Centre for Advancement in Special
Education (CASE)
Mrs. Mary Gale Budzisz and Mr. Eldon Lee Jr.
Quashing the Rhetoric of Reform:
An Educational Design That Reaches All Children
Abstract:
The two field practitioners and book authors will speak on the school they designed and
implemented in the inner city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A., in which their philosophy
led to take the children "from where they are“ toward achievement at their maximum rate.
They emphasize children's real needs to become productive as members of their own
community and workers on the job, while these children maintain their own household. The
speakers will encourage educators to find learning where it is happening, be it in the
classroom, in the community, or on the road throughout the country. They will also share
how successful the community-based learning, under an inclusive model, can become,
when all the students come from the neighborhood with NO labels.
Mrs. Mary Gale Budzisz received her B.S. degree in Physical Education from the Mankato State College in
Michigan, and her Master’s degree in Exceptional Education from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
She taught 31 years in the Wisconsin Schools with state certifications in Emotional Disturbance, Learning
Disabilities, and Physical/Health Education and the North Carolina Schools with state certifications in
Emotional Handicaps, Learning Disabilities, and Health Education. In addition, she has been an ad hoc
lecturer of Special Education, postgraduate level behavior management and curriculum development and a
trainer of trainers on cooperative learning at Aurora University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and
Lakeland College, and she was twice the president of the International Association of Special Education
(IASE).
Mr. Eldon F. “Cap” Lee, Jr. received a B.S. degree from Eastern Michigan University, his M.A. degree from
the Cardinal Stritch College in Wisconsin, and a state principal certification through the University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee. H