A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
~Yoko Ono

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Blawg in a Box

The word "blog" is a shortened version of the term "web log". And much like the word google, it can now be used as either a noun or a verb.

The cutesy term "blawg" (which is what I call this gem of a site you are reading) was apparently coined by some lawyer to mean "a web log written by lawyers and/or concerned primarily with legal affairs".

So now I have this b-law-g (I warned you it was cutesy) on which I sometimes wonder what to write about. Oh sure, stuff comes up, either in my own life or a news item that grabs my attention and gives me blogging fodder. But sometimes it's hard to know what to write about next. Hard to know what you, dear reader, have a burning need to know more about.

I've asked on a couple of occasions in the past for reader input although, in all fairness, it has been a while. But come on, people, how often do you have your own personal legal person of whom you can ask a (reasonably generic) question free of charge?

So, fire away ... what subject to do with the law and special needs would you like to know more about? Perhaps it's a topic I've already covered but you still have a question on. Or you could always check out the labels at the bottom of the sidebar on the right hand side of the page to see if that helps with some inspiration.

In the meantime, I'm thinking that my next few posts might well be a little less legal related and a little more parent to parent. This past weekend, with my trip to the NBACL Conference preceded by a visit to the HACL library has left me with some interesting thoughts (and book recommendations) to share.

But, hey, if you don't fancy that, feel free to use the comment box or the e-mail link to suggest some more 'legalesque' topics. In the meantime, I think I might just entitle my next few posts something along the lines of 'Lessons Learned On The Road'...

** Although in all fairness, it did recently occur to me that one subject I have failed to blog about on this site is Nova Scotia's own Hyde Inquiry [which has been covered in some detail bit on the Schizophrenia Society of NS Weblog] and the whole issue of the police use of tasers on individuals with disabilities.

Which, in my defence, I blogged so much on the taser issue last year on my personal blog that, quite frankly, I think I got a bit tasered out. Still, it is a subject that I should (and, no doubt, will at some point) discuss here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the offer to answer questions! We have one that our family has been dealing with in regard to school. We have requested on several occasions that our son be exempted from French at school because of his disability (PDD-NOS/NLD). We have been told that the school is unable to exempt any student from French and that he will have to continue to take it even though there is no reasonable expectation that he will learn to use it. The school has offered an IPP (although it was never put in place, he currently draws pictures in French class) but we wanted him removed from French so that he could use those classes for organization and catch up (or maybe even some tutorial). We have been told there is no way around this although there are other children in the school who have been exempted from French. What is your take on this?

Michelle Morgan-Coole said...

Thank you for the question.
I've dealt successfully with this isue for my own daughter in the past few years but could you tell me whether you're in Nova Scotia and, if so, what school board is involved? That info should help make my answer more relevant.

Unknown said...

We live in Truro, Nova Scotia. Our board is Chignecto Central Regional School Board. Our son is in grade nine. I also wanted to say thanks for blogging - I searched for something local regarding special needs for a long time before a friend put me in touch with yours. Keep up the great work!

Michelle Morgan-Coole said...

Okay, I will post on that in the next few days - hopefully, over the weekend.

BTW, you might want to consider that apparently Grade 9 is the last year for compulsory French so this particular problem should disappear for you next year. Picking our battles ... it ain't easy.

Thanks. And spread the word about the blawg, please!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the info - I wasn't aware that this would be the last year to worry about it.

We had another school meeting and agreed to IPP his French for this year. That way we can reduce the amount of French classes in his curriculum and free up the rest of the time that would have been French to do organizational/tutorial classes.

Not perfect, but you are absolutely right about picking our battles - not to mention saving our precious energy!

Thanks again