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Before I begin this thread, please don't label me a bigot or a hatemonger. I'm not. I'm simply asking reasonable questions that I have gathered over a long period of time- questions that are legitimate and ones that need to be answered regarding the state of special education today.
The major push in K-12 education today is inclusion, which means including special education students in regular classes. To do this, millions of dollars are being spent to educate regular ed teachers on how to incorporate these students.
Meanwhile, many workshops, seminars, and conferences about for teachers attempting to become more proficient in special education. Conversely, there are an extremely limited number of workshops/conferences for meeting the needs of gifted students.
What gives? It's highly plausible to say that the gifted students will be entrepreneurs, college-bound, and innovative makers of new technology that will drive our economy, not the other way around. Is too much focus being given to the lower-end group?
If you don't want to support them later in life with your taxes, the extra dollars should be spent on teaching special ed kids. I'd give them more attention/guidance/teachers. If the gifted kids are truly gifted it seems to me they should be curious enough to seek out their own level of stimulation with teacher guidance being the least thing that's important. I'd spend most of the money set aside for the gifted on providing them the materials/books/other to teach themselves.
I'm not saying the money allocated to gifted program versus a special education should be changed. I'm just for using the the special ed budget money for more teachers and the budget money for gifted kids on more tools.
If you don't want to support them later in life with your taxes, the extra dollars should be spent on teaching special ed kids. I'd give them more attention/guidance/teachers. If the gifted kids are truly gifted it seems to me they should be curious enough to seek out their own level of stimulation with teacher guidance being the least thing that's important. I'd spend most of the money set aside for the gifted on providing them the materials/books/other to teach themselves.
I'm not saying the money allocated to gifted program versus a special education should be changed. I'm just for using the the special ed budget money for more teachers and the budget money for gifted kids on more tools.
In some school districts, the gifted kids are part of the special ed program and have IEPs. I totally agree with the last paragraph, and about giving the gifted kids more books and tools.
In the book I'm reading right now, the author states that many people with LD are visual learners and the reason many have trouble with math is because they are confused by the symbols, but if the math is presented to them in a more visual way than a symbolically oriented way, as it generally is in the schools, they will learn it more easily and when they do, they even tend to get it at a higher level than your average or advanced learner. The internet should be a great tool for these types of learners, but teachers will have to help them find the sites they need to help make it clear to them or some of that money could go for the software to make it visual.
DAYUM.
Brother, that's harsh. In all politeness, as a fellow poster, may I respectfully request you soften that a wee bit??
Well, I could, if it hadn't been quoted. Sorry, Charles.
But seriously, I chose that specifically because that's the image a lot of people do have of SpEd kids: that they're categorically as viscerally offensive as your response to that image would suggest.
And realistically, there are profoundly disabled Johnnies who are doing just that, every day, in a crowded SpEd classroom. Those are not the kids who are in mainstream classes, ftr, but they're all lumped together anyway by people who are offended by the existence or potential expense attached to anyone other than "normal". (Note to gifted parents: yeah, the parents of kids in gen ed are complaining about all the "extras" your son or daughter gets, too.)
If someone wanted to posit that it's unrealistic to try and prepare the profoundly cognitively disabled kids for college, I would agree. But I also know that, even in our ridiculously mismanaged county, that's a straw man. Nobody's trying to send Johnny to Williams or Brown. What they are trying to do is get him to achieve his maximum potential so that maybe, just maybe, he can live in a group home costing taxpayers half of what total care would cost. So yeah, there's a major cost involved now, but for the next sixty years of his life, there won't be as much as there might have been.
I don't know Charles--that's exactly the impression that I got from some former posters--they didn't say it in so many words, but they seem to think that's what special ed kids are. Aconite is saying they're not, I think, and helping them see how offensive they are in their comments. It's sad that the sped stigma is coming from the adults, but I'm thinking that today's kids are nicer than we were.
I haven't read through all this thread, but our experience has been the opposite of many here. My son was labelled as "special needs" and just about every service was crammed down out throats. He was somehow labeled ADD, OCD, and some other things. I went along with it mainly because I was bullied into it. It was presented to me in such a way I thought I had to comply.
He was so ostracized it was pathetic. That "inclusion" crap worked against him, he was in every special ed class they could justify, then threw him into regular classes to satisfy the inclusion requirements.
Finally, I just said NO to the school. We held a dismissal ARD, despite their protests. Why, he can't even handle standardized tests without someone reading it to him! Well, we changed school districts. In the new district, after testing (which no one read to him) he now qualifies for gifted and talented and AP courses. Such progress in 3 months? Hardly, He just lives up to (or down to) whatever expectations the then current environment has of him.
The former school hung on like glue because they get federal funds for special ed students, so they needed a quota. I'm sure they've filled it with another child by now!
Marylee,
You should write an essay or a book. This is very telling commentary on the state of education today.
And realistically, there are profoundly disabled Johnnies who are doing just that, every day, in a crowded SpEd classroom. Those are not the kids who are in mainstream classes, ftr, but they're all lumped together anyway by people who are offended by the existence or potential expense attached to anyone other than "norma"
Oh yes they are in mainstream classrooms, and they all have one on one aides at their sides every minute of every day. They yell out, pound on tables, make disruptions by talking incoherently or making loud sounds. Yep, they ARE in mainstream classrooms.
Oh yes they are in mainstream classrooms, and they all have one on one aides at their sides every minute of every day. They yell out, pound on tables, make disruptions by talking incoherently or making loud sounds. Yep, they ARE in mainstream classrooms.
Perhaps some are, but most are not. My daughter, who is significantly mentally retarded, never was in any mainstream classes her entire school career.
She wasn't alone, she had up to a dozen other's in her classroom.
Marylee,
You should write an essay or a book. This is very telling commentary on the state of education today.
I just might at that!
When we pulled him the school got so p'od they reported us to CPs for educational neglect. But, no case, he's enrolled in a certified public shcool and meeting or exceeding all standards, so, I didn't deny him anything that was benefiting him. They're still stewing over that!
Oh yes they are in mainstream classrooms, and they all have one on one aides at their sides every minute of every day. They yell out, pound on tables, make disruptions by talking incoherently or making loud sounds. Yep, they ARE in mainstream classrooms.
Not in our school they're not. Love the sweeping statements--"They ALL have one-on-one aides every minute of every day." In whose fantasy?
Well, I could, if it hadn't been quoted. Sorry, Charles.
But seriously, I chose that specifically because that's the image a lot of people do have of SpEd kids: that they're categorically as viscerally offensive as your response to that image would suggest.
No, I understood the reason why you were using that tactic. And yeah, I know that in some cases, it's true -- and just to piggyback on what you're saying here, I know it's not the "typical" SpEd kid, who's a lot more likely to look like a kid who sits up front and has extra time on tests rather than someone more visibly or dramatically different from the norm. It's just that it's a nuclear bomb of a comment.
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In all politeness, as a fellow poster, may I respectfully request you soften that a wee bit??
