid suffering, if one can still remain kind, be grateful, and be a good person, one is elevating oneself. Furthermore, salvation is a bottom-up process—it must start from the lowest place. Beings suffer in this place; there are interpersonal conflicts over interests, the condition of the natural environment is harsh, and people have to labor their minds and bodies for survival, so on and so forth. All these provide beings with the opportunity to elevate themselves and eliminate karma. Suffering can reduce karma—that is for sure. Amid suffering and conflicts, if humans can still remain kind, they will accumulate merit and virtue, and their lives will be elevated." --- Master Li Hongzhi, "Why There is Mankind"

Artwork by WokandaPix @ https://pixabay.com/photos/rocks-balance-lake-rock-balance-9193209/ 

Juggling Many Tasks School C

 

Students with ASD may feel trapped in their condition 

Understanding Autism Overshadows the Curricula 

At School C, where this observer and educator was at for several days, it became an exhausting experience. It is difficult to tell if, as happens in Special Education, the teacher is not playing the role of enabler or "devil's advocate." They are financially rewarded for having a larger class, and so they consciously do not work as hard to improve inclusionary opportunities. This would include overlooking very combative student behaviors, disruptions, lack of attentiveness, screaming, fits, and so on. The teacher would even hand out treats to students while they were being disruptive, which from my experience and perspective does not make sense. Why would you want the child to persist in their uncooperative behaviors? She spent a lot of time hugging (face-to-face style) and consoling (one at a time) when they were not wanting to engage in their work. These students were alternately criticized by the teacher to her assistant for being combative. Why did she not have any classroom reward system such as a school rewards program or points program set up to professionally encourage holistic student growth? Finally, observer reports that as a result of this imbalance, better students or those who are better disciplined and finish or attempt to finish their work are systematically overlooked. The TA also seemed to openly harbor prejudice against students not of Latino ancestry which can be rather hurtful for the Hmong students and one white female student. As for the Mr. L., suffice it to say that I had never seen a man engage in Jacob and his shadow combat with his student, Z., during the day. Did it chase the bad-angel out of Z.? It didn't look like it, but it did end up exhausting them both...

Because of the atmosphere of self-promotion and institutionalized bias in favor of the white-privilege teacher, it would have been difficult to point out some of the issues noted above without encountering denial and defensiveness. Instead, the observer wrote a letter of general observation.

Letter of Observations

Dear Ms. G., and Ms. P.,

My impressions with Mrs. H. of Room X at V. elementary are mostly positive.

I would like to share my impressions about the school and the classroom so that I do not have to share them publicly elsewhere. I was placed in Mrs. H's room between Tuesday and Friday and there were an average of 15-16 students in the room, all special education in grades 1-3 or ability Kindergarten to 3rd grade.

1) First, the care and concern for the students orderly arrival and departure is impressive. The outdoor security and lunchroom staff are on the ball, so that the children better understand that they deserve and should promote a safe, positive, social environment. It is a plus that both the V.P. and Principal are doing duty in the cafeteria. Both the administrative staff, S. and S. were very helpful and experienced.

Some concerns:

2) Red Nose Day seemed to be well-intentioned but maybe many children didn't understand what this is about. I shared with Mrs D. who was actually outside picking litter (using tongs) that we have at least two children in the class who are in very low income category. Having been there myself, I do fully understand that homelessness can affect the ability of the children to be bathed, have their nails trimmed, and wearing their father's hand-me-down shoes. I did bring this matter up with Mrs. H. about T. and K. being in obvious need (bathing, shoes) but Mrs. H. seemed to take it the wrong way. I was thinking along the lines that maybe the school nurse could have a box set up with toiletry bags for the children in need as is frequently done for the homeless during community outreach. These bags would contain: cleanup cloth, dry bath liquid, nail trimmer, toothbrush, etc.

3) Third, after being in Mrs. H.'s room for 4 days, my impression is that several students can be placed in Inclusion classrooms part-day. This would allow them to mainstream with at-Grade level students and experience a "normal classroom" which would be healthy for them socially and academically as well as psychologically. It seems that the students such as H., M., P., M., for instance, possess the social skills to mainstream even if they are not all performing exactly at grade-level in every subject. Twenty years ago, it seemed as if mainstreaming the students came first, then pulling out for Special Education.

4) Fourth, obviously the problem students absorb a lot of the class-time and available teaching time. With the help of two aides and one TA, it seems to sort of be under control. Z., A., T., and J. seem to be the most difficult, including even tantrums and throwing their computers on the ground. There should be no exception about cleaning up messes left around and under the desk, but J. has a bad habit of tossing his work, his crayons, and books on the floor nearby, so does T. (J. made personal threats against me.)

5) Fifth, it was exhausting for me after only four days working there, even though Mrs. H. thinks I did a good enough job to come back in the future. It's a bit far for me, but I'll think about it. My challenge with my disability is I really don't want to use the water-closet in the main office because it may not flush down everything or even clog it up. The plumbing is old, and there is no plumber's suction cup to push things down should it require. I wanted to use the library staff restroom, but I am worried that the staff might be offended to see me use it. I will bring a can of air-deodorizer to spray if they let me use the bathroom in the future. (The facility is not fully ADA compliant for staff it appears.)

5a) Mrs. H. seemed to be pretty good about reminding us of breaks, but she seems not to take much break herself. The way the class schedule works in her room, and the classroom exigencies that the best extended breaktime is about 10:30am, but I am fearful of taking a full lunchbreak at that time. I am also fearful of entering the staffroom, because they may not want me there. After 11:00am we are focusing on finishing I-Level, then lunch, then recess, and then math, and then by that time, there is almost like no break needed.

Anyway, I have to see if you are willing to allow me a longer lunch at 10:30 am inside the staffroom and to be able to use the bathroom in the library.

6) Sixth, mostly the aides were very nice and easygoing, but Mrs. A. (TA) asked me probing questions a few too many times. On the first day, after school, I already told Mrs. H. about my background and Mr. L. and Mrs. A. were present, so unless they are deaf, I think they heard me describe my qualifications. As a cancer-survivor, my outlook on life is entirely different from 25 years ago at the end of my first career. I have had my opportunities diminished, but I was able to get through my masters degree program. I don't like to talk about my background, so maybe I didn't tell them about the masters degree part. Mrs. A. acts like I am running the gauntlet and prepared to compete and play ball with her. 

No, I am just trying to work and earn a small living. I don't have to talk about whether I have children or not, and I don't need to hear Mrs. A. talk about Mrs. H. and whether she has a family or not. I am not there to compare notes. Suitable topics for conversation for me are: weather, school schedule, life perspectives, teaching philosophy, health, health of the students. My life ambitions are limited to practicing and applying and learning current teaching skills. Of course I do continue to take CEU courses online related to teaching.

My real goal is to get to Heaven and share the need for everyone to try to be less ignorant and greedy and proud, as this, in my humble opinion, is gradually killing our society and causing much grief and desperation all around the world. You may not agree with me, but that is my foremost goal in life, because God gave me a second and third chance in life to live, a life which is to grow in faith and love in service for all of humanity.

Submitted respectfully,

[Author name with some qualifying degrees attached]  

Conclusion

While the teacher is largely successful in implementing basic and individualized curricula there are some persistent behavioral management problems that she has foregone looking in her larger class. She is unable to encourage several combative uncooperative students to pick the stuff off the floor which they routinely throw down. At the end she has just basically given up on that. Meanwhile if anyone else admonishes or advises the student they face threats by the student or unfriendly gestures or defiance. Some students spend their whole day basically dawdling and doodling. However from the appearance, the majority of the students are able to accomplish some work that is exhibited around the room. The overall school atmosphere emphasizes competition rather than centralization and cooperation. 

Artwork by Mimzy @ https://pixabay.com/illustrations/autism-awareness-autism-spectrum-8489742/

Hiding behind facades: School A vs School B in ASD Achievement Training

Obey or else is the favorite matrix of f-institutional control 

Why is there an achievement gap in ASD? 

Here are some notes from observation at two different schools in the district where I spent a few days each in ASD classrooms.

School A

School A is in a moderate mixed income class neighborhood in south city. However, one can believe upon stepping into the campus that this is in north city. That is there is a high achievement mindset embedded throughout the campus from the security to the maintenance. Everyone arrives early and there is a can-do attitude with thoughtful arrangement of campus classrooms outside to allow ASD students to safely circumambulate the school corridors during time-out.

There were seven ASD students in one classroom grades K-3, however mostly the emphasis is on a curricula designed around grade 1-2, since at least four students have speech-communication challenges. The classroom took a day or two to get used to, but one gradually notices the extent of relative effort and accomplishment on display throughout the classroom. There is artwork from Christmas strung creatively from a ceiling string. There are compositions emphasizing a recent unit on zoo animals. There is an anticipatory board with displays about the current transportation through history unit. In the front of the class below the large-wide-flat-screen display is a display of the sign language alphabet. The sides of the room also include cabinets for storage boxes for math-learning toys, books for reading, and sensory manipulatives. 

The day was well-structured in intervals of 15 minutes to half an hour, so there was limited idleness and encouragement of students to appreciate school activities. When students arrive, they have an option for breakfast and then bins. All of the students are brought to campus by their parents, which allows face-time with the teacher. All of them are bringing lunchboxes with snacks if not lunch and snacks. The students have a homework and student folder for turning in to the teacher. The student folder is for taking notes from behavior and progress. The students are capable of sedentary (voice controlled) play and comprehend basic directions and rules for the classroom. 

The morning includes circle time (daily review, calendar, reciting, anticipation for end of week field trip). This is followed by work station time or sensory time. This is repeated twice before recess. Following recess is a snack time with educational videos. The videos are well-chosen, for instance, clean-up time video, scholastic videos accompanying an educational unit, and after recess or before lunch a quiet soothing time video. The videos encourage focus particularly as Ms. F. will halt the video for review and questions or to complete a screen fact sheet. There are designated times for independent learning because there is space for individual desks facing the front screen. 

Throughout the morning and afternoon the speech communication therapist would come in and pull students out for sessions. Having a permanent, experienced consistent therapist such as Ms. S. was extremely helpful as she would also come in for observation and take notes. Several other people came in for observation and notes, and in fact, Ms. F. was very welcoming of these observers and encouraging of their passive involvement. 

During lunch the aides assist with lunchtime and recess. The students are included in the recess with grade-level recess classes. They are also included in the same hours that normal grades have lunch in the cafeteria. 

Afternoons are times dedicated for intensive workgroup or independent computerized math learning. The students have their own tablet and computer to perform individualized curricula based on their current level of math, plus compensatory techniques to compensate for speech communication styles and tactile learning preference. For instance several students have multiple choice style math games, click-and-match, click-and-drag, or animated puzzles. Ms. F. is also encouraging them to use the whiteboard for practice drawing letters and numbers. Almost every student can use a pencil properly, use an eraser, and color with crayons, and print their name legibly on their worksheets. Math class is reinforced with a final lesson in completing a math class worksheet. The teacher writes in the answers for those students who only understand counting. Every student is capable of counting to at least 10, and recognizing those numbers.

Although there were several on and off "crisis management" incidents, the goal appears to be to help the student transition away from that and try to prevent such incidents from absorbing and wasting classroom learning time. When such incidents occurred there was an emphasis on learning from as an example, while not overly shaming the student; the teachers tried to allow teaching moments to manage such incidents to coincide with in-class break time. 

Teacher had familiarity enough with each parent to feel comfortable calling them if necessary during the middle of the day and also additional face time with them at the end of each school day. Parents were even invited inside to sit their child at the desk in the morning if they want to. It was not an issue insofar as campus security; there is parent sign-in. 

The final half hour is usually bin time just as during the morning session at the start of the class. The students often like to play with the same toys they did before, but some are capable of assembling jigsaw puzzles even up to a twenty piece puzzle set. Because of anticipatory lessons and training, all the students were excited and engaged about the upcoming zoo trip. One thing is Ms. F. does not spend much time debriefing this observer, but this is okay for the most part. The other thing is that several teachers referred to this classroom as "the crazy classroom" and had this attitude that seemed stigmatizing. Ms. F. deserves more encouragement and support for her hard work. 

As far as this observer's interactions with the teachers, staff, and administrators on this campus they were helpful and pleasant in a genuine kind of way. The office manager is very helpful and capable. The staff have a love of plants and this is obvious in the decor of the staff lunch room even, and the campus is a welcoming place for parent-teacher meetings. The teachers in room 16 were also warm and welcoming and did not press this observer for too many details or appear overly preoccupied with shoptalk or grapevine news. 

School B

In contrast, School B was a bit of a disappointment. Mrs. V., the substitute principal, was warm and welcoming, but most of the office staff were also substitutes, so there was an appearance of not being so well-versed in protocols. The campus is older and the classroom size of approximately 20 x 30 was insufficient for 12 active ASD students. The security was not very friendly, and the neighborhood did not feel that safe, as this observer noted several cars lingering on the northern fence line of the school. 

The tone of the school, which is supposed to center around warriors and progression towards high school and beyond, appears dominated by an urban-ghettoized atmosphere. It is almost as if this is an assertively blue-collar dominated workforce with an emphasis on maintaining workforce turf by fostering a lower achievement standard environment. 

Mrs. C. led me to believe that this is what she like to be called and it was not till later that I realized everyone else called her Mrs. A. Mrs. R., her teaching assistant, insisted and persistently called me "teacher" in what sounded quite sarcastic. I reminded her several times that I wanted to be called by my first name or Ms. C but she persistently ignored this. To make matters worse, Mrs. R., who told me that she had recently transitioned from being an office administrator to becoming a teacher or teaching assistant, appeared to enjoy using her smartphone quite a bit during the class times. She said that she was creating a "yearbook" on the students by taking photos of them with her private phone. She called a student, A., her "mimi" and "baby" and asked me if I didn't agree that he was like a big cute baby. During workgroup time, she was thumbing through her smartphone reading district notices and news, and throughout the days, she appeared to enjoy talking about grapevine workplace news and job openings and her opportunities or past interviews here and there, and what she thought about this school or that school, and the payrates offered at those locations. She did not appear to have much formal certificated teacher training or understanding of pedagogic theory. 

Twice she also attempted to misdirect this worker as the contract at this school was 1-to-1 with a certain ASD student whose mother came to drop her off and pick her up. Instead she told me that I should bring this boy and that boy to the bus stop, and twice, these boys were extremely difficult to handle. This was after another boy had already bit and scratched this worker during a work centers session. Ms. A. led this worker to believe that all these students were in kindergarten, when age-wise they were between 5-8 years old at least. This would be based on physical size and the appearance of mostly adult-teeth on at least 5 of the boys and 1 of the girls. 

The classroom curricula was also extremely lax and this appeared quite intentional. For instance, students arrived by bus or brought by their parents after 8 am, and there was breakfast time until at least 8:45 am, and so this left the students sitting for quite a long time at the breakfast table in the back of the classroom near the sink. The students would lose interest in eating and start playing with their food, standing up, and or try to wander away. This would create "behavioral" crisis encounters with the teacher and the teacher aides, which the teacher would document in great detail in her log, what the student did, how he or she misbehaved, how resistant they were, etc. 

This kind of behavioral "crisis management" occurred throughout the day with various students. On one level, these distractions gave the class something to focus on, and emphasized the importance of staying seated. On the other hand, there was a lack of curricula or structure. There was a lot of video viewing with rather unchoice videos from YouTube. For instance, mornings and afternoons, the teacher liked to put on "Danny Go" videos, featuring a strange man and his team acting out their learning adventures. These thematic videos have a very helter-skelter plot, and Danny Go and his team also like to jump, climb, run, and dance a lot. Obviously with the ASD students it really tends to trigger their hyperactivity, and it makes it almost impossible for them to stay seated. So it depends whom the teacher and assistants want to focus on for "being out of their seat." Very little academic learning is taking place because these videos are not prime learning material; they are learning entertainment or secondary reinforcement material.

The other chunk of the morning or afternoon is spent on centers, but these are also of a limited variety curricula. For instance, this observer was responsible for 1 of 3 or 4 centers. At DBB the only activity offered is assembling puzzles or reading books. Since no child in this class is capable of reading yet, when given a book, they would rather hyperactively thumb through all the pages and then toss the book down or throw it aside. If you try to engage a student in a book, they might linger on a page for a space of 3 seconds, and clearly they have not even been shown what a book is for. As for puzzles, most of the students are very good at assembling 5-10 piece puzzles. They have done the same set of about 12 puzzles enough times, that they probably have the pieces memorized. My 1-1 student even was assembling the puzzle pieces face down, assembling them from the backside. 

The teacher did do math center with several students who were capable of or teaching them subtraction, but more often than not, this resulted in the student developing a tantrum and breaking into tears and fits of screaming. The other aide at HRW seemed to do a decent job at teaching them "handwriting." Note since nobody actually used pencils, crayons, paper, or notebook, I was not able to personally ascertain exactly how she was teaching HRW, except that there was no student work on display on any walls. Mrs R., as stated above, was merely mostly scrolling through her phone while attending the students at PRT, which appeared to be a play-time station (grooming a doll, train car set, car set). 

Undoubtedly for a staff of three, the 12 ASD students are a load even during recess and lunchtime. For instance, during recess several students keep throwing wood chips at each other. At least one boy has a fascination for tossing the wood chips up into the air to watch them fall down. He has the same stimulative fascination with playing with paper against the air heater in the classroom. They also will block or sit up against the steps leading to the slide making it hard for other students to use the slide. Several of the students will try to wander off. During lunch time it is similar that they will play with their food, or not eat anything, or interfere with another student trying to eat. None of them appear to understand how to say "thank you" although one child, a gal, has much better interpersonal skills than the rest, and will even greet the janitor. She is only marginally ASD or has some learning, basically math, challenges, so hopefully she may eventually transition out of the ASD program. 

According to Ms. A., however, she is not necessarily encouraging of parental involvement. She told this observer that the white protective gate for the doorway was to "prevent the parents from entering and staying inside the classroom." She does stay afterschool and talks to each and every parent who stops by, but she does not seem to want them actually inside the classroom, maybe because she realizes how small and dingy it can appear to be for outsiders and newcomers at first. She does appear to be capable of using the time wisely for her teaching management tasks, for instance, during morning breakfast, during the hour-long sensory training time with playdough, and while the Danny Go videos are playing, she does manage to get a lot of grading, teacher notebook, and planning type work done, with time to spare to talk with Mrs. R. about her career.

For instance, one good unit plan that she developed was a Lego assembly unit accompanied by Lego videos and she did find two or three Lego videos which encouraged the students to chant the alphabet and rehearse their number counting capability of mostly between 1-10.

Conclusion

In School A, the teacher and her assistant consciously worked on the whole student and created as inclusionary an environment as possible so that those who are in mainstream classrooms understand grade-level work. At-grade materials are adapted so that the students aspire to learn and engage with the world around them. There is adequate time for social and interpersonal growth so ASD students develop better self-awareness. As a result, every student knew how to use pencil, paper, and crayons. This did also created noticeable stress for the teacher and her assistant, however, the parents are more pleased with the overall outcome, and parental involvement with student experience and growth was high. 

Photo by author, DC Prison near Stadium Armory