Special Education

I'm very open for debate or proven otherwise on this next topic. I have went to special education school all my grammer school life. Looking back on it I think to myself, what a joke. I mean, here we have schools that help students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community than would be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education. Ok, got it? Now, as systematically as this sound I applause the creator, give him/her a noble prize. I know this sound negative, but hear me out before any conclusion is sought.

Now that this great system is in effect, let's go a step further. We have what is called an IEP, which stand for “Individualized Education Plan”. It's a annual plan put force by a meeting which includes teatchers and individual parents to keep track of progess and most of all is designed to meet the special educational needs of one child, who may have a disability, as defined by federal regulations. The IEP is intended to help children reach educational goals more easily than they otherwise would. Nnow, what happens after the meeting? The plan goes on file and the file goes into the filing cabinet, right? Systematiclly yes, that is pretty accurate.

I can understand why there is a need for the IEP, i'm not going to be naive about it. There are a lot of students that need that extra help and guidance. From my experiance, I saw the IEP as a joke. Here, i was the smartest student in my school by far, I felt most of the teacher didn't see me that way. The majority of the kids were mostly unable to get past the first grade level, so the teachers didn't really have to teach. I dont know if the teachers didn't care, wasn't aware of my avanceness, or they were being just plain naive.

I know there are special education teacheers out there who really care, there has to be. I had one teacher that knew me well. She knew how smart I was. She had me on track, even above my grade level. But when I got to the fourth grade the teacher that knew me very well retired. I didnt think anything of it at the time but looking back at that time makes me sad. So after the tacher that I liked retired everything seemed to be thrown up in the air. The school was like a day care, nothing really going on. Using the famous “if I had it to do over” expression, I wish I was more into my own education. There are so many things I wish I did differently academically. I didn't have the mentality I have now back then, and nobody wasn't very encouraging. If I wasn't as intellagent as I was, I could have just let my self go and not rove I could get my high school deploma.

This happens too much, where the students intellagent is overlooked or ignore. Even when a student is “mainstreamed”, meaning educating students with special needs in classes with non-disabled students during specific time periods based on their skills. Students with special needs are segregated in separate classes exclusively for students with special needs for the rest of the school day. A lot of time such students spend all day in these “special classes'. These setups are no different then an all disabled student school, these students who aee in this setting have the same IEP setting. Historically, most students with special needs have been excluded from school. Such exclusion still affects about 23 million disabled children worldwide, particularly in poor, rural areas of developing countries.

Let's get back on track before I get too carried away. I originally got this topic idea afrer talking to a few of my readers and discussing their concerns about their child with cerebral palsy. So, i'd thought it was worthwhile to share my thought and experiances. I believe the special education system is remarkable. I also beleive if their is a person who has a desire to be a special education teacher I hiighly recommend them to choose a specialize area. By doing so, the goal of that particular special education teacher will be achievable and most enjoyable. It seems to me just being a “general” special education teacher is not goal oriented.

I think my idea is very practical because it benafits the students, parents and the teacher. It eliminates frustrations. Whether the child is blind, deaf, physically challenged, or mentally challenged such a specialized special education teacher understands such students limitation. I'm not nearly this bad but lets take a child with cerebral palsy and moderate to severe speech impediment. We know that he is very bright and intellagent, and possibly has a mind like Albert Einstein or Stephen Hanking for that matter. Now how can we get that knowledge out? How can they express their ideas? There one place I can think or, whick I feel there should more of, it is called the Bridge School. The Bridge School is a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that individuals with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT) applications and through the development, implementation and dissemination of innovative life-long educational strategies. The Bridge School is an internationally recognized leader in the education of children who use augmentative and alternative communication and has developed unique programs and trained highly skilled professionals in the use of state of the art assistive technology. Now this is brilliant!

The Bridge School is just one of the outstanding programs out there. And although the special educational system has a good cause and has it's own flaws parents need to stay focus on their child needs. Unfortunately, sometimes the parents don't pay attention thinking their child is in good hands. Not to say the teachers are bad, but we are human. We don't always see things. We are lazy. And we lose emthuiasm. And because we human, we need to be our childs voice and fight for them because no one knows your child better then you.