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RE: Art Dudley - Listening, Nov. 2014

Posted by RGA (R) on November 21, 2014 at 21:43:03

In Reply to: RE: Art Dudley - Listening, Nov. 2014 posted by lord addleford on November 20, 2014 at 10:04:44:

But it is points 6-8 that I am addressing. Yes we use IEPs which is all fine and dandy on paper. Points 6-8 is where the on paper theory flies out the window. As for the term "spaz" it means "losing physical or emotional control" and it applies to what is happening and that is the definition.
I would not say it to a student but it is what it is. The term psychopath - are you saying this is not politically correct - people ARE psychopaths - they DO exist and there is no cure. Abatement with drugs is well and good and psychopaths being honest people will definitely take their meds and would never lie about taking them. Psychopaths do not get empathy from drugs and have been deemed more likely to get others to do amoral things. Ie; in a school it is MORE likely that they will be able to manipulate otherwise good kids into doing bad things than good kids influencing the psychopath to be empathetic. Allowing them in school is beneficial then to exactly NOBODY except the school district's bottom line and perhaps to special ed proponents who can get paid a salary. And while they are working on normalizing psychopaths it's not there yet and the school should not be used as the laboratory.

You don't seem to be disagreeing with me in the least with point 7. Perhaps a reason why 50% of teachers leave the field within the first 3 years - which is also dreadfully expensive for governments.

1:1 and 1:2 may be the team decision but when budgets are cut and it turns into 1:8 or 1:2 schools. It's a problem. It may be far less of a Problem in Boston than rural British Columbia so the issues I saw may not be nearly an issue for MA teachers...yet. I say yet because as you noted in point 7 it is "The first thing to go (after materials and supplies) is staff". Materials and supplies and subjects are gone.

When I was a student high schools had full shop, art, music, foods, and clothing design not to mention drama. The last HS I was at - the music room was converted into a weight room with rusting weights that looked unsafe. The teacher did run a small guitar lesson group with her own guitars that she bought. The same teacher ran drama and paid for everything.

It might surprise you to know that not all teachers go into teaching with the goal to be special needs teachers. I would say the majority of teachers in fact do not or did not. Hence why there is a separate field of teaching and masters and PhD programs for teachers who feel it is their strength and or passion. In Canada they use to run dedicated special needs schools with special needs experts who were as the word says EXPERT.

The situation we have in Canada and points 6-8 you raised is that special needs kids who need experts are thrown into the regular class with teachers who are NOT EXPERTS in special needs and didn't have passion to be experts in special needs - if they did they would have a degree in special needs.

Their training is minimal if they have any training at all. And by training I mean a few university courses - which is hardly training. Oh sure give us a semester course on special needs which is more about covering the major needs you will come across in schools and what an IEP is and some of the major methods of accommodating them. Then maybe 10 years later after you've had to sub you will get a class and you probably forgot most of that course (which wasn't hands on) and teachers are not really ready for the reality of being required to be a special education expert. Hence reason number ___ 50% are quitting in 3 years.

And this is in Canada where we actually get training to be teachers and must be in practicums where at least 10 teachers/principals/etc evaluate us in order to graduate as teachers.

Some countries actually hire people with masters degrees in a given subject (say English) and allow them to be public school teachers without any practicum training in actual teaching. Got an MA good enough.

Point 8 to be clear - ESL is an area of need in the classroom. No they do not have disabilities as a special needs kid has but it is still a PRACTICAL need the child has wherein the student will require greater degree of accommodations from the teacher. If you have a grade 9 student reading at a grade 1 level or you have an FAS student reading at a grade 1 level - they are reading well below the grade requirement - hence overlap.

As I noted way back - the RICH don't deal with ANY of these issues. Just like the RICH don't have to send their kids to wars. It would seem to me that if integration is to work properly and you note it needs lots of money - then all of these kids should be in the private schools and integrated with wealthy family's kids no? Ask yourself why that is NOT happening? Why are they dumped into classes of 35+ and why the private schools get to refuse them.

People need to ask hard questions about what school is supposed to be about at its core. In Hong Kong - they stream students into three levels 1/2/3. The first level is for all students who will have a chance at university. Level 2 are for students who have an outside shot. Level 3 is for all the bad behavior kids who could negatively influence level 1-2 kids so they are stopped before they have a chance, for all low academic students who won't or can't cope with the material. These schools used to be workshop kind of schools for practical everyday work like welding or sewing - but HK is out of the industrial age - those jobs are no more.

So these weaker students are now forced to be learning the same material as level 1-2 students, which unfortunately is well beyond them and so level 3 students are more frustrated than ever when they fail every subject. HK has problems - Because of political correctness they say every student is equal and being equal means they all have to learn the same thing in order to have the same opportunity to go to university. The Non PC and CORRECT thing to do is say "right - Johnny has an IQ of 70 and is not going to be able to pass Grade 12 Calculus or write an English lit paper. So instead of forcing him to do those tests and get 0/100 on the exam it's time to give him an entirely different set of materials and open up future career avenues that will likely benefit him. He is not going to be a English professor at Yale and he is never going to be a doctor or engineer or teacher - so why educate train and fail him by pushing him and all the kids like him down that path?

Hong Kong (and England before) streamed the students (which is debatable I admit) but if you're going to do it you have to go all the way and say you're going to work in a restaurant, or stock boxes in a warehouse, and educate them on being the best they can be at those things. Special Needs Schools in Canada back in the day did just that. They were about teaching "life needs" - The fact that Johnny a HF autistic boy can pass math 10 with a B might be great and all but Johnny isn't going to be hired by any engineering firms to design a bridge.

Special needs in HK are "integrated" but really ONLY at level 3 schools. HK streams students by ability - but the US/Canada streams students by money. If you can afford it you can go to the private school where you will never have a severe emotion behaviour need in the classroom and if they're there they won't be for long. Public schools and only public schools take on the responsibility and possibly burden when there is no funding - and since politicians have their kids set-up in private schools of brainiacs with 15 kids or less and maybe 2 teachers and cutting edge state of the art computers and smart boards and iPads for all what do they care about the unwashed masses in the public system? Indeed, the worse all the kids in public schools do the better - less competition for their kids at the prestigious universities and law firms.

Edits: 11/21/14

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