By Daniel Bahar

 

If you walk past Jim Connor's special edu­cation classes during the first weeks of any school year, you will see tennis balls flying across the room - and out of it. Maintenance workers at Strath Haven High School in Wallingford, Penn., will tell you that every year since Connor started teaching his students to juggle, they've been fixing covers on the fluorescent light fixtures in his classroom. Neighboring teachers complain about the noise and continual activity across the hall. But there are no complaints from Connor's students. In the words of student Adam LeFevre, "Whatever it is you're juggling, after you try it once, you just can't stop!"

 

Juggling is part of James Joseph Connor's attempt to create "a classroom environment conducive to learning and motivating non-traditional learners."

 

Connor has employed non-traditional methods ever since he began teaching science, social studies and learning center classes to special education students at Strath Haven.

 

It didn't begin with juggling, however.

 

During the 1989-1990 school year Connor was awarded a federally-sponsored Impact Grant for developing a series of games for the classroom. At a dinner for Impact award win­ners, Connor met fellow teacher Jackie Erickson, a well-known figure in the IJA, who had won a similar award for juggling with gifted students. Intrigued by the idea, Connor considered juggling's value to special education studtents.

 

He had already taught himself juggling basics from the Klutz book. ("All dads should know how to juggle," he explained.) He knew juggling could build confidence, pride and patience. And he suspected juggling could put gifted, mainstream and special education students on an equal playing field.

 

As Connor explained it, school is structured for left brain learners ­students who are strong in logic, language, interpreting written symbols and reading. But his special education students are right brain learners - visual learners quick to show their emotions whose strengths are spatial relations and athletics. By the time they reach his classroom, most special education students have experienced nine to ten years of failure and low achievement at school. They aren't "slow," but they learn concepts in a way ignored by most school instruction. "School is like the Army or any other large institution," said Connor. "The moment you leave the mainstream and become exceptional, the moment you learn differently from the crowd, school is not designed for you."