Placing Special Education Students in the Regular Classroom Can Be Detrimental to All

Intellectual Conservative ^ | 08 December 2004 | Steve Leadley

[Myrddin]

Thankfully, I have never taught in primary school. It takes patience enough to handle college "kids" with an age spread of 15 to 67 in the same classroom. The school where I taught the microprocessor course was a community college. In some ways, it was treated like an extended high school for people who didn't quite measure up to the admission requirements for a 4 year institution. To be fair, many people attend the community college as a less expensive way to book credits for freshman and sophomore years.

I served as a physics teaching assistent at UCSD. It was a self-paced class for my students. The students only saw the professor for the midterm and final. The rest of the time, I served as the instructor. Completion of each assignment in 100% correct form was required to advance to the next class. I liked the model. Students who took physics in the self-paced classes were consistely outperforming student who attended the typical large lecture format. That is why I adopted the method for my microprocessor course.

I also took a behavioral psychology class as a "self paced" class. I was carrying 22 units that quarter. I completed the self-paced class in 2 weeks. Two of the units were for working as a chemistry TA for Stanley Miller. I reviewed almost 30 chemistry lab manuals and wrote a recommendation for a better undergrad manual. The recommendation was adopted by the department.

The self-paced model allows the high end of the class to work ahead of the middle. The middle works fine with the evenly paced series of topics over a semester. That leaves an instructor with some room to attend to the low end without trashing the progress of the rest of the class.

[AutismMom]

Mr. Leadley has taken the rules of IDEA and distorted it to fit his own agenda. I think that it is shameful that this article did not contain some type of disclaimer stating that this was HIS personal intrepretation and certainly not in line with the law or even the spirit of it. I wonder if this school district openly discriminates against everyone who doesn't fit the norm, or just special needs kids. Boy, I hope someone's lawyer has a field day with their butts.

For those who are against inclusion, what would you intolerant jerks have us do with our kids? Let me guess, stick them in a classroom where only innappropriate behaviors are modeled, to ensure that your precious little darlings don't have to witness anything that might make them uncomfortable? What about the children such as my son who has behavioral problems, but is highly intelligent?

Does anyone actually believe that the problem with our school systems is inclusion??? Get real! What about all of the other disruptions in class i.e. girls barely dressed, sexual acts being preformed in class, bullies, shooting, drugs, etc. etc.?

There are certainly challenges to be faced with inclusion, but IMHO, one of the major hurdles is getting SOME (obviously not all) teachers to get off of the lazy asses and recognize that they need to learn different behavioral approaches for dealing with the quickly rising behavior problems that children have today.

My son attends a private pre-school where the SP ED teachers make it their business to understand the underlying issues that make up behavioral problems, and it their expertise has helped to change my son's life. My son is only 4 but will be one of the lucky ones, capable of attending regular school without an aid. My biggest fear is not wheather or not he will be able to keep up cognitively. We expected that the majority of learning for any kid is primarily at home through assignments. Our biggest fear is the harrassment and bullying he may have to endure from the sociopaths you intolerant people have bred and unleashed upon society. Wondering why your kids are so intolerant of others?? Because of you jackass! Don't you realize that your views on issues, including this one, will rub off on your child? By the time they enter school, they already have a firm view that anyone acting differently is not acceptable.

Finally, all of this is really moot, because to take on this issue you will need to take on an entire community of special needs parents, a group I might add that has been to hell and back fighting for our kids, and is prepared to open up a can of whoop-ass in a moments notice. You should also keep in mind that the number of incendences, especially Autism, is rapidly growing, so we will not simply go away. We will continue to fight for the rights of our children to have an opportunity to lead productive lives, the very thing many of you take for granted. It has already has been an ardous journey, and one that will not soon end for most of us. However there has been nothing more rewarding in my life, than hearing my son say "I love you for the first time at almost 4 years old or to see my him make a friend for the first time. I am sorry to see that there is so little empathy amongst you, but am prepared for whatever challenges you may bring.

P.S.
As to you Bombardier, we as parents can only hope that your fate was indeed to work with animals since you have chosen to equate our children with them. If only we could find a way to quickly weed out "teachers" like you.