I had an interesting conversation with my daughter in law yesterday on the subject of concussions.
She is a language teacher in a lily-white suburban public high school. When a student is confirmed by the school nurse (or a doctor) as recently having had a concussion ("concussed"), the teacher is required to make several accommodations. The students gets a break from classroom rigors whenever s/he feels the need, tests must be OPEN BOOK(!), or the teacher may be required to break a test into more than one session, so the student does not experience undue stress. Multiple choice questions may have to be adjusted so that there are only two or three possible answers rather than 4 or 5. The concussed student should not be required to take classroom "quizzes" unless they are grade-important.
Students are re-evaluated by the nurse at two-week intervals, and the period for accommodations may last for months. (She has heard students collaborating on how to game the nurse-evaluation).
Surprisingly, student athletes doing all sorts of relatively benign things are coming in with "certified" concussion injuries and it becomes a major pain in the ass for teachers. Occasionally, a student will come in with a note from a parent requesting these accommodations (she refuses with out medical certification), and those cases are generally B.S.
I have written previously in this space that interscholastic sports are bullshit and should eliminated entirely. This merely solidifies my opinion.
She is a language teacher in a lily-white suburban public high school. When a student is confirmed by the school nurse (or a doctor) as recently having had a concussion ("concussed"), the teacher is required to make several accommodations. The students gets a break from classroom rigors whenever s/he feels the need, tests must be OPEN BOOK(!), or the teacher may be required to break a test into more than one session, so the student does not experience undue stress. Multiple choice questions may have to be adjusted so that there are only two or three possible answers rather than 4 or 5. The concussed student should not be required to take classroom "quizzes" unless they are grade-important.
Students are re-evaluated by the nurse at two-week intervals, and the period for accommodations may last for months. (She has heard students collaborating on how to game the nurse-evaluation).
Surprisingly, student athletes doing all sorts of relatively benign things are coming in with "certified" concussion injuries and it becomes a major pain in the ass for teachers. Occasionally, a student will come in with a note from a parent requesting these accommodations (she refuses with out medical certification), and those cases are generally B.S.
I have written previously in this space that interscholastic sports are bullshit and should eliminated entirely. This merely solidifies my opinion.
