No child left behind?
Monday I subbed for a classroom assistant at the Waxahachie 9th grade building. I didn't know what a classroom aide was supposed to do. It turned out that this classroom aide's job was to help the real teacher with the special ed class (they didn't call it that, it had some fancy name I don't remember).
This was a class (fortunately a very small class) of "mentally challenged" kids. Apparently, they had scored a few points too low on an IQ test. I don't know a lot about this sort of thing, but they didn't seem mentally challenged to me. Most of them were ok when I went with them to their one actually "real" class of the day. I get the feeling that these students managed to have the "dumb kid" label pinned on them early on in elementary school and people have only really tried to teach them sporadically since then. I'd estimate that these students only have around a second grade reading ability.
I understand not expecting these kids to be held to the same academic standards as the rest of the students in the school, however I think the system does them a huge disservice by not expecting anything out of them. They literally cannot fail. The teacher of this class tried to give a student a failing grade last year for never trying to do anything, but was told he couldn't do that. Since these kids are exempt from the TAKs tests they will keep advancing through the grades and graduate from high school without really being able to read.
Even worse, the students are held to no discipline standard short of not getting into serious fights. This makes it impossible for the students to even come close to their learning potential. These students are not punished for any disruptive behaviors. Their teacher will ask them not to talk, but if they do there is nothing he is allowed to do about it. One girl comes and goes from class pretty much whenever she wants to. The teacher told me that he really couldn't do anything about. He had told the office about that before but they wouldn't do anything about it.
The system appears to be a complete failure in this case.
Technorati tags: School Special Ed Bad Systems Sad Things
This was a class (fortunately a very small class) of "mentally challenged" kids. Apparently, they had scored a few points too low on an IQ test. I don't know a lot about this sort of thing, but they didn't seem mentally challenged to me. Most of them were ok when I went with them to their one actually "real" class of the day. I get the feeling that these students managed to have the "dumb kid" label pinned on them early on in elementary school and people have only really tried to teach them sporadically since then. I'd estimate that these students only have around a second grade reading ability.
I understand not expecting these kids to be held to the same academic standards as the rest of the students in the school, however I think the system does them a huge disservice by not expecting anything out of them. They literally cannot fail. The teacher of this class tried to give a student a failing grade last year for never trying to do anything, but was told he couldn't do that. Since these kids are exempt from the TAKs tests they will keep advancing through the grades and graduate from high school without really being able to read.
Even worse, the students are held to no discipline standard short of not getting into serious fights. This makes it impossible for the students to even come close to their learning potential. These students are not punished for any disruptive behaviors. Their teacher will ask them not to talk, but if they do there is nothing he is allowed to do about it. One girl comes and goes from class pretty much whenever she wants to. The teacher told me that he really couldn't do anything about. He had told the office about that before but they wouldn't do anything about it.
The system appears to be a complete failure in this case.
Technorati tags: School Special Ed Bad Systems Sad Things
posted by Freethinker at 10:55:00 AM
5 Comments:
yeah the school system here in Arlington is in shambles as well.
that's why people need to get out and vote for www.brucewhammond.com if they live in Arlington this week during early voting (or on Saturday May 13th). Bruce is my son's grandfather and would make a great man for the job of reform to tackle tough issues like you present here J.
maybe you can run for school board in your town to help solve the problem?
I wonder how discipline in the regular classrooms compare. Educating kids like this is a challenge, and most likely the problems wouldn't be this bad if they were better trained and cared for in the younger grades.
It would also be enlightening to know what kind of homes these kids are from.
Stephen - I don't think I would have the stomach for something like the school board.
Thainamu - I don't think any of these kids are from 2-parent households.
Discipline in regular classes is quite a bit different. Students can get detention or in-school suspension for disruptive behavior and they definitely don't get to leave the classroom without permission. And they have to put forth some effort or they'll even fail classes like P.E.
Amen, brother!!! I have had such a hard time trying to teach kids piano and some just constantly bother others!!! Respect has definitely plummeted!!!
Now, about you. .do you haver current transportation? We've missed ya!!!
Well, even though we haven't moved on from Daniel 5...hahaha!!!
another reason government should get out of the education business...
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