While the book is fictional it parallels my ten years serving as Director of Buildings and Grounds for a Woodtic Superintendent in a public school in Hometown U.S.A.
Ben is a playful, lively boy who is always on the go. Yet something is going on for Ben... This book is a story about a Ben's experience at school and how his sensory processing challenges impact upon his day. His teacher and mother know just want to do to help.
After suddenly receiving custody of his five year old son, Ben must learn how to be a dad. The fact that he'd even fathered a child was news to him. Not only does this mean restructuring his sixty-hour workweek and becoming responsible for another human being, but also Kyle has autism. Enter the school system and a shaky beginning. Under the guidance of a gifted teacher, Ben and Kyle take tentative steps to becoming father and son. Teacher Melanie Nicols sees Ben as a deadbeat dad, but grudgingly comes to admire how he hangs in, determined to learn for his son’s sake. Her admiration grows to more as father and son come to rely on Melanie being a part of their lives. When parents receive the news that their child has autism, they spend countless hours researching the subject, usually at night, after an exhausting day. Teachers, when they hear that they'll have a student with an autism spectrum disorder, also try to learn as much as they can. This novel was written for such parents and teachers - an entertaining read that offers information on autism and strategies that work. Dr. Sharon A. Mitchell has worked in schools as a teacher, counselor, psychologist and consultant for decades. Her Master's and Doctorate degrees focused on autism. She has delivered workshops and seminars to thousands participants including at national conferences. She continues to write and teaches university classes about students who learn differently.
From the days when U Street was hailed as "Black Broadway" to the current revitalization and gentrification of the new millennium, Ben's Chili Bowl survived it all. On August 22, 1958, West Indian immigrant Mahaboob Ben Ali and his fiancAA(c)e, Virginia Rollins, saw their dream realized as they opened a hot dog and chili shop on U Street. They never imagined that Ben's would become world renowned or such a beloved restaurant in the nation's capital. Today visitors to U Street will find a diverse and eclectic mix of residents, music venues, trendy shops, and, of course, "the Bowl." The images in this book provide a look back over the 50-year history of Ben's Chili Bowl, U Street, the Ali family, and the patrons who have helped define Ben's as a vibrant cultural landmark.
Increasing numbers of parents grapple with children who are acting out without obvious reason. Revved up and irritable, many of these children are diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar illness, autism, or other disorders but don’t respond well to treatment. They are then medicated, often with poor results and unwanted side effects. Based on emerging scientific research and extensive clinical experience, integrative child psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Dunckley has pioneered a four-week program to treat the frequent underlying cause, Electronic Screen Syndrome (ESS). Dr. Dunckley has found that everyday use of interactive screen devices — such as computers, video games, smartphones, and tablets — can easily overstimulate a child’s nervous system, triggering a variety of stubborn symptoms. In contrast, she’s discovered that a strict, extended electronic fast single-handedly improves mood, focus, sleep, and behavior, regardless of the child’s diagnosis. It also reduces the need for medication and renders other treatments more effective. Offered now in this book, this simple intervention can produce a life-changing shift in brain function and help your child get back on track — all without cost or medication. While no one in today’s connected world can completely shun electronic stimuli, Dr. Dunckley provides hope for parents who feel that their child has been misdiagnosed or inappropriately medicated, by presenting an alternative explanation for their child’s difficulties and a concrete plan for treating them.
The definitive oral history of the cult classic Dazed and Confused, featuring behind-the-scenes stories from the cast, crew, and Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater. Dazed and Confused not only heralded the arrival of filmmaker Richard Linklater, it introduced a cast of unknowns who would become the next generation of movie stars. Embraced as a cultural touchstone, the 1993 film would also make Matthew McConaughey's famous phrase--alright, alright, alright--ubiquitous. But it started with a simple idea: Linklater thought people might like to watch a movie about high school kids just hanging out and listening to music on the last day of school in 1976. To some, that might not even sound like a movie. But to a few studio executives, it sounded enough like the next American Graffiti to justify the risk. Dazed and Confused underperformed at the box office and seemed destined to disappear. Then something weird happened: Linklater turned out to be right. This wasn't the kind of movie everybody liked, but it was the kind of movie certain people loved, with an intensity that felt personal. No matter what their high school experience was like, they thought Dazed and Confused was about them. Alright, Alright, Alright is the story of how this iconic film came together and why it worked. Combining behind-the-scenes photos and insights from nearly the entire cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and many others, and with full access to Linklater's Dazed archives, it offers an inside look at how a budding filmmaker and a cast of newcomers made a period piece that would feel timeless for decades to come.
Ben Eglehart is comfortably secure in his life as a teacher at Comenius Alternative High School when he learns that one of his graduates has been murdered. This triggers a chain of events that will lead him to the end of a long, passionate career as a teacher of displaced students. Complicating matters is a half-Apache father in Arizona who looks to be in serious trouble. Ben and his wife Ginny rescue Will Bill from a most tenuous life and bring him back to live Iowa with them and their two children, Tom and Sarah. Wild Bill, who has rarely lived outside his primitive dwellings in the desert climate of southwest Arizona has to learn to adjust to the humidity and snow and other humans. As if matters weren’t confused enough, Ben has to cope with a wife who is undergoing menopause. In fact, the whole family struggles with this dilemma. To top it off, Ben’s son is referred to Comenius from his home high school, Clanton High. That makes it truly difficult for both of them since it means that Tom has been having difficulties at Clanton and that he will be thrust into intimate educational interaction with his father.
This book is written by parents and professionals for parents and professionals caring for children on the autism spectrum. Includes practical issues like education, diet and intervention options and also offers thought-provoking questions that offer the chance for readers to reflect on their own situation.
During the adolescent years of Benjamin Bird, he wrestled with inevitable post–World War II socioeconomic and technological change, the breakup of his extended family, transitioning from the country to the city, from public school to college, and from confusion over his bisexuality. The following is an excerpt from Chapter Three. Benjamin pulled his socks tight in his shoes to avoid getting blisters on his heels, and he began trotting across the Dover pasture out to the county road. There he crawled under the barbed wire fence and headed home on foot. He did not mind walking, even three miles. Walking always seemed to clear his mind. He was relieved to be escaping from Denver's influence, at least for a time. Every step he took away from Denver was a step in the right direction. Step, step, step. Denver is sexy, all right, Ben admitted to himself, but not as desirable as Jacob Jiggs had been, not sexy enough for me to start daydreaming about Denver, or any other male, or I will fall into a trap that might haunt me for the rest of my life. Step, step, step. Don't think of Denver's masculinity, don't think of the arousal I felt riding behind Denver on old Misty, don't think of Denver's broad shoulders or his beautiful backside. Step, step, step. Don't think of Denver's naughty nature, don't think of what Denver might be doing with old Misty. I don't ever want to know. Step, step, step. Stay on the right side of life. Think of girls. Think of becoming attracted to girls. Think of which girl I will try to win for my sweetheart when school starts up again. Step, step, step. Should it be Peggy Blessing? Peggy is so feminine and dainty. I actually felt manly when I was sitting beside her in assembly! Step, step, step. Imagine putting my arms around Peggy Blessing and having babies and building a nice home and becoming a good husband and father. Step...by...step...by...step. Ben's shoes became hot to his feet, so he sat down and took them off, stuffed his socks into his shoes, tied the shoestrings together, and slung them over his shoulder. His feet felt good tramping in the warm sandy ruts. His toes felt liberated. At least his toes were liberated. ***** Watch for the forthcoming sequel, The Rootless Years of Benjamin Bird.
Since Birth of a Nation became the first Hollywood blockbuster in 1915, movies have struggled to reckon with the American South—as both a place and an idea, a reality and a romance, a lived experience and a bitter legacy. Nearly every major American filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter has worked on a film about the South, from Gone with the Wind to 12 Years a Slave, from Deliveranceto Forrest Gump. In The South Never Plays Itself, author and film critic Ben Beard explores the history of the Deep South on screen, beginning with silent cinema and ending in the streaming era, from President Wilson to President Trump, from musical to comedy to horror to crime to melodrama. Beard’s idiosyncratic narrative—part cultural history, part film criticism, part memoir—journeys through genres and eras, issues and regions, smash blockbusters and microbudget indies to explore America’s past and troubled present, seen through Hollywood’s distorting lens. Opinionated, obsessive, sweeping, often combative, sometimes funny—a wild narrative tumble into culture both high and low—Beard attempts to answer the haunting question: what do movies know about the South that we don’t?