As for what she accomplished - in some ways it wasn't much. Instead, she is remarkably frank about her own failures and self-doubt, about the beating her personal life tookk because she was so absorbed in her work. Hayden could have been self-congratulatory in this account of that year. It was Torey Hayden's job as their special resource teacher for three hours a day during one school year to try and see that they were not shortchanged educationally. These are children who've been abused, either by violence or the tricks of nature they suffer short circuits, emotionally and mentally. And the testing controversy passes above their heads there are probably no SATs in their futures. The possibilities of their doing advanced math or joining accelerated reading groups are nil. These children can't go "back to basics" since they've never been there in the first place. For the four children Torey Hayden profiles in "Somebody Else's Kids," much of the controversy surrounding public education today is irrelevant.
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