More Waste At PWC Public Schools
By Greg L | 23 November 2007 | Prince William County | 48 Comments
From the “your tax dollars at work department”:
County Workshop Highlights Inclusive Culture
The Prince William County Public Schools Office of Special Education Parent Resource Center will host “Steps to Building an Inclusive Culture,” a workshop for parents and professionals, on Wednesday, November 28 from 7-9 p.m. The workshop will be held in the Benton Middle School library. Benton Middle School is located at 7411 Hoadly Road in Manassas.
Sherley Channing, administrative coordinator for inclusive practices, will discuss inclusive practices in Prince William County Public Schools.
Advanced registration is required. Contact the Parent Resource Center at 703-791-8846 (Voice), 703-791-8847 (TDD), or email johnsope@pwcs.edu or bamaher@pwcs.edu by Tuesday, November 27 to register. Sign or foreign language interpreter services are available upon request.
Apparently the Prince William County Public Schools are so flush with unneeded cash that they can hold workshops on how adults can be more adequately multi-cultural in their outlook instead of teaching our children. The schools are so financially well off that they can even afford to staff a position for a “administrative coordinator for inclusive practices”. I had no idea this sort of profligacy was possible, given all the moaning and groaning about how teachers are underpaid and that the schools don’t have adequate funding.
How this sort of drivel escaped the last round of budget cuts escapes me. Perhaps it’s time to adjust the revenue-sharing agreement between county government and the schools, if the schools are so well off they can afford to spend their “scarce” resources on stuff like this.
Thanks to the alert reader who sent this in.
On a related note, I’m hearing that Manes Pierre is now a substitute teacher. Do any readers out there know which school system is being subjected to this potentially hazardous nutjob now?
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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Part of the “illegal immigraton resolution” that just passed includes developing a community outreach program to inform the community about what the resolution can and cannot do. Perhaps this is part of that program.
Greg,
I think this inclusion refers to the practice of putting physically handicapped students (blind, hearing impaired, muscular dystrophy, etc) and mentally handicapped (Down’s Syndrome, retardation, etc.) students into a regular classroom. The Federal government has passed laws saying that students have to be educated in the “least restrictive environment.” That means ALL children are guaranteed a public school education. Every child has to be somewhere. In the old days the special education students were warehoused. Now they are part of the general population of students.
I don’t think having a seminar about this type of inclusion is out of line. If someone can give parents and teachers ideas for making the process go more smoothly I am all for it.
Elem. teacher is correct. Parents with handicapped children often need a support system and I see nothing wrong with having this kind of seminar nor do I feel it is wasteful. Parents need to be informed and they need the support of the school system.
Unless you want all special needs children stashed away behind closed doors, or locked in attics, please try to see this as something other than drivel. I see it as a positive way to spend money and not very much money at that.
As for the inclusion coordinator, it makes sense to me that someone over -see how students are being placed in classes. It isn’t always done properly.
The criticism sure seems like a leap to judgement without knowing all the facts.
This mainstreaming has gotten out of control. Students have to suffer because the mainstreamed kids are sucking up all the resources. If it’s a federal law, I guess there’s nothing to be done about it. Whose hare-brained idea was it? When will we get school vouchers so we can choose to opt out of government schools?
I agree with monticup that the mainstreaming gets out of hand in some circumstances. Having to deal with some of the extreme special education cases can be very stressful to the students and teachers who are in the class.
monticup and elem.teacher,
Yes mainstreaming is out of control in some cases. Root cause is the feds. That is not to say that the county is not allowing some of it to go on to save money also. Who knows what the solution is.
Well,
hopefully someone can attend this and let us know what it is all about.
me-n-u,
I can’t imagine why anyone who didn’t have a special education child would want to go to that workshop. Actually the county has those kinds of things throughout the year. They cost very little to put on (cookies and a pot of coffee) and are a form of outreach to parents who need support of who have questions.
I sure won’t be going. Yawn!
“This mainstreaming has gotten out of control. Students have to suffer because the mainstreamed kids are sucking up all the resources. If it’s a federal law, I guess there’s nothing to be done about it. Whose hare-brained idea was it? When will we get school vouchers so we can choose to opt out of government schools?”
Monticup, my child is in a self-contained classroom. He is developmentally disabled and limited in his communication skills, but scores above benchmark on every single assessment with which he is presented. He does require additional resources to address his communication issues, but he is capable of doing work at or above grade level. Are you saying that if my son has less of a right to an education because he has a disability? Do you prefer not to educate him and give him a foundation for his future and allow him to live on the public dole when he is an adult? My child deserves a future. If it were your child, you would demand no less. You comments show a deep lack of compassion for children like my son.
“Inclusion” in ed-language does NOT mean multi-cultural. “Inclusion” means letting autistic/EMR students into a reg classroom. It means letting children such as mine who struggle with reading issues, into a GT program that focuses on oral language and math skills. Inclusion is actually a good thing. It also pushes teachers to become more adept with what and how they teach. Inclusion is not a language issue. It is an LD, Autistic, GT issue…all races can apply.
In most cases inclusion works well. However, it can also be totally inapporiate. I have seen severely retarded, very disruptive children mqinstreamed into regular classrooms. I remember one kindergarten student who was very low functioning. But, her parents insisted that she be treated as a “regular” student and would not even let the child be tested. The kindergarten aide spent all her time dealing with this one child. and the teacher’s attention was also heavily focused on this one child. Was this fair to the other children?
No. Unfortunately these things happen.
Greg:
As others have pointed out, you’ve got this one wrong (is this becoming a trend?).
Inclusion in this instance refers to including special needs children in the classroom.
And contrary to Monticup’s statement (and others who concurred), properly done, children in an inclusive classroom actually do much better and that applies not only to the special needs students, but also to the “regular” kids in the class. Thus is not “mainstreaming” (which basically dumped special needs students into the classroom). Well-done inclusion programs provide teacher training on how to build an inclusive classroom and are often team taught with a regular ed teacher and a resource teacher.
Please stop looking for illegal alien sympathizers, multi-cultural zealots, and the bogey man under every press release and public notice. These sessions are offered because many parents are (justifiably) concerned about what inclusion will mean for their child.
Turn PW Blue said on 24 Nov 2007 at 12:40 am
I’m with Turn TW Blue on this one. Moving from illegal aliens to targeting the disabled (which I don’t think you really intended to do) smacks of potential compairson to … well… something this group doesn’t (hopefully) want to be compared to.
These are U.S. Citizens who expect and deserve equal protection under the law.
Greg-
Under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act) parents are to be briefed on how to include their disabled or challenged child can attend regular classroom environment per their IEP (Individual Education Plan). There is some controversy with this approach as some regular education teachers are opposed to have certain children in their classroom due to the disruption it causes. However most IDEA parents want their child to attend as much regular Ed class as possible since they want them to be included with all the mainstream kids. The special education department is caught in the middle of competing forces. However it is the special education department staff also try to push the envelope and put as many special ed children into the classroom without regard to impact.
As to your misunderstanding to the term–you are right about the practice of PWC schools being too accepting to multi-cultural students. They bend over backwards to accept everyone and our schools are spending large amounts of funds to teach kids in their native language through the special Ed department. Regular education teachers don’t want the child that doesn’t speak or read english due to the disruption to the other children and their lack of proper training to handle such children. So the ESOL department has a larger percentage of children classified “special ed–Learning Disabled” so they can get additional resources (the lexington institute). I don’t necessarily blame the school staff for doing so but the administration needs to change courses to implement an immersion program. Studies have proven that the current program is very costly process and is not as effective as immersion programs. If a child from the US travels to Mexico or Norway– they are put into an immersion program before they are put into regular education classes. They have to know Spanish or Norwegian before they learn math, science, or history. That makes a lot of sense. However here in Prince William County and elsewhere that unfortunately is not the policy. PWC teaches them math, grammar, science, and history in their native language. The child is already overwhelmed with the new country, language and insecure about the school. Then on top of that they are taught conflicting allegiances–at school they are taught they must learn English (on a regulated timetable which sometimes is over 2 years) and at home their parents often speak the other language. Prince William County needs to overhaul their special Ed and ESOL program.
Just my Thoughts-
Anonymous–Your child deserves an education, of course. But it is inappropriate to mainstream. We need to return to tracking so that every child can learn at his optimum level. Bright children are being ignored and are forced to twiddle their thumbs while other children catch up to them. My daughter when in first grade had to assist the teacher and “teach” other children to read. This is totally inappropriate.
Tracking would allow ALL children to be stimulated and challenged according to their abilities.
Prince William County does not teach ESL classes in the native language. That is against county policy. The point of ESL class is to learn English. Many of the ESL teachers are exchange teachers from European countries.
ESL has nothing to do with Special Education. Both are their own separate departments.
My child is likely to never be mainstreamed because of his disability, but his IQ is markedly above average. Tracking would have had my son learning nothing more than “life skills.” Perhaps you are happy to shell out money in taxes to the state to pay for my son and the growing number of children like him. I want him to be able to make his way in the world. He needs the help now so he can help himself later. Education is his way to do that, as it is for every other child. You would send him to a special needs ghetto.
I will never get that part of the conservative movement. They embrace the right to life until the exit from the womb. My son has much a right to a good, productive life as any other child.
Isn’t it funny how the Governor feels it necessary to cut funding that was MATCHED by the federal government for Abstinence Ed. but heaven forbid that you cut back on financing “Tolerance Workshop’s”
How much do you all think a pot of coffee and some cookies cost? We are not talking about a 5 star restaurant here. The building usage is free, the employees moderating the workshop are salaried and aren’t getting overtime. I don’t get it. Where are these big bucks people keep alluding to?
Cut the parents of special ed kids a break. Many of them have a tough enough row to hoe as it is. It makes for good community relations to have them in to learn about their child’s education. Special ed parents should not be relegated to second class citizens. To object to parent workshops is penny wise and pound foolish.
anonymous2:32 pm: I regretfully inform you that you are incorrect– I have served on the PWCS Special Education Advisory Committee and wrote part of the federal legislation for IDEA 1997 reauthorization and per policy PWCS will teach in native language per ESOL standards. That is the policy especially if the child is less than 1 year resident in the USA which over a 1/3 of the population is. Additionally over 67% of ESOL (PWCS ESOL report 2006)teachers are American English Language Speech teachers. I take great offense that you type cast ESOL teachers as European teaching backgrounds because most are not. Many of the ESOL teachers are from USA with Latin American influence and which they are forced to teach students in non-immersion programs. If you asked many of them, which I have, they would tell you that immersion programs work best and allow the student to achieve much higher results than bifurcated programs as ESOL. You have obliviously bought into the “talking points” of the ill-informed and are not acquainted to the facts of daily operations of PWCS.
Just my Thoughts-
Trent A. Barton
Trent A. Barton,
I respectfully beg to differ. Special Education and ESL in Prince William County are 2 different departments. They both have their own special guidelines. I will address only ESL.
Quite a few teachers are exchange teachers from European countries. Some are from Latino countries. Some are Americans. Some are Hispanic Americans. I did not say or imply all were from Europe but many have come in on an exchange program with a 3 year teaching visa.
I have never known any ESL class to be taught in the student’s native language. Prince William County receives students from all over the world. Obviously it would be difficult to procure teachers with knowledge of African languages, Middle Eastern dialects, etc. Furthermore, the objective of ESL classes is for students to learn English. How can any student learn English if he or she is being taught in their own tongue?
I am not sure what you mean by non-immersion programs. Most students spend a year or two, if that, in total ESL programs. Some schools will place students in inclusion classes right off the bat with ESL support. I have seen students go directly into math classes with no ESL support. In general, students have a very concentrated first year or two and are gradually phased into regular classrooms, depending on their degree of success. Policy and procedure seems to change year to year.
As far as buying in to the ‘talking points of the ill-informed,’ I am quite familiar with Prince William County daily operations. I have taught for them for many years. All I can tell you is what I have witnessed, what I have done, and what I have been told to do by those who administer the programs.
I respect your time serving on the special education advisory council. ESL, however, has an entirely different structure and must follow very different guidelines since it serves students with very different learning issues.
I HOPE my child has a good, productive life. I do not see it as a RIGHT. There are no guarantees in life and the sooner people realize that, the better off we’d all be.
I’m with you, monticup….I thought we had the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
We all wish everyone a “good and productive life,” but that might be a rather difficult standard to meet; can you imagine trying to ensure that our educational system provided every person in this country with what they felt to be a “good and productive” life?? I’m sure that somewhere along the line someone might feel shortchanged.
Time out! lets re-focus, we need to shine a light on what tax dollars are spent on. If this is legit(benefit to legal taxpayers–and has been vetted), Great effort!
We need dollar for dollar cash update from the school board on freebies for drivers education and lunches where illegals lie on the application about how much money they make..while their kids eat off the public dime(throw most in the trash) and their parents drive Escalades.
School board members(cheerleaders for complacency) need to be called to the carpet to make the taxpaying correct choices..not political choices to keep their seats.
The free and reduced lunch program is a federal program, not a local one, so the school board doesn’t really have any choice about who is eligible. To take up that issue, you’d have to go to congress.
Not sure about driver’s ed, but it might be a good question to ask the local school boards.
law and order said on 25 Nov 2007 at 4:19 pm:
School board members(cheerleaders for complacency) need to be called to the carpet to make the taxpaying correct choices..not political choices to keep their seats.
This is one the truest statements I’ve ever read on this blog. I love the “cheerleaders” part.
True the meals are a federal program, but the driver’s ed we need to know who’s footing the bill for that one.
The driver’s ed program is mandated as Driver Education Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools. I believe each school system must provide a program. It has been around since dirt was forming on the earth.
The real question should be why every kid, the minute he or she gets a license, is allowed to drive to school. This practice snarls traffic for miles around each county high school. I would be in favor of kids having to take the bus unless they could certify need to drive to a job after school. Doing this would cut down on traffic, wrecks, and oh yes, carbon emmissions. It would probably also eliminate some nefarious student behavior.
Monticup - I know better than anyone that there are no guarantees in life. Do you have any ideas how many prenatal tests I had that said my baby was fine? Every test, all the vitamins and watching every last thing (drink, food, and medication), and my child still was not well. Yeah, I know there are no guarantees. It’s pointless to argue with you. Live in your perfect world and I will continue to fight for my child and others like him - children of hardworking, taxpaying, legal American citizens - so there future will be brighter than the one they would have if people like you were able to “track” them into oblivion.
Trent A. Barton and Anonymous–
Just wanted to point our that you’re both a little behind the times. PWC no longer has ESL. It’s now ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages).
ESOL in PWC has varying levels of English competency. When possible, ESOL students are placed in a “regular” classroom for the bulk of their instruction and have supplemental ESOL assistance. Those with no English fluency are taught in self-contained ESOL classes until they are fluent enough to be added to the regular classroom. While some statements made by ESOL teachers may be in the native tongue of the student, the classes are not taught solely in their native language. The goal of ESOL classes is to make students proficient in English.
Turn PW Blue,
You are correct. I would say ESOL if I were at work since that is the more up to date term. I was deferring to Mr. Barton’s terminology. However, ESL and ESOL are used interchangeably still and everyone knows what everyone else is talking about.
ESOL students are sometimes put into classes before they are fluent enough in English. The policy seems to change from year to year and probably depends on the school.
PW Blue and Annon–
Please look back at my post and you will only see ESOL in my statements. It was annon that used the term ESL. ESOL and ESL are different programs and differing approaches to teach children from other countries.
The problem with the ESOL program is that after only a few months (sometimes as short as a few weeks) they are put into regular education classes and are only pulled out for reinforcement. Many experts say it takes 5 -6 months average of daily instruction to get a child proficient enough in English to assimilate into the regular education classroom without complications but sadly they are not getting even half that time. If they would keep the child in an immersion class until they are proficient then the impact on the regular Ed teachers and other students in the class would be minimized which helps all involved. The student learns english and transfers into the classroom smoothly, is accepted by the other students, has a teacher ready to handle them and saves everyone money since they are taught along with all the other students with no additional IDEA cost associated. Since that is not the practice, currently the teachers are spending 10 - 30 % of their time attending to these ESOL students because of the language issues. As to the native language issues– When a child is processed into the PWCS system majority of them are from Spanish speaking backgrounds. They are taught almost 80% in Spanish from day one with only 20% being in English. They are taught all the subjects primarily in Spanish except for English language class—that is taught in English. If they are from another language country they are shipped to roughly one of eight schools around the county but put back in their assigned school as fast as possible. It seems this is done even if the child is not ready for the transfer. Again, if the program PWCS uses was a true immersion program then they would only learn English until they reach proficiency in reading and speaking English no matter how long it took. After then they could start learning the other subjects in English.
As for the special ed and ESOL programs being different programs– You are correct. Both are under separate budget departments and budget lines. Both special education and ESOL have differing policies and procedures. However, I never said they are the same–you inferred it. The two programs often are used simultaneously as a way to get the child out of the regular Ed classroom while at the same time drawing upon additional funding. I submitted that ESOL student are often classified “learning disabled” so they can receive additional services. The regular Ed teacher gets additional assistance when they have an IEP student in their classroom. This reclassification is on the rise lately and it is occurring even more frequently since schools are require to make reach certain standards each year and having passing SOL’s scores from all students. Each school that has IEP students get additional resources including but not limited to: Reading the test to the student, translating the test for them and longer time allotments. The schools are spending even more money in an effort to put as many students under the IDEA (learning disabled) program.
I do hope this has clarified my posts.
Just my Thoughts-
Trent A. Barton,
You are correct. You did not use the term ESL. However, both ESL and ESOL are used interchangeably. I will use the more up to date term, ESOL. Various names have changed so many times it is hard to keep up with what is old and what is new. Changing the name does not change the program. The program changes from year to year as new mandates and new challenges surface.
I don’t believe we are referring to the same Prince William County Schools. I do not recognize many of the practices you describe. I am curious as to your source of information. I have nothing more to say other than what you have described has not been my experience working in Prince William County Schools. I find that very odd.
Good grief! I don’t mean to sound crass or insensitive, but how did they ever manage in the “old days” when schools just focused on education, and concerned themselves with the quality of the majority of student’s education, and made sure that the students with the most talent, skill and capability made it into the best colleges, could get Phd’s if they were capable and provided the greatest return to society benefiting all. Why has this society concerned itself with taking better care of the least capable 5% of society, than its best, while apparently ignoring and trivializing the most capable of society to the trash can diploma.
This myopia in our feel good local civil rights radical and “inclusion” leadership is why the greater focus of Asian, Indian, and European school systems on student IQ and talent and superior “technical” education rather than “social” education is going to produce far superior societies in the near future for those nations.
We will see a tidal wave of relative ignorance sweeping our nation and the outcome will be a greatly impoverished society, proud of being politically correct.
Which would you rather be poor and equitable, or wealthy and smarter?
Wait until the impact of Asian, Indian, and European intelligence and superiorty REALLY starts to compete with us.
We can smugly say we gave 1 student in the class an equal life to the other 30 intellectual and competitive knowledge failures.
Anonymous 8:53
It has been that way for the past 50 years. Where have you been?
My child is in an elementary school in Woodbridge with high ESOL numbers. All students are put in “regular” classrooms from day one. A child can be unable to speak a word of English and they will be put in a regular classroom. An ESOL teacher works with the ESOL students for part of the day (in many instances at a table in that regular classroom.)
There are no special classes to go to until a child’s English is up to a certain level. Of course many of the classrooms are already over 80% ESOL.
And, all classes are taught in English. In fact our school has several ESOL teachers who don’t speak Spanish at all.
Anonymous at 8:53–excellent post. My thoughts exactly. Neglecting the brightest children and expending an inordinate amount of resources on special education will get us nowhere. But we will feel good about ourselves.
Why are there so many “special needs” children? Because that’s where the money is!
So when this blog and HSM are done with illegal aliens, are they going to begin marginalizing children with MR, learning disabilities, autism, and so on? Save our schools from special needs kids?
Monticup,
What do you propose to do with special needs children? How would you educate them, or would you?
No Anonymous, 6:26….certainly not!! Don’t be ridiculous.
All children need an educational system that is best suited to their capabilities. That is NOT meant to imply however that primary focus should be on those who have the most difficulty learning.
I know that many parents want their learning disabled child right there, mainstreamed along with the rest of ‘em, and I can understand those feelings.
However, there are limits; let’s not try to make mathematicians out of children who because of learning disabilities simply can’t comprehend, but their parents want them in that algebra class. It’s not even fair the disabled — how hurtful it must be to those children who are forced to struggle with that which they just simply can not comprehend.
So, instead of fine-tuning our educational system, let’s just forget about it all and fund pre-kindergarten for four-year olds, what you say?
I’ll repeat–all children need to be educated in a situation where they are challenged and stimulated AND have a real chance to have success. Not fake success, dumbed down success or feel-good success.
Why would you want a bright child to mark time and get bored while the teachers are focused on the disabled and less bright kids? Is that fair to the bright child? Just think about what we are throwing away here when we neglect the bright child and assume he’ll be OK and leave him to his own devices. The bright child deserves a stimulating and challenging education and that can not happen with mainstreaming.
I just contacted the ESOL department and have been briefed on the update on policy (since I had dealt with it) and sadly it is worst than I previously stated.
Starting in 2005 all students are taught in the regular ed classroom in english and ESOL services being offered part of the day in Spanish or other common language. If a child is from a language that is not common they can request to attend a school that specialized in that language for an introductory period but typically is less than 1 or 2 months. When a child is registered for school they are given a proficiency test to determine their skill set. They are assigned to a grade that is both measured for their proficiency and age appropriate. However the child is never assigned more than 1 grade or 1 year from their current age. PWCS has worked over the past few years to decrease the identification of ESOL student into the IDEA program. However, it still happens and in my opinion it happens too much. The regular ed teacher is overwhelmed and since the child is not performing at grade level they are sometimes tested under the “learning disabled” classification for IDEA. If they are not proficient at English then chances are they are not achieving in other subject too which can result in over Identification.
Additionally, the county thinks this is best for the child in assimilating them into the regular education classroom with ESOL support from day one (partly to parental demands) but it sets everyone back as I have previously stated (Teachers are spending more time with the student and not with the rest of the students, more aides having to be used to “co-teach” the class, child not be accepted by their peers as smoothly as they should, stresses of an overburden staff, etc). The school system should invest in a test immersion program and see what results it achieves. I think they will be pleasantly surprised to what happens. There are several programs and studies that prove that the immersion program garners better results than the current program PWCS uses. We are using a program that does work however the results take 2-3 years to achieve while the immersion programs cut that in half or more. We need to discard the people that demand that these students not be separated from the regular classroom and I agree with them but only after you give this child a fighting chance of succeeding by giving them English Proficiency as a tool for success. Everyone wins then and I promise you will also have cost savings to boot also.
Just my Thoughts-
I suppose people had less “social” education then and more common sense.
Monticup, Freedom, that was my Anonymous post at 8:53, just forgot to type my name in. I agree with both of you!
Anonymous 6:26 was not me. I don’t think that person understands that all kids need different learning environments suited to their ability and best academic potential. It is an idiot concept to think that all people are created equal in IQ, so we do all children a great dis-service to their full learning potential when we try to lump them together, assume they have the same IQ because that makes us feel better socially and teach them the same thing. Average education creates average kids. The rest of the “technically” educated world knows that superior education creates superior kids and wealthy superior societies. We need to spend our money accordingly.
[…] classes has something to do with multi-cultural inclusiveness. For more information, read - http://www.bvbl.net/index.php/2007/11/23/more-waste-at-pwc-public-schools/. In typical fashion, the radical anti-immigration zealots of Prince William have it all wrong. […]
God are any of you really functioning in ESOL reality?????? In Manassas City there is NO ESOL until first grade, and those services are only for the lowest of the low…you arrived 2 months ago, from somewhere else and barely speak English. On the other hand… You were born and raised here…move on. No services for you. There is NO, did I say NO, can you read NO, ESOL services for incoming five year olds. and what is really cool is that they DONT NEED IT!!! Within months they figure it out…the language thing. And the majority of my parents are thrilled at the aptitude of English their children have mastered.
I’d like to ask you all to step back and take a different perspective on this conversation. I am a teacher in PWCS. While I support inclusion and immersion practices and have seen them work wonderfully, there are times when they simply don’t work. I have worked with inclusion classes often over the years and when they are implemented in an appropriate manner everyone benefits greatly. However, all to often there is little thought put into the makeup of the classrooms that these children are part of and a serious lack of staffing. It makes me furious to think that there are those that claim that the school system is wasting money. Before you jump at me let me say that I know there is money that is not used well and that I agree that it needs to go elsewhere. Taking money away from schools is like telling a child that since you don’t eat your dinner we just won’t bother to give you any! Sounds just plain obsurd doesn’t it. Now, back to inclusion and immersion. I have learned a great deal about teaching by working with SPED and ESOL teaching staff. This knowledge has helped me meet the needs of all of the children in my class and quite honestly made me a better teacher for all of my students. That said let me share the flip side of the coin.
There are instances where inclusion and immersion can be just plain awful for all involved. I stongly believe that children should be taught in the least restrictive enviroment, that does not always mean that being in the so called “regular classroom” is the best placement. Somewhere along the way the child’s best interest can be thrown to the side and those involved in the child’s education plan turn the situation in to a tug of war and nobody, especially the child, wins. As a teacher there are only so many pieces you can cut yourself into and there is a point at which the classroom becomes ineffective for ALL CHILDREN. All teachers not a specialist in areas of the learning disabled, mentally impaired, autistic or any number of other disabilities. I am constantly reading and searching for ways to become more informed and learn more about teaching SPED or ESOL students. There are times when we feel like a failure because we have not been able to help a child make as much progress as everyone wants. However, we try to remember that there is only one of us and 20 something of them. Teachers are being asked to do more and more with less and time and no money. We have to think about teaching reading, writing, math, science,social studies IEP’s, SOL’s, FLE, and let’s not forget bathroom monitor, playground referee, nurse, and any other job that pops up. I don’t want you to misunderstand and think I am complaining. I love my job and especially the children but let’s be reasonable. There comes a time when there is to much added to a teacher’s plate and it becomes over crowded. When a child needs almost constant one-to-one teaching or disciplanary attention and is cast into the pool with children that can work more independently everyone suffers. This is when administrators, teachers and parents need to really focus on what will help the child, SPED or ESOL, make the most progress educationally. Forcing a child into a classroom can sometimes do more harm than good.I am saddened that a SPED identification has become taboo instead of a signal to others that a child learns differently and needs to be instructed in a different manner. The best way to help all involved understand the whole SPED or ESOL ball of wax is by educating them. Workshops for parents, administrators, teachers and the community is one way of doing this. So instead of nit picking some of you might want to consider attending a workshop, spending a day in an elementary classroom or even reading about these two educational programs.
Teacher,
You have given a very valid eye full of information. I am only sorry that this post is towards the end of the threads and more people will not see it.
The down side of mainstreaming needs to be underscored. I agree, the regular classroom isn’t the least restrictive environment for some kids. Laziness, lack of knowledge, lack of personnel and manipulation on the part of the special ed in-school administration seem to be the cause of this happening.
I have had some very serious disruptions over the years because some idiot seemed to think that 15 ld kids in a class of 30 was the way to go. The parents of these children are also being lied to because their IEPs are only being followed to the minimum. The real help they need isn’t being provided, can’t be provided in a class of 30 with one aide who doesn’t know the content material.
Some of the ED and austic kids can also be very disruptive and keep other kids from learning. Any attempts by the teacher to change the student’s placement is met by that old special ed cop-out: Least restrictive environment. (sing-song all-knowing voice) Oh BS. Translation: I don’t want to have to deal with this little bastard so I will bully you into keeping him in YOUR class where he is keeping 25 other students from learning…..
Oh I could go on and on…..
Thank you for speaking up.
The motto is kids first, what is the real truth?