Lady deadsidedemon wrote:
gbaji thats totally untrue of the public school system in its entirety. Not all schools throw learning disbabled children into a regular class room. There are many public schools out there who have outfitted their special needs children with special needs classrooms. My mother has been a special ed teacher for over 30 years in the public school system. For the past ten years she has specialized in preschool. The children she teaches range from autism to blind, deaf, mute, and emotionally disturbed. In her classroom they have language boards for children who dont speak, like the child that is antagonizing my son.
While I'm sure there are "many" that don't do that, most do. The problem isn't just money. It's about perception of the "right" to education for every student, and an assumption that a separate classroom will mean inferior instruction. How strong that aspect is will vary from state to state. Here in cockooville California, land of political correctness gone horribly awry, it apparently is some kind of crime against nature to imply that a special needs kid can't manage in the same classroom as the rest of the kids, so they work really hard to make that square peg fit in the round hole.
It may also be that wherever your mom teaches has had a public school preschool program for a long time (10 years at least, right?), so they're allowed to grandfather in their existing program. Publically run preschools are relatively new in most places though, and my understanding of the federal funding processes for them is that they can't put special needs students in different classrooms for exactly that fear that they'll not get as good of an education.
Heh. I'll admit that I'm jaded on this issue because of where I live. I would *never* send a child through public school in California. It's really that bad. Even in the "good" areas, it's still pretty crappy. And from what I know (second hand from multiple teachers I know) most of the reasons for that are the result of federal restrictions on funding money that tie up their hands when it comes to how they structure the environment for the kids.
If things are better in your area, maybe you can get better results. My understanding is that putting those special needs kids into regular classrooms is the direction things are going in public schools though, so good luck.
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Ive spoken with her about the situation my son is in and she is bewildered why a special needs child has been thrown into the mix of regualr school children, especially without a language board to help him more easily communicate his needs without resorting to hitting. She has also surmised that this childs personal aid is imcompetant and is not doing her job. She should be replaced by someone who can handle watching one child for a max of 2 hours 3 days a week, and ensure the child does not attack other students.
I'm going for incompetant aid as well. But then, that may only cover the kid while he's in the classroom. Is your son getting hit while physically in the classroom? Or out playing? I guess I can't understand how he'd be getting hit so much inside the actual classroom. Is the teacher seating them next to eachother? That would seem silly if you've already complained about it...
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Public schools can not turn down learning disabled childrens education if they do not have a place set up for special needs kids. But not all public schools are like that, and unfortunately it is because there is not enough funding being sent towards the schools to properly outfit each and every public school ut there for each and every type of child that needs to be educated.
It's not just funding though. This could easily be an entire topic by itself. It's how the funds are used, and what kind of moronic rules some idiot dreamed up to make education "fair" that has far more to do with how good of an education environment is available. We spend more per-capita on education in this country then any of the other first world nations, yet we lag behind them. Honestly, most of the problems with our education system are so systematic and institutionalized that I'm not sure it *can* be fixed. And if it's not broken yet in your area, it probably will be in another 10 years...
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However, if there is physical hitting going on, I have no qualms about making it crystal clear that if the child has tried the schooling out and can not handle it, he should be taken out until he goes to the schools that can handle him, even if that means he misses out on preschool and has to wait for primary school. And if that doesnt happen, then I guess I'll have to find my son a safer school to learn at
Yeah. That's the dilemna though. While certainly this wont be the same everywhere, my experience has been that this kind of thing is not that unusual in the public school system as a whole. I'm just saying that this wont be the last time your son will have to deal with disruptive or problem students (for one reason or another, not trying to dis the deaf kid) and the power to deal with it wont be in your hands. Get used to it, because if your experience is typical, the next 12 years will bring more of the same.