ELIZABETH WILSON: The . decision to place a child Ina special classroom is. not . taken lightly. Elizabeth Wilson is the new Director of Special Services in the Terrace school district, tak- ing over for Andrew Sruton for a year while he continues his graduate studies. Wilson, origin- ally from California, has .a mas- ' ters degree in special education and curriculum from Columbia _ University in New York, and has worked in the field of education since 1968, ‘‘The last ten years have been a remarkable time of change in special education, and Last temptation not in society recognizing the Tights of people and the needs of in- dividuals,”’ she said.. She brings years of experience in the B.C. school system to Ter- race. As a classroom teacher in Powell River, she taught various classes from grades one to ten before joining the district staff office in the area of. special. education. Her. last position . before moving to Terrace was in Nelson, where she worked in curriculum development and as- sessment, Although Wilson has only seen our district’s schools in ac- tion for six weeks last term, she is very impressed with the pro- fessionalism of the teachers and the quality of the special educa- tion programs, ‘‘It's very well- managed, Andrew Scruton did _an excellent job of building the program,'’ she said, especially considering we’re not in the lower mainland where there are many outside resources to tap ‘into, Wilson will work mainly with principals, teachers and parents with regard to special education students. It’s her job to help provide the resources that children with special needs re- quire within the school system. These needs can range from minor adjustments to the method of instruction used by the regular classroom teacher, to providing special equipment like a computer communication sys- tem for a student who has diffi- Commentary —— by Brian Gregg Christians in the Terrace area have been challenged to hold a day of prayer against the releas- ing of the movie, ‘‘The Last Temptation of Christ'’® by Universal Studios later this month. Christians who say they do not want to become involved in a boycott of the movie because . they do not patronize movie theaters anyway will have an op- portunity to do something con- structive. | Before the Allies launched D-Day from England in World War II, General Montgomery . ordered a national day of prayer with the following declaration that rings true to the situation of Christians with regard to this movie. ‘Let an army and a people learn what God stands for, and then they will know when they are for, or against, his purpose. They will then support or op- pose with confidence. as His ~ Commissioned Servants.”’ ‘It is not enough for a nation to have a vague faith in God. It is not enough for us to rest con- tent that our commanders are godly, and that God’s flag is publicly flown. ‘Faith in God is useless until jt governs action. What does “God. want done?’’ asked the. “* General, . “We believe in God — as _ingless, - He was what? As a nonentity, content to be recognized, and then ig- nored? As a vague power, mean- purposeless, inar- ticulate, and therefore unfit to command a platoon, let alone a world? ‘No! We believe in God who wants, and means to have done, all that Christ embodied, taught and lived out,” said the General before the D-Day victory. The movie to be released by Universal Studios tries .to destroy the foundation of Chris- tianity and will be used as a bat- tering ram against the doorway of the Church, which i is the cross of Christ. In that movie, Jesus, pictured as an indecisive madman in the tradition of Rasputin, decides not to go to the cross and instead copulates with Mary Magdalene. Scripture teaches that Christ had absolutely no sin in Him and the only temptation He suf- fered was the temptation of dy- ing when He could not naturally die, If Christ had not chosen to die on the cross, God would ‘have had to destroy the entire’ world at the moment of that decision because we would not have had a Savior, as the movie so savagely suggests. The last real temptation of Christ was taking the sins of humanity upon Himself, since God incarnate who could not sin. The act of carry- culty speaking’and an electronic — sensor for-a visually-impaired child, to a significant modifi- cation for the entire schooling of — _achild or a special classroom. For example, a mentally han- dicapped. student in a regular classroom may get additional ex- amples of the same math prob- em, or use a clock with movable hands to learn to tell thé time, or have a counter to manipulate numbers in a more concrete -way. “The link between the con- crete and the-abstract may be made more slowly, so‘such a stu- dent needs manipulative mater- ials or guided repetitions” to understand the concepts. Changes in classroom instruc- tion methods could mean break- ° ing down a complicated task in- to smaller steps. A computer- assisted learning program can be © used, or teachers can design this kind of task analysis themselves. “Many classroom teachers -know how to do this, and we can provide an inservice or assist- ance.”’ There is also a budget to ‘purchase resource materials, with the teacher making the decision on which materials would be most useful for the stu- dent. Some special needs students enter the public school system ‘with their requirements already identified, from the Child Development . Centre,- Or..the teacher may observe a potential learning disability, for example, and refer the child to Wilson tempting ing our sins has been described as surviving a million, billion nuclear blasts and living to tell about it. Christ shed blood mingled with sweat on the night of His arrest because He had to first bear our sins and then con- quer the very power of Hell through His victory on the cross. His tomb, guarded by more . than a thousand Roman soldiers, was later found empty, bearing witness to His resurrec- - tion. That empty tomb is proof that the movie is hate propagan- da against the Christian Church, which is going through a massive world-wide revival at this time. Had Christ copulated with His disciple; as in the movie, the tomb would not have been emp- ty. 7 The Hollywood movie shows Christ contemptuously as a human giving into a fallen nature He did: not have. He was the only one void of all sin and therefore the only one fit to con- quer all the sins of humanity. The press repeatedly asks Christians why they boycott a movie they have not seen. But they refuse to print our answer. Scripture says that liberal pro- fessors of the Christian faith, like the producers of this movie, live by the proverb that the sow is washed by wallowing in the mire, We Christians do not need this experience to know it is bad for us. lew head of special services says _she’s impressed with local schools — through the principal. Assess- ment then takes place and pro- ‘gram recommendations are made, ‘‘The recommendations could include resource mater- ials, a teacher’s aide working directly with the student in the classroom, or the services of a - speech therapist,” Wilson ¢x- plained. The recommendations are discussed with the parents, teacher and principal, for a joint _ decision. The program continues to be assessed and modified as ‘needed. ‘‘The decision to place a child in a special classroom is not taken lightly, and it’s. ‘not a unilateral . decision.’’ It “can: change, too, as the. student Pro- presses. | It should “be a bay yeat for Wilson. She expects to spend a fair amount of time travelling to district schools in Stewart,.Kit- wanga and the Hazeltons. She'll also meet with health and social. work professionals as necessary, and disperse the funding available for its maximum use, working with many individual: educators and parents to gather “the best of all resources for this child at this time for this task.’’ Top marks for inmates TERRACE — Edwin Bowser is an employee of Childspace, an - Alberta playground equipment manufacturer, and he says he -has used Correctional Services inmates to install equipment on a number of projects in other areas and ‘they just didn’t work out all that well.”’ But that was before he worked on the Aspen Park project in Thornhill. On that project, he was “‘very im- pressed”’ with the work crew provided by the Terrace Corec- tional Centre. “‘I was really very satisfied,’ said Bowser. “They were great. They worked better than a lot of volunteers.”’ A few weeks later, when -Bowser returned to Terrace to install the new adventure playground at E.T. Kenney Primary School, he said he went straight to the correction center for a work crew but was disap- pointed to find the inmates already busy on another project. He said he did manage to get a good crew through Canada Manpower but added his highest recommendation for the Terrace inmates on any future communi- ty projects. District Director for Correc- tions, Don Bell, was pleased with .Bowser’s comments. and . -said the Terrace Correction Cen- tre has a comimitment toward doing vclunteer work in the community and it was unfor- tunate they were unable to help with the E.T. Kenney project. He explained the center has various levels of priorities in the Terrace area, the main one being their firewood operation which provides a source of income from the center. Childspace is a manufacturer of playground equipment “based in Olds, Alberta and devéloped in 1981 by the Mountain View Association for the Mentally Handicapped. The. company provides meaningful and pro- ductive employment for clients of the association and at the same time produces a high quali- ty line- of creative playground equipment and park furniture. The company is managed by a volunteer board of directors and all profits are used to further the aims of the association. What it Is: Who Can Apply: future. Contact: Social Services Training Program A’ College of New Caledonia Certificate Program directly related to work with mentally handicapped children and adults. There are six courses and one practicum. All courses are ina Distance Education (correspondence) format. You can be either currently employed or have as your career goal working with mentally handicapped children or adults. NOTE: Many new job opportunities for the What Are The Prerequisites: Applicants need to have Grade 12 or equivalent or be amature student with work experience. For More Information and Registration College of New Caledonia Counselling Department 561-5818 or Adnissions and Registration 561-5800 Closing Date: Applications for the September semester must be received by August 19, 1988.