Teacher's Training and Child Abuse

Torey Hayden, special education teacher and author, wrote her own experience in one of her special ed classes in which 8 of the "worst" children were placed. The 8 had a medley of problems but there was just no where else to put them. They included Peter (8) with a deteriorating neurological condition; scarred Tyler (8) a girl who had tried to kill herself twice and once by trying to swallow some acid which ate away part of her esophagus; big strapping Max (6) with infantile autism; fat Freddie (7) at 94 pounds was said to be either retarded, autistics or condition unknown; Sarah (7), a victim of physical and sexual abuse who chose to be mute; petite, angelic Susanna (6) who had childhood schizophrenia and hallucinated, rocked herself or wept; William (9), a boy haunted by fears and rituals to waylay them; Guillermo (9), an angry blind boy from a migrant community. Torey wondered what she had gotten herself into to get such a mish-mash of "unwanted" children, that is, children who did not in any way fit in other special ed programs so they were dumped into her class.

And then after Christmas vacation, another child was added to her medley, a child who no one wanted and was scheduled to go to a state hospital, but as there were no beds available, her classroom was the only one where the child could be placed. The child was a horror! The child, 6, had a couple of months previously kidnapped another child, age 3 and about the same size, tied the child to a tree and proceeded to burn him.

Sheila, the unwanted child, arrived, She was feral, uncommunicative, unresponsive, and had angry watchful eyes. She already had a history of destroying other classrooms. Her fears seemed insurmountable, but love and understanding oh so gradually won her over. Her veneer cracked ever so slightly when in trapped fear she pee-ed on herself. The shame and horror of such an act and the teacher's response that it was just an accident was what got her to talk, to the effect of "You're not gonna tell my pa. He'd beat me for somethin' like that. I didn't mean to ..." And it became obvious that she was a child of abuse. Torey already knew from records that her mother had abandoned the girl at the age of 4 along a highway, and later Sheila revealed that she had just been shoved out of the car and left by her mother who took only the younger brother Jimmy with her. An abandoned child, seriously damaged, and one who was abused by the remaining parent.

I highly recommend this book. It needs to be on the reading list of every single teacher, psychiatrist, psychologist, child care worker and social worker. Torey Hayden, as a trained special ed teacher, made mistakes in trying to reach Sheila, she admitted those mistakes, but the premise in her classroom was to make and keep good communication with all her children. With Sheila this rule of communication was tested and revised as Sheila had a tested IQ of 182 and knew angles and loopholes in logic and behavior that Torey had never encountered. One Child is really a must-read!

Interesting notes on One Child

One Child did not start out as a book, but it was a personal story to record for herself her extraordinary time with Sheila. It was only after the story was completed that she considered publishing it.

One Child is Torey's first book and it was the first thing she ever submitted for publication.  The story itself was written very quickly - only eight days from start to finish. And it took only 42 days from the time she started writing One Child until she signed a contract with G.P. Putnam's Sons to publish it.

One Child is currently in 28 languages and has been adapted in several diverse forms, including a one-act opera, a Japanese puppet play and a TV movie.
 
The book was written 2-3 decades ago, and to find out what happened to Sheila and the other 8 children from that medley classroom, a person can read here. However, I recommend reading the book first and not spoiling the fun of discovery.