Friday September 29.

On friday we made our way over the the TCEdZone offices on Adam Clayton Powell to have a session on Child Abuse Training by Marceline Watler. To say the least much of the final portion of the session was controversial. To begin she asked all of us a few questions which we discussed in groups. We talked about how we were all disciplined, how it made us feel, how effective it was and if we ourselves would discipline our children in the same way.

Her aim was to help us realize where we ourselves were coming from and how that might affect our ability to see or not see the necessary signs of child abuse amongst our students. According to Ms. Walters, all forms of physical hitting are punishment and not discipline. We learned that we are "mandatory reporters" by law and what those responsibilities entailed, and the dire consequences of not reporting. We also watched an old Oprah session on sexual child abuse, which was quite moving and disturbing.