Book Review--Somebody Else's Kids, by Torey Hayden

Somebody Else's Kids was published in 1981. It is the story of Torey Hayden's experiences teaching a class that is essentially a self-contained special education class in the 1970s. The circumstances in which the class developed were rather strange. Torey was actually a resource room teacher initially, meaning that kids in the regular education classroom who needed extra help came to see her for a half hour or hour or so a day. She didn't have her own class. But, she ended up having four kids who just weren't able to manage the regular education setting placed with her for a full or half-day.

The first one to be placed with her for a half-day was Boo, an autistic kindergartner. The second was Lori, originally a resource room student. Lori and her twin had been adopted when they were five. The other twin had no problems in school, but Lori wasn't so lucky. She had been a severely abused child in her natural home, and had suffered brain damage as a result. She had had brain surgery to remove bone fragments from her brain, but lesions remained. As a result, she had epilepsy and ADHD-type symptoms. Furthermore, the brain damage had apparently interefered with the part of her brain that processed written symbols. Because of this, Lori had not been learning to read and write in her first-grade classroom, though she was very bright.

The third student to be placed in the class was Tomaso, an extremely angry boy who had witnessed his stepmother fatally shoot his father and older brother when he was five. By the age of 10, he had lived with an abusive uncle and been in more than seven foster homes. He had been placed in Torey's class after he had attempted to strangle a younger student on the playground.

Finally, and most bizarrely in terms of placement, was Claudia. Claudia was 12 years old and not a special education student. She was placed in Torey's class because she was pregnant. She had been kicked out of her private Catholic school, and apparently the school district wanted her to be placed in a setting where she wouldn't be noticed. She was placed in Torey's class for half a day and attended vocational and baby-care classes with high school students for the other half of the day.

All of the students made some impressive academic gains, but her influence, as with all teachers, went far beyond academics. She was one of Claudia's very few sources of emotional support. She helped Tomaso manage his anger appropriately and helped Lori cope with the frustration of her learning difficulties. Lori and Tomaso formed a special bond that was touching to see. That bond seemed to help Tomaso get in touch with his feelings beyond his anger. Boo started to speak beyond the mere echoing of other people's words and improved greatly in his ability to stay on task.

The recounting of Torey's time with this class is an amazing read. Each one of the characters will grab onto your heart and never let go.