Recipes for Living Dale and Lori Helgevold

Lori came from a meeting at school to begin her life story. They are preparing for fall, working on class schedules. Lori teaches high school special ed., primarily ninth and tenth grade math and language arts (English) classes. The young people she works with are generally aged 14 to 17. Lori is free to build her own curriculum based on Clarke School's standards, and she can use her own experience to know what skills the kids need to work on.

Some of the readers of her story will be from "the old school," in which children were held back if their work showed that they were not ready to be advanced to the next grade. It was a one-rule-fits-all situation. Now it is possible to keep more individualized records, and statistics have shown that retention is not the best. It is traumatic for a child to be kept back. There are some kids who don't try, others who try and try but still don't get it. In those cases it won't do any good to retain them. Some brains are like sponges. They take in all they can, but they can only "absorb" so much. The goal is to help them learn every day living skills.

Special ed classes provide a way for students to receive help according to their needs. For instance, a freshman who has one problem area will not repeat the entire freshman year. He will progress to sophomore status and repeat only the freshman level of his problem area. Lori explains, "Among my kids are some who are learning disabled, some who have behavior problems, some who have hearing loss and others who are physically disabled. Each student has an IEP (Individual Education Plan) so that we look at their goals and decide what they need to learn. That is where the curriculum comes from. Forty-five credits are required for graduation and there are certain requirements that each student needs to meet.

"I graduated from high school in 1984, and some of the kids were looked upon as dumb if they couldn't keep up in their regular classes. Nowadays the goal is to try to integrate the special ed kids into regular classes. Special ed rooms provide the least restricted environment, and we attempt to get them with their peers if they are able."

Louise Mason is the person Lori credits for getting her started in special ed. After Lori graduated from Clarke Community Schools, she attended Graceland College at Lamoni for four years and earned degrees in elementary education and physical education. Lori was impressed with Graceland. The teachers really cared about the students. She lived on campus and participated in intramural sports. "I went home weekends to have mom do my laundry."

Lori was unable to get a job in regular education so she substituted for a year, subbed for Louise in special ed in Weldon, and was encouraged to continue. She went back to school at Northwest Missouri State and received a special ed degree. She has been teaching special ed since 1989, beginning in New Virginia. She taught there through the year 2000.

Lori said, "Anywhere from five to ten years is considered the normal burnout time for special ed teachers. There were times when I was there, but the district reorganized the program, and I went into a different grade level, which kept the candle burning. The two worst times are just before Christmas and the end of the school year. That is not true just for the teachers - everybody is ready for some type of break."

There are continuing studies and attempts to improve teaching methods. Of the current criticism that young people are unable to read, Lori says, "Education has gone from phonics to sight-word to whole language and now back to phonics. Phonics is the sounding of letters. Sight-word is recognition of a word, and whole language is built around a theme. It brings in novels and chapter books, and the students just read.

"I have ninth and tenth grade students who don't know phonics. Some kids didn't get phonemic awareness- phonics skills. If they see the letter "k" they know its name but they don't know what it says. Presently this aspect of reading is beginning at the preschool level. Children learn that the word "cat" has three phonemic sounds - c, a, t. They are taught to hear each sound rather than just to recognize the word by sight. That is what I am teaching at the high school level. Grandma Maxine says, “It all reverts back to the old way of teaching.'" Maxine's life story is in the first book of Recipes for Living.

"Our whole family is very close. I was born September 15, 1966. My parents are Merrill and Ann Burrell, and I have an older brother, Mike. My grandfather, whom Grandma referred to as 'Chig,' died in 1965. She continued to live on the farm, and built a new house there. We moved from Osceola onto the farm in 1973. Dad and Mom never did farm the land, however. Dad worked for Clarke Electric for 33 years and Mom worked in Des Moines for 10 years. Maxine's oldest son, my Uncle Ronnie, farmed the land ur1til several years ago and now she cash-rents it to Brian Mateer.

"Because of my birth date, I was able to start to school when I was four years old. I went to East Elementary and my kindergarten teacher was Marla Kay Roe. I had Mike Boldon for second grade. One time I didn’t do something that I was supposed to do and Mr. Boldon called Dad. From then on I did everything the teacher told me!

"I went from kindergarten through third grade at East Elementary, fourth through sixth in the North Elementary building, and junior high and high school in the present building. I played volley ball, basketball, softball, and tennis. Outside of school, I was in Girl Scouts at a young age, and belonged to 4-H, in which I showed hogs.

"The most memorable of all experiences during high school was belonging to AFS (American Field Service) and in 1979-1980, having a foreign exchange student from Australia, A. J. Colebrook. He adjusted very well. Whatever we did, he did. He had the same rules that Mike and I followed. He and I had our quarreling moments, like blood brothers and sisters. They were over little petty things and drove my parents nuts. Mom, Dad, and Grandma went to visit him in 1999. He was fine then, but we received word in 2000 that he had been diagnosed with leukemia. When we heard from him in September 2000, he had received a bone marrow transplant and was doing well. The following March, we received word that he had passed away.

"Dale and I met through mutual friends in 1992. When we were visiting, I found out that his mother, Mary Manley, was Inez Manley's daughter and my Dad graduated from high school with her. Mary went to teachers' college, got her degree and taught in Eagle Grove. That was where Dale was from and it was fun to discover that I knew more of his family than he did. They lived around here and I went to high school with two of his cousins.

"Dale moved to Osceola in 1992. He was out of school then and working full time for the Iowa National Guard at Camp Dodge. The Guard is called for special occasions, such as the flood of 1993 and other missions, but he is a military technician, which is a civilian position at which he works 40 hours a week. Additionally he trains one weekend a month and two or three weeks in the summer.

"We were married on September 16, 1994, and Dale soon discovered that he had married into the whole family. We lived on Grant Street before moving to our current home on North Fillmore. Damon was born in 1996, on his grandfather's birthday, October 25. Damon was in the intensive care unit for eight days because I was a carrier of Group B Strep, which you don't hear much about now because of vaccinations.

"LeeAnn was born October22, 1998, and Landi was born on June 28, 2002. I was able to keep my schedule and have a family because of all the help we had from family members. With Damon, I took off until after the first of the year; with LeeAnn I took eight weeks, and Landi was a summertime baby, so that worked out well. Both the girls were very good babies, but Damon was colicky. The only thing that would put him to sleep was running the vacuum. It became a permanent fixture in the living room.

"Damon will start kindergarten this fall, and LeeAnn will be in her first year of preschool. She will go to Kiddie Karousel, which I am very interested in. I am president of their board and this year we will be moving from the trailer that was in the hospital area, to the American Legion Hall on the south side of square. It will be to our mutual benefit.

"My life is very full. By December 2002, I will have completed my Masters' degree in Education. For the past two years I have been going to Graceland evenings and in the summer time. Although I have no intentions of leaving my current job, this degree would give me the advantage of an increase in salary, and avenues to pursue. I will be eligible to teach at a community college or a four-year college, or to work for the state education department. Again, the credit goes to Dale, my parents, and Grandma. They have all been wonderful. When we have had need for another sitter, we have depended on Mary Rychnovsky, who has a private day care in her home. She is a parent of grown children.

"I am currently serving on the State Learning Disability Board. We meet in Des Moines four to six times a year, and have an October Learning Disability conference at the Airport Holiday Inn. The purpose of our board is to discover ways to help parents and students with learning disability issues, and our annual conference focuses on bringing in speakers to give the most current and different ideas.

"This year I will be the Clarke Community Education Association president. This is our local teachers' association that attempts to make education better for the kids. We are the governing body that negotiates for salaries, pay increases, etc.

"What I personally would like to see as part of children’s' education is having respect for all people. I don't see a lot of that, but it could be taught by observation, practice, and modeling. I hear such vulgarity from the students in the hallways at school. I can't believe the language they use in front of teachers and other adults. I find it outrageous. I remember saying to one of my high school teachers/colleagues that I can't imagine walking down the hall and cursing the way these kids do. Of course not all of them are that way. I have to stop and look at the parents before I can get upset with the students. There is so much anger. We are dealing with kids that have no home life. Some come from broken homes; some have parents that are abusers of drugs and alcohol. A lot of them live in poverty. There is no work for the parents or they earn minimum wage, which will not support a family. When I see this, I know how lucky Mike and I were.

"Mike and his wife, Patty, live in Des Moines. They have three children -Heather, Devon, and Chantelle. Mike works for Xerox and we see them quite often.

"Dale and I belong to the Lucas County Club of the ZaGaZig Shrine. Dale belongs to the Zag Trax, which are the little white go-carts that take part in parades. We are, in fact, in parades from spring until fall. The first is the Drake Relays parade in April, and the last one is usually in October. We have been in five parades this year, which is a small number compared to other years. Our fund-raisers are for Shriners' hospitals, and our mission is to help children with orthopedic or burn problems from birth to 18 years. The service is free to patients and their families. The hospital closest to us is Minneapolis, and the burn hospital in Cincinnati.

"We raise our money by membership and at the Shrine, Center in Altoona. We sponsor the Shrine Rodeo, the- Shrine Circus, and the Shrine Bowl Football Game for which high school players are nominated from all the different school districts. From those names, teams were selected to play in an all-day event. This year is was Saturday, July 27. This was the first year we have had a Shrine Day at Blank Park Zoo, which was all day July 28. We sell tickets and ads, and the money goes to the hospitals for different funds.

"Coming up on August 2, the entire family will take five campers to the State Fair grounds. Every year we have the same spot, as do others, so we get to know the people who do the same thing. It is like a family reunion and there are times we hardly get to the Fair at all. When we tell people we camp, they may get a wrong idea. We are hardly "roughing it." Our trailers are like our homes with air conditioning, microwave ovens, and the whole bit. We will come back August 18, ready for the fall activities to begin.

"Our family is attending the Medora Church. We probably began going because I knew people through having taught in New Virginia. We love the casual atmosphere. If Dale were so inclined, he could wear jeans and no one would think a thing about it. Everyone is really laid back. We don't have to try to impress somebody. The kids love it and so do we.