Topics included:
An afternoon colloquium at U.T.:
Providing Care for Children with Disabilities in NW Ohio: the Engler Family and the Development of the Sunshine Children’s Home, 1950-1964” Samuel Di Rocco II
Kathleen discussed some interesting things she learned from that presentation about the early history of the Sunshine Childrens' Home in Maumee. Among other things, she informed us that the Sunshine Childrens' Home is no more. It has now become the "Sunshine Foundation, Inc.".
We also discussed how some things have changed, and other things haven't, with respect to the struggle of parents attempting to care for their special needs children and to find adequate resources to do so. We are particularly interested in looking at the process by which many of the larger organizations of today grew from the roots of families, like the Englers, who did what they did and learned to care for their special needs children because there was no one else who could or would.
Other topics presented and/or discussed at the meeting will be elaborated upon in following posts, but include:
--Status of Research on Special Education due process cases in NW Ohio;
--The Catching Stories Oral History Institute being offered at Kenyon College in June, about which absolutely everyone expressed serious interest. Kathleen will follow up and request an application(s).
--The recent webcam case involving invasion of privacy by a suburban Philadelphia school district. This "just breaking" story hit a nerve with many of us,because it underscored existing anxieties and distrust that has become almost inescapable in relationships between parents and school districts.
--Need for MUCH more work establishing a working blogspot and learning how to get maximum benefit from it with respect to the story collecting project. Kathleen, Angie, and Carol will meet on March 2nd, to work exclusively on technical and blog issues. One thing we all agreed on, however, is that there is still a lot to learn about how to do this blog-thang.
