Bill Heller:
"I like a challenge"

Heller holds a doctorate in special education from the University of Northern Colorado and is a special education professor at the University of South Florida-Tampa and dean of the university's St. Petersburg campus. When he started teaching special education, Heller said, "I was starting from the ground floor. When I started teaching, most of my kids came to me after they had failed in other classes. I had to deal with their self-esteem before I could deal with their handicaps."

Special education students, he said, have enough intelligence to feel that they can't compete with "normal" kids. "You have to shore up that self-concept and use it to the maximum to reach the abilities they have," Heller said. "The understanding is there that someone else is doing better. If you've ever felt not as smart when taking a course in physics, for example, you understand what it's like for a child with a handicap -- except that feeling is pretty much everywhere they go."

Heller has written four textbooks in special education: Special Education in the 1980's and Beyond in 1979, Project RETOOL in 1979, Project RETOOL: Career Education for the Handicapped in 1979 and The Administration of Programs for Educable Retarded Children in Small School Systems in 1970.

Reaping big rewards from little things

Although Heller now works as an administrator, he is campus executive officer and dean at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, he teaches one class every semester: "I think there's a little ham in every teacher. I enjoy teaching because it gives me a chance to do some acting. It's a challenge to make a class interesting and at the same time get the information across to students."

Heller never requires attendance in his courses, but instead judges how well he's doing by how many students show up. Enrollment, Heller said, is almost always 100 percent: "When my students attend class it tells me they are both enjoying the class and getting something out of it. I enjoy the personal interaction. I feel I have something to offer." One goal Heller says he has for his intro course is to communicate to students that individuals with disablilities are first individuals -- that the disablity comes second: "If all I get out to my intro students is an attitude of acceptance, respect and tolerance for persons with disabilities, I did a good job of teaching them."

"I've been fortunate to have good students," Heller said. One of his doctoral students, Howard Hinesley, is now superintendent of Pinellas County schools, a large district. "He was an excellent student and is now an excellent superintendent," he said. "It's always good to see my students achieve and then bask in their success."

Teaching the mentally handicapped, Heller said, takes a special person. "You have to be able to delay gratification. It could take a month to get a child to smile," he said. His oldest daughter teaches the severely handicapped in Lincoln, Neb. "You have to be willing to wait for the little things and celebrate little gains as big events" Heller said.

Looking into the future

Bill Heller knew that by the 1980s, special education was going to take major leaps in how it looked at teaching the educable mentally retarded. He co-edited a book called Special Education in the 1980s and Beyond that identified trends: "One thing we thought would change is the adding of classifications of disablities. You can't call it special education if you're going to include everybody."

Heller predicted that three things were going to happen in the 1980s:

• Discipline would become more difficult.
• Teachers would be handling larger classes.
• Schools would feel a lack of support.

"Much of what we predicted came to pass," Heller said. "Teachers today feel frustrated by mild behavior problems and often send these kids to special education classes. We are going to continue to have more pressure to take more children into special education classes to deal with behavior problems."

Heller also edited Exceptional Children, (Focus: Professional Standards), and Exceptional Children, (Focus: Career Education), two journal issues dealing with aspects of special education. Professional Standards includes guidelines for preparing to teach in special education and a code of ethics. Career Education discusses the transition from school to work in order to maximize the handicapped student's career opportunities. "We try to get individuals in jobs that enable them to live a quality of life that all people want to enjoy," Heller said. "Persons with disablities need jobs with benefits and retirement plans too."

In 1995, Heller wrote Splendors of Ancient Egypt: An Educational Guide and Supplement for Egyptian Cultural Studies. These educational guides, for children K-12, are filled with activities and facts that give teachers taking their students to the Florida International Museum something to introduce them to the exhibits. In 1996, he wrote Alexander the Great: An Educational Guide and Supplement for the Alexander the Great Exhibition. "The guide looks at a number of areas of Greek culture, like art and literature. The alphabet and ethics come from Greek culture." The books, Heller said, "teach the concept of a museum and work as a bridge between the classroom and the exhibit."

Gratifying to volunteer

Bill Heller says there is a certain gratification that comes with not having to be paid for everything you do. Heller is a volunteer: "I have volunteered in museums, schools, civic groups, and all of it has contributed to a greater understanding of the organizations and people in my community that I wouldn't have otherwise."

Campus dean at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, Heller says the community strongly supports the campus and volunteering is "another way I can give back to the community what it gives to me." Heller was recently rewarded for his work when he was chosen as one of 10,000 people nationally to carry the Olympic Flame for the 1996 Summer Olympics. He was designated a community hero by the United Way and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Heller thinks the word "hero" might be overdoing it, hpwever: "A hero is one who risks his life to save someone else's. I'm just trying to do my small part to help improve the quality of life in Pinellas County."

Over the years, Heller has been a member of 65 professional organizations and has received 16 awards and honors. In 1996, he received an award for outstanding contributions to the field of special education as co-editor of Teaching Exceptional Children from the Council for Exceptional Children and an award for outstanding contributions to the betterment of the community from the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. He has also been recognized by the Council for Exceptional Children with the E. Wallace Wallin Award, the highest recognition accorded by the Council for his service to exceptional children and special education.

— reported by Kim Pawlak, 1997