Special Education... should we lose it?
 

First I must say that I was identified as a major special education student in elementary school. And I had it easier, and constantly got teachers going to me and trying to help me. So this opinion is completely unbiased.

Special Education is a special classroom for students, based on the fact that they are unable to focus as well as other students, and they have a harder time learning subjects. I guess that is a legitimate thought. However, it gives students false motivation.

Many students in my school are in a Special Education program. And they feel they don't have to take notes... don't have to do the essay, and don't have to do the assignment. Why? "Because we're sped. We're too stupid to do it, therefore we don't have to."

My little step sister has the worst case of this. She feels she doesn't have to do anything. She just started grade 9, and she does not know her 10x10 multiplication table... as well she doesn't write well at all. In fact her handwriting is big and bubbly (like mine in kindergarten), and she has absolutely no grasp of proper grammar. She doesn't feel she has to, because she's "sped."

Anyways, Special Education has legitimate terms, but people who are in Special Education programs completely misinterpret the idea of it. I have people in grade 12 with me telling me "OMG ESSAY IS STUPID SHUT UP TEACHER" and "OMG IM SPED I SHOULDN'T KNOW WHAT A SLOPE IS IN MATH IM SPED!" Special Education isn't the problem, it's just part of the problem. The way I see this generation heading, we need more solutions, not problems.

As I said, I was in Special Education. And teachers are still giving me envelopes trying to get me to have extra exam time, and special help and extended assignment due dates.
Ever heard of the Placeibo effect (I'm not exactly sure how to spell it). I'm no expert, I'm only saying what I heard from someone else. 100 mental patients were diagnosed with a mental disease in a hospital. There is a cure for the disease, and it lies in a pill... so studies show. But Doctors didn't think it's the exact chemicals in the pill, but the mindset in the patients. So they decided to give 50 patients the real pill, and 50 patients an ordinary sugar pill (without them knowing of course). The fifty patients with the real pills felt much better, and said how they were getting better. They were practically cured. The other fifty that got the fraudulent pills saw how the others got better, and they felt they were getting better as well. In the end... they were practically cured.

Just like that, Special Education is a mindset. What makes people unable to focus, or have inconsistencies in their brain is based on what they were exposed to early in life. I'm not about to go into what I was exposed to, but it made me a special education student, and nearly autistic. I don't know what it was that allowed me to jump out of my 'sped suit', but I (willfully) no longer get any extra help from a teacher, any easier marking, any extra test or exam time, or any extentions. I no longer get any Special Education benefits. And I don't need them. It was a mindset I made for myself, and I put my past experiences out of effect for my subconscious. And thus, I can function like any other student.

What I'm saying is that Special Education students can be cured by a mindset. They do not need to have early life handed to them on a silver platter. Perhaps they should get councelling if a past event scarred them. But they shouldn't get the thought in their head that they don't have to accomplish as much as others to get the same spoils. In my view, Special Education is bad for our society, and in the end run it will be bad for our economy. It is part of the problem, and part of the reason we have so many more illiterate kids now than we did 50 years ago.

No flaming at all in this thread!!! Respond on why you agree/disagree in a calm manner. If you are in Special Education, or defend those in the program then don't bash me by calling me discriminative, or anything else in that sort. I would hate for this thread to have to be closed down.

this is true, but if they were sped or not they still won't acheive in school. all of them need to be brought up in a place that the tech is fifty years old and less distractions (just kidding by the way). this is worse and in some ways better here; chapel hill has the richest parents (or something like that) in the us, this means we are spoiled, but I know some kids who do this and still get A's

My step-son to be is in sped and I have to say the program has taken a major plunge from its original intention.

I'm all for a slower paced environment for kids who truely need it, but now the attitude has changed from "these kids need help so they can catch up" to "we need to make them feel better about their disability and teach them its okay"

My step-son uses his disability as a major crutch for everything because "its okay". His teachers got mad at me because I wouldn't condone his taking a bunch of candy because he "can't comprehend limits as well".

I'm not saying its not okay to be disabled, but to use that fact beyond what's truely necessary isn't.

This looks like another example of an idea gone bad.
What we need is to replace SPED with something completely identical. A new name will probably cause students to act properly for a nother few years until the powers that be figure out a new solution.

I was never in SPED, but my sister has had learning problems. There is a program that will cure these SPED kids. (maybe it's called "Discovery?") But it costs money because it's a special tutoring program outside of public schools. Public schools should invest in this to help students.

But something here isn't right. You said that some SPED student was going into 9th grade with insufficient skills, right?
Well that's the flaw right there. I don't know how SPED works, but if it puts students into levels that they can't handle, then it's a retarded system. If a kid needs more time to learn how to do something, then that's what he needs. More time. I don't know what language some people speak. Like "more time" equals "less time" or something. If some SPED kid can't read, then he can't pass to higher grades. He needs more "time."

And that's probably the solution right there. If the kids don't need to try to pass, then they won't try. If you give them benefits, but still make them pass if they're going to pass, then they'll try, no matter how slow they are. That's more of a survival instinct kind of thing. The fear of being sent back a grade.

Edit: How disabled are SPED students? I knew one who wasn't good in grammar, but he could handle math problems two levels higher than me. Is it an idiot savant thing? Is that why they get pushed through? Because they make up far more in one catagory than what they lack in another?

No no no, you got it all wrong. Sorry, I don't think I communicated that part properly.
I was talking about my step sister.

What I was saying is that she is going into grade 9 and and she doesn't know her multiplication table. Don't get me wrong, the Sped officies NEVER said "You don't have to know your multiplication table by now." She DOES have to!!!
But the Special Education offices gave her the wrong idea. They told her she's sped, and now she feels that she doesn't need to know her multiplication table... because she's sped. The Special Education officies have all the right ideas, however the children misinterpret them incorrectly, and thus they feel they need to do and know less than they actually must.

Hope that's clear.

Then it's a very difficult problem to solve. I guess I'll stick to the name change idea.

If the people who run Sped have the right idea but the students in Sped have the wrong idea, the people who run Sped are still at fault, albeit in a different way.

Personally, I favor tracking in schools, that meaning that people would be sorted into classes appropriate to their skill level; what's the point of keeping people in classes where the slow kids are hopelessly left behind and the fast kids are hopelessly bored? Some people would find that harsh, but I think they're missing the point: people should be taught at their level; what, exactly, is gained by holding high performers back and leaving those who need more time behind?

I think treating these kids as "special" is a large part of the problem. To me, it's just a fact of life that some people learn differently and at different speeds than others.

im am sorta what you are calling "sped" though i have never heard that, i cant spell or write at all, but i read grapes of wrath in the summer between sixth and zeventh grade, and as a junior i am taking the highest math classes my school has to offer and the seniors are getting help from me, the reason some programs dont work is the way they are taught, i have dyslexiya, but i was tutered by my mom who when finding out all of her children were became one of the top people in the country. all they need is speciol tuturing and induvidual atention and they can improve, the problom most of these kids have is that in most public schools they really dont care that much and are just trying to get you out of highschool or at least till you drop out. so because of this they let people slack cause it is easier that way then spending the time and money to make an improvment. and i have never heard the phrase sped for speciol education

Very few people grow past the limits put on them by society. For instance, a child with multiple sclerosis who is put into a wheel chair and never expected to walk never will... a child who is never given a book because he isn't expected to read never will... a child given unlimited resources to accomplish simple tasks will never be able to accomplish great feats...

A guy I went through the school system with was sortof SPED. He would actually get some of the ANSWERS to the test and as much times and HELP from his aid as he wanted. I never got any help or any time from a teacher. Where did we end up? I'm going to college to earn a degree... he's going to be a mechanic...

There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a mechanic. The world certainly NEEDS them. But what if this kid was potentially a genius and in his creative brain (that was never cultivated) was some great cure or postulate that will never BE, now... *shrug*

THAT is the real problem with the school system these days Adamark. I think the solution is to treat everyone as a potential genius and give them as much incentive to learn as they can give them, along with any help with specific problems such as dyslexia or such. I mean, Albert Einstein was considered retarded because he couldn't do standardized tests. Nor could he tie his shoes, but I really don't think that's an extremely important ability. [Rhetorical Question]And you know what he became?[/Rhetorical Question]