A child is a child is a child.

A child is a child is a child. Most of us have a story to tell about how we ended up choosing thefield of special education. Especially those of us over a certain age.My own personal route began on a dirt road dirt roadn (US) → camino sin firmedirt roadn → chemin non macadamis�� or non rev��tudirt roaddirt n in Korea one wintry win��try? also win��ter��yadj. win��tri��er also win��ter��i��er, win��tri��est also win��ter��i��est1. Belonging to or characteristic of winter; cold.2. morningover thirty years ago. As a regular U.S. Army officer conductingreconnaissance patrols, I came across a child dead and frozen to theroad. He died, I suppose, of exposure but the ice holding him fast tothe dirt was to me the final indignity in��dig��ni��ty?n. pl. in��dig��ni��ties1. Humiliating, degrading, or abusive treatment.2. A source of offense, as to a person's pride or sense of dignity; an affront.3. . I knew then that children arethe forgotten victims of war. I knew then, instantly, that I wanted tohelp the children, not hurt them. And so I ended my military career assoon as possible and turned to education and-at least back then-to theforgotten ones of education, the kids in special education. Now I am half a world and half a lifetime away from that Koreanmorning. And I feel somehow vindicated that these last three decadeshave proved what I felt viscerally that day: the universal value of achild, any child. The completeness of his vulnerability, her endlesspossibilities, these are not constrained by where or who the child is. It is something that almost all of us reconize and agree to. It iswhy Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein(born April 28, 1937, Tikrit, Iraq—died Dec. 30, 2006, Baghdad) President of Iraq (1979–2003). He joined the Ba'th Party in 1957. Following participation in a failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres. let the captive children leave Kuwait and why theywere the first on the lifeboats on the Titanic and why today'spolitical and social realities touch all children. Today's realities dictate that what happens in the rainforests of South America is as relevant to us as the unification ofGermany and the drive for equality by the black South Africans. Intoday's society, the economy of Japan affects the financialstability of the world and the Persian Gulf, for good or ill, controlsthe developed countries' destiny. Today's world has at lastbecome the global village so long envisioned. Global economies, global solutions, and global awareness of thevalue of the next generation become more obvious and more necessary witheach passing minute. At last humanity is forced to recognize thesignificance of the insignificant: This one tiny insignificant planet isour village. But a village can be a good place to grow up. Consider the mores ofvillages and small towns: All children are watched over and watched outfor by all the villagers. If Tommy swings a cat, Tommy's motherwill know and soon, because someone in the village will tell herpreferably not the cat's owner). Now that our village has grown toencompass our fragile world, Tommy's cat-swinging is not a localproblem; it's not a Belgian problem, a Mexican problem nor eventile cat owner's problem. Tommy's behavior becomes the problemof whoever can offer the best solution. That is what a child-centered global village can offer us. Childrenin the mines and factories are not allowed now. Children as small adultsto be seen and not heard is a discredited philosophy. Indeed, thevillage is moving toward a recognition of the rights of children. Andwhen the child-centered global village does come, CEC (Central Electronic Complex) The set of hardware that defines a mainframe, which includes the CPU(s), memory, channels, controllers and power supplies included in the box. Some CECs, such as IBM's Multiprise 2000 and 3000, include data storage devices as well. must be ready. Itis time now more than ever to renew our international efforts, notbecause they are necessary for the prestige of the association butbecause the children deserve the best we can give them. And in manycases the best in special education is a CEC member. Historically, CEC has had an on again, off again love affair withinternational special education that in many ways parallels theconflicting foreign outlook of both the U.S. and Canada. Both countrieshave at times in their history followed an isolationist i��so��la��tion��ism?n.A national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries.i policy. Butisolationism isolationismNational policy of avoiding political or economic entanglements with other countries. Isolationism has been a recurrent theme in U.S. history. It was given expression in the Farewell Address of Pres. is like the grand mansions of a century ago: Nobody canafford their upkeep. Time now for the affordability of joint commitmentto agreed-upon goals. Precedent of such international commitment abounds in CEC'searly history. The 1922 founding meeting of CEC included citizens ofIndia, South Africa, and Sweden as well as Canada and the U.S. And in1926 the fledgling association divided the globe into five world regionswith chairpersons assigned to each. But financial considerations keptthe young association from realizing any substantive internationalgoals. And despite various forays into internationalism such as CEC'sWorld Congress in Stirling, Scotland, in 1978, CEC has remainedprimarily focused on North America-until today. In the 1990's, CECis again planning to embark on international endeavors. The formulationof the new CEC International Center for Scholarship in Education isdeliberately global in scope. This Center is planned as an internationalfocal point focal pointn.See focus. for many types of scholarship, for information retrieval,organization, and distribution, and for lectures, discussions, andcolloquia col��lo��qui��a?n.A plural of colloquium. . By CEC's 75th anniversary in 1997, the Center should bea source of interdisciplinary and international understanding fordeveloping and developed countries and ideas. Other across-all-borders connections include: CEC continues to havealmost 2,000 subscribers from 58 countries for its membership journals.200 people outside Canada and the U.S. have sought and receivedinternational membership. CEC's newest, and seventeenth, divisionis DISES DISES Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service (US), the Division of International Special Education and Services.Already this committed division is working with the Peace Corps onproviding consultation on services for children and for the training ofcaretakers in Romania. With the fall of the Ceausescu dictatorship lastyear, international-and Romanian-scrutiny discovered thousands ofchildren abandoned by parents who could not care for them and who hadthe children only to satisfy Ceausescu's demand for three childrenper family. Many of these children face multiple emotional, physical,and psychological problems stemming from their incarceration Confinement in a jail or prison; imprisonment.Police officers and other law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. in hiddeninstitutions. DISES and the Peace Corps are working out plans to help.And that is how it should be in our village. Indeed, the universality of a child in need is perhaps the greatestunifier of all. I did not see a Korean child on that frozen road. I didnot see a boy or a girl. What I saw was tragedy. Children's rights The opportunity for children to participate in political and legal decisions that affect them; in a broad sense, the rights of children to live free from hunger, abuse, neglect, and other inhumane conditions. like their needs begin at birth and should not be dependent on where achild is born. That is the pretext from which all internationalendeavors in education must start and that is where CEC again begins itsextension into the international arena. This time there can be no turning back. The finite borders oncurrent maps are obsolete from one year to the next. To ignore theinevitability of shared problems and shared solutions is to retreat tothose cold isolationist mansions and watch them crumble around us. Wemust enter the world community or see it pass us by. So many changes and possibilities are already upon us. Thecapability already exists to beam our journals electronically throughoutthe world just as USA Today does now. This means that a CEC member inBotswana will get her journal the same day as a member in Bermuda getshis. But it means much more. It means that whatever story each of us has to tell about ourlife's choices, the ending must point to a professionalism unified,crosscultural, and dynamic. The need for sharing information, expertise,and cultures has always existed. What exists now is the technology tosustain it and the overwhelming proof that we are all in this together.The world may have shrunk but the children's needs have not. It means that at last it is finally enough to cultivate your ownbackyard as long as you realize that your backyard is our world.