the ‘o’ key being not far from the ’u’ in typewriters].
“Is your house about a mile from the school?”
“y-r-s” was Henry answer. [for “yes”, again, the ‘r’ being close to the due ‘e’]
“What’s the Capital of France?”
“p-a-e-u-s” he typed [we presume for “paris,” the ‘e’ being in the key board close to the ‘r’ and the ‘u’ close the the ‘i’; and he couldn’t do capitals with one hand]
“And the Capital of Canada?”
“t-i-f-i-n-t-p” [the 3 ‘o’ being hit wrong each time: ‘i’ then ‘i’ and then ‘p’; we presume for “toronto,” which was the prepared hand-written answer by his aide. Obviously neither of them knew that the correct answer was Ottawa. Most likely therefore his aide had ‘guided’ Henry’s elbow to hit ‘the approximate keys’ of the wrong answer that Henry, if he really was ready for college should have known!]. And as in “Paris” he could not capitalize the first letter as that -normally a two-hand command for most of us-, his aide could not help him “aiding only “one elbow” of Henry. His aide credited his answer as correct anyway, as he had the other two previous words, in spite of the fact that many of the hits were just ‘approximate hits.’
Etc, etc. as the session went on for about half an hour. To Dr. Martin, Henry was only hitting 30 to 50% of the correct keys, and only of the words his aide knew, which means that HE was not entering the answers, his aide was, and controlling Henry’s arm only by the elbow, with poor accuracy. The whole ‘Eased’ thing -as far as that session showed him- was indeed a hoax to Dr. Martin and so he told his parents, the school psychologist and the pediatrician Dr. Ellen Rose.
From then on, neither that school psychologist nor Henry’ pediatrician ever sent any more patients to Dr. Martin; they were probably ticked off at him. He was indeed positioning himself with his broad but evolving knowledge and unique, even extreme views -positive on the genetics of most human illnesses but negative on the value of most forms of ‘therapy’- into very risky territory that eventually would endanger his practice, his reputation and perhaps even his profession and livelihood..
5-F: Mindy Springville was a 14 year old girl who was struggling in school, a regular public school. She was already two years behind, only in 7th instead of 9th grade. Other kids were not kind to her; to make things worse, she was on the chunky side, which brought humiliating mockery from her peers. She could not help it: Everybody at home was quite heavy. She began to skip school. She attended counseling, which was not doing much for her. But being only 14 with mandatory school attendance, she was considered delinquent; if they did not clamp down on her to attend classes regularly, her parents were threatened with removing Mindy from their household and placing her in a foster home.
Mom had known Dr. Martin as she had brought Mindy to see him two years earlier seeking help for assumed LD and ADD. He had tried her on Adderal -which had helped only a pinch academically- but on which mom was happy that Mindy had lost a good 30 lbs. Now he wanted the doctor to see Mindy again to see if he had up his sleeve some other form of help for her daughter…
He thought the situation presented itself in practical terms sort of helpless as the girl was not progressing in her math and reading beyond a 6th grade level and no medications he could prescribe were going to change that. Deep down Dr. Martin thought that the girl’s effective reading and math level were not even at 4th grade. He was very frank with her mother and told her that he would not object to Mindy quitting her ‘academic’ school if she could be placed in some sort of vocational setting. But that was not available for kids in 7th grade… Before the visit was over he told her mother that he would call the school psychologist -Mindy’s counselor- and try to arrange a meeting with her, the Principal and Mindy’s teachers, meeting that HE was willing to attend at his own time (unpaid, of course; Mindy was on Medicaid, which meant her long visits to see him -for a piddly reimbursement- were at a net loss for him).
The meeting was arranged. Along with Mindy’s teachers, a large number of school officials also attended, plus Mindy’s parents and Dr. Martin. All sat around a large, rectangular table. Her regular teacher, her aide and her counselor got to talk. They were out of solutions to offer. The Principal suggested that the school could increase the tutoring time with her 1-to-1 aide. ’But school attendance has to be enforced.’ He insisted.
Then Dr. Martin talked. He suggested to reduce her school attendance hours to just half a day in school/half a day at home and to eliminate further insistence upon math and reading, giving her instead during her school hours some exposure to available vocational ‘aide’ options such as nurse’s aide, teacher’s/pre-school aide, bus aide, housekeeping/janitorial aide, and some exposure -not to miss a hidden potential- to arts and crafts. Mom in the meantime would work at home on her reading and writing through periodic easy assignments sent by her regular teacher…
Mom, sitting at one end of the table, listened to him with signs of approval. The Principal was very reluctance to allow such (it would entail less teaching and disruption plus one more bus ride in the middle of the day); yet her regular teacher, her aide and the psychologist were for it… After much discussion and whispering among all, they finally agreed with Dr. Martin’s proposal. The Principal seemed reassured by hearing from the psychologist that the girl most likely would quit any way by 16, just 15 months away, quite legal then. The doc further suggested that in the next academic year when the girl would be 15, that she could spend her school hours in the District’s ‘Voc-Tech’ school to see if they could detect any inclination towards a particular skill. In the rest of the day she could also be employed in the fast food industry and the like.
As a follow up 6 months later and entering the next academic year at the end of the summer, her mother reported to the doctor how much better her daughter was doing, how she was even looking forward to re-start school, how her school skipping in the last trimester of the previous year had stopped, that she had continued to lose weight and that there no longer fights reported by anyone. Hurrah!!!
But Dr, Martin recalled how tough the Principal had been with him. How he had been opposed to his unconventional suggestions. How, after that meeting, the Principal had told him that he was becoming very unpopular with many other Principals too for often recommending special services be terminated for learning disabled kids, for suggesting early school quitting for teenagers who were behind and for being against Early Education for toddlers… [by then, Dr. Martin was already aware of his growing unpopularity various schools’ officials.]
A Superintendent of a large school district an hour away from Dr. Martin who had learned of Dr. Martin’s early fame for being so good with kids with LD, ADD/ADHD and PDD, and who used to have her teachers refer to him students with learning and behavior issues, had invited the doctor to give a conference to her staff. Delighted, he volunteered (for no pay in spite of the 3 hours-plus it would involve). The conference, to expand on his unorthodox views on Early Education, early ‘vocational’ training for teenagers, the genetic origin of most learning issues, etc., was an apparent success, the doctor being bombarded with questions all along -as he actually invited interruptions- till he finished… But at the end, after a brief pause, all of a sudden, with no more questions, he stepped out briefly; ‘I’ll be right back’…
Understandably, -did the Superintended tell the teachers NOT to ask him any more questions? Indeed when he returned and invited more questions, there was… Total silence. He never heard again from anyone in that school district. [And so even Dr. Martin anticipated. He realized that with his openness he was cutting his own throat. That they had talked to OPC…
Dr. Martin’s reputation had gone way up over the years -nearly thirty- as one of the best in treating children with all sorts of neurological, school and developmental issues… But then, at the turn of the Millennium, he was quickly approaching a cliff, precipice. OPC, The Wolves, were begging to form a circle around him for a sure kill…]
CHAPTER 6
Quick Wits But Too Dangerous!