How good are schools at treating learning disabilities

Factual Questions
1

I was in special ed from the 5th grade until my junior year in high school. Did it help me? No not in the least.

I still have a hard time spelling, constantly skip words when I am typing and i still can not trust my self to edit my own papers. In my experience, special education wasn’t about helping students overcome their disabilities; it was more about isolating jovial delinquents into classes where they wouldn’t disrupt other students. Now that I’ve transferred into a 4 year college I’m really starting to feel frustrated with my limitation.

To me it seems like special ed isn’t about helping the student as it is about getting trouble makers out of classes and putting students in an environment where they don’t have to feel bad about not being on par with their peers. I got so sick of being told I didn’t have to feel shame for being in special ed.

My favorite Bart Simpsons quote is from the Frank Scorpio ep when he is transferred to special ed “So let me get this straight we’re going to catch up the other students by going slower than them.” That pretty much sums up my feelings about the whole subject.

PS if anyone wants to know how bad I am I will post the unedited version of this if you want. Heck i hope this is readable
BTW I uderstand if this has to be pited

2

Schools don’t “treat” anything. They do try to adapt the curriculum to fit the needs of the child.

Good schools do anyway.

3

There are some excellent special ed teachers out there - the one who works with my nephew has really done well with him, he’s caught up a lot. I get the feeling, however, that the older the students get the more it does become a holding pen - my nephew is in first grade now.

4

After I was diagnosed with ADHD I told two of my former teachers about it. Both told me that they weren’t surprised, they had seen the symptoms in me when they had me in class.

They were supposed to say something about it but didn’t. I can’t speak for treating, but the school I went to was pretty lazy about pointing it out.

5

Speaking as a special education teacher and behavioral specialist, I can honestly tell you…

…um…

…well, the truth is, it varies from school to school.

…to be quite blunt about it, it varies, depending on the interest and dedication of the administration, and the competency of the team in question. SPED people – particularly good SPED people – are neither cheap nor all that common, and when we find a place and position we like, we tend to latch onto it like a lamprey, make ourselves comfortable, and stay there until blasted out with depth charges (or until we suddenly find ourselves under a new and possibly unfriendly administrator).

In a school or district where the administration has a real interest in building and funding a good SPED team and supporting their specific needs, you can generally find special education classes and programs ranging from “pretty good” to “fraggin’ brilliant.”

In a school or district where the administration has no real interest in the SPED team except insofar as to avoid lawsuits, meet the legal rights of the parents and comply with pesky state and federal laws, well… um… well, you never know. Sometimes good people stick with bad jobs because they’re needed, you know? :frowning:

Attitude counts for a lot, too. Some administrators approach Special Ed with the idea that we need to address the special needs population, and get the little buggers up to speed as much as this may be possible, you know? Or at least set them up where they could, like, get a job or something.

Other administrators simply figure that if we concentrate all the dummies and headcases in the south wing, the rest of the school will run more efficiently.

Still other administrators regard Special Ed classes as a form of punishment, and you’ll still see them insisting that Little Johnny needs to be in Behavior Unit because he fidgets too much and interrupts his Reading teacher during class… :smack: