Chapters 11 & 12 give us much to think about. Chapter 11 is a good lesson in Flanagan Family history and Chapter 12 gives us a clearer view of Piper the manipulator.
I found Chapter 12 very entertaining, but since it is almost Thanksgiving and there is a lot of shopping and cooking to do, I want to focus on Chapter 11. Clearly Natalie’s mom has done everything she can to help Natalie. Can you make a list of all of the things she has tried in her quest to help her? (Note: Some of them were outlined before Chapter 11.)
(Ben, I think it may be time for you to revisit your opinion regarding what is wrong with Natalie.)
The family clearly sacrificed a lot to get Natalie in the Ester P. Marinoff School. Why did they school reject her? What do you think about a place that would turn someone away for that reason?
As we get ready for a break, it would be a good time to revisit the ‘Essential Questions” outlined as we started the book. Go back and read them. Has the book helped us to frame any answers yet. (Piper seems awfully powerful, yet she is certainly not physically strong. What makes her so powerful?)
Oh - and by the way - IS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE? (Except for you Kris!)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Anybody Out There?
Posted by Mr. Z at 11:16 PM
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8 Comments:
Ben and Jim-
I am backing up to the day before when we were thinking about how Moose told his dad and not his mom about Mr. Purdy's call. I was researching all the different ways that Mrs. Flanagan has tried to find help for Natalie. She tried various schools, and behavior plans and even scientific research, all in vain to help her daughter. Can you imagine being told to donate Natalie's brain to science after she dies, as if she is some lab rat who would be interesting to study?
Moose recounts how his mother was so distressed at one point that "our house stopped working." He describes his mother almost giving up.
I think that Moose tells his dad about the phone call because he is afraid for his mother when she hears that Natalie is unsuitable for yet another school. I believe that he is worried as to how much disappointment his mother can take about Nat, especially when she seemed so hopeful about the Esther P. school that the entire family was moved.
So in essence Ben, I agree with you that he thinks his father is more trustworthy but it is because he is worried about his mother. Poor Moose. How do you choose which parent to trust?
And who is Moose supposed to trust with the news that his sister is back? Can anybody understand why she is the way that she is?
One person that I would not trust is Piper. I am trying to figure out where she gets her power from. It's not really from the warden because he doesn't seem to be aware of what she is doing most of the time. She really has him fooled. Annie is clearly afraid of her, even warning Moose not to make trouble with her.
Do people have power because we give it to them?
There are multiple reasons someone would make someone leave a school:
1. If the kids were constantly causing a riot, They might be told to leave the school for the other students sake. This happens with Nat, as said in chapter 11:
”We can’t have a student who screams like a banshee at 5:45!
2. They were not prepared for classes. What if when you entered a new grade, you weren’t ready for your new classes? You would probably be told to go to a different school.
3. If they couldn’t fit in well, they might have trouble learning new things. In that case, the teachers would have to hold back for those kids. The other kids would not be learning at a good rate for them, so the teachers might make them leave the school.
4. Finally, What if the children were constantly playing pranks? The children & the teachers would not like the student, so the child playing pranks might be forced to leave.
Ben, I think you are missing the point. There was one reason that Natalie was asked to leave (#1 from your list). Your other items are interesting but not really pertinent to this story.
The question was - what do you think of a school that would dismiss someone for that reason? Personally, I think that she is better off to be out - though I can understand Mrs. Flanagan's dissapointment.
This is a very complicated situation. I beleive the evidence supports Kris' feeling that Moose was concerned about his mother's well being because of how she had reacted to previoius dissapointments with treatments for Natalie.
I am afraid that you still are not seeing the depth of the problems that Natalie has. You need to go back and look at the evidence that has been presented regarding her condition. Given that same set of problems today, there is a diagnosis that she would be given.
Make a list of her 'symptoms'. Can you give a modern term too what is going on with her?
Today, dad said I wasn’t quite getting the point. So we made a list of symptoms of Natalie’s problem:
She loves a box of buttons.
She hates being touched.
She always asks for lemon cake for breakfast.
She can have day long tantrums.
She doesn’t communicate very well.
She stares at her hand in church.
She has an odd talent in math.
In music, she just shreds paper.
She only reads book indexes, and remembers them!
She likes to correct mistakes.
She talks very childish.
After that, I still didn’t get what Natalie’s problem was. So dad showed me the epilogue, and it said she probably had autism.
The afterward has a very nice quote describing what autism. What is that quote?
The quote that dad seems to like is:
A near normal brain trapped in a sensory systim that does not work.
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