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Special Report
Special Education Abuse
Incompetent schools take the easy way out, diagnosing learning disabilities at an alarming rate.
Nineteen percent of black male students and 16 percent of their white male peers attending Cleveland’s public schools in the 2005-2006 school year were labeled with some form of learning disability. This meant that they were likely placed into the traditional public school district’s special education program, from which they are unlikely to ever graduate with a high school diploma.
Cleveland isn’t some exceptional case. Fifteen percent of Ohio’s black male students — and one of every 10 white males — were diagnosed as either being mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, developmentally delayed or otherwise learning disabled. Meanwhile a mere 7.6 percent of black female students and 5.5 percent of white females were considered learning disabled.
Nor is Ohio alone. Six million American children are wallowing in the nation’s public school special education programs. Boys make up two out of every three students diagnosed with a learning disability, an oddity given that learning disabilities should occur naturally among both genders. Contrary to general perceptions, most are capable of the kind of academic performance expected of students in regular classrooms. Although many students are certainly in need of special help, the labeling by traditional public schools — and the resulting mistreatment — of so many children capable of learning is one reason for the nation’s abysmal levels of educational achievement.
THE LATEST ATTENTION TO SPECIAL ED comes courtesy of President Barack Obama, who has unwisely decided to toss even more money into these boondoggles. He has certainly gained qualified plaudits from centrist conservative and moderate Democrat school reformers for the Race to the Top initiative, whose $4.3 billion in federal stimulus funds is sparking officials in states such as California to embark on such needed reforms as making student test scores the predominant measure of teacher performance. But in providing $11.3 billion in new subsidies to special education programs, Obama has thrown school districts a lifeline without requiring any accompanying accountability for their activities.
Special ed is generally an afterthought among most school reformers. But thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act, which restricts the number of special ed students school districts can exclude from standardized tests, it has attracted the scrutiny of a bipartisan cadre that includes Jay P. Greene, the sharp-tongued education czar for the conservative Manhattan Institute; Erin Dillon of the Education Sector (a bastion among centrist Democrats); and Michael Holzman, the urbane education research consultant for the left-leaning Schott Foundation for Public Education. What they have concluded is that far too many children otherwise capable of learning are being condemned to short buses.
The nation’s special ed population increased by 63 percent between 1976 and 2006; it now accounts for 13 percent of the nation’s public school students. Although better diagnosis of cognitive disorders such as autism can account for some of that growth, it doesn’t explain all of it. Mentally retarded students account for just eight percent of the nation’s special education population, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The argument made by some advocates for the disabled that many mentally retarded children are mislabeled in order to protect them from scrutiny is countered by evidence that such retardation naturally occurs in just one percent of the population.
Half of special ed students are labeled as either suffering from a “specific learning disability” (a vague catch-all that can include students suffering anything from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to severe autism), hindered by an “emotional disturbance” (another toss-in category that can include poorly behaved kids and those suffering from clinical depression) or are “developmentally delayed” (which can mean that the child is either cognitively damaged, dyslexic or wasn’t taught to read by his parents). With moderate accommodations (and in many cases, none at all), the students can actually learn. In Indiana, for example, 69-percent of third-grade Special Ed students who didn’t need accommodations passed the math portion of that state’s standardized test in 2006, barely trailing their regular class peers.
Young boys — especially minorities — are twice as likely as girls to be placed on short buses. One in every five black and white boys attending Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, was labeled learning disabled; just one in ten of their female schoolmates were similarly categorized. This isn’t just an urban problem. In the ritzy Lower Merion Township, Pa. — once the stomping ground of Obama adviser Lawrence Summers and NBA star Kobe Bryant — 32 percent of the school district’s black males and 13 percent of white males were labeled learning disabled, twice the rate for their female classmates. Such over-diagnosis is one reason why fewer men than women are graduating from high school and college — even though males make up a larger proportion of public school enrollment.
Given the low rigor of curricula and the accompanying stigma of their status, special ed students are even more exposed to the inadequate instruction in traditional public schools. They are also more likely to drop out: Just 33 percent of special ed students leaving school in 2005-2006 earned a diploma.
THE NATURE OF LEARNING disabilities, which are often difficult to diagnose, is one particular culprit. Difficulties that come from a lack of proper childrearing at home can easily be mistaken for cognitive disorders. The fact that the most classroom teachers — who are the ones who mainly refer children to be examined for disabilities — also factors into special ed placement. Boys are particularly vulnerable because their natural rambunctiousness is of great contrast to the more-docile behavior of their female classmates. Also exacerbating matters: The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, passed 34 years ago to improve the quality of education for special ed students. The law’s vague definitions of learning disabilities — and inadequate enforcement by the U.S. Department of Education — have given districts too much leeway in treating students. As Holzman notes, black students are still twice as likely as whites to end up in special ed, despite federal oversight.
Then there is the money. Although special ed programs can be costly, they are also highly compensated through weighted funding formulas. In 2005-2006, for example, Atlanta Public Schools generated $7,550 in funds from Georgia’s state government for every special ed child enrolled; that’s three times more than the district receives from the state for every child in a regular classroom or in gifted-and-talented classes.
Medicaid, which compensates school districts for every cost related to providing special ed medical services, is also a prime funding source as states use the program to help shift administrative costs from their books. Last year, school districts in New York State agreed to repay $540 million in Medicaid funds for special Ed costs they improperly billed. Declared Greene and his colleague, Marcus Winters, this past August in Forbes: “Schools see a financial incentive to designate low-achieving students as disabled, while they may not actually be disabled at all.”
No Child, along with IDEA, has certainly forced school districts to acknowledge how they diagnose and label students. The budget cutting that will come after stimulus funds run dry, along with school voucher programs such as the McKay Scholarship in Florida, may even bring some transparency to the process of how students are placed into special ed programs. But far too many children will still end up in special ed until school reformers place as much effort into reforming those programs as they do on expanding charter schools and developing new standards.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (75) | Leave a comment
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Pingback| 12.10.09 @ 6:27AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Special Education Abuse [spectator.o links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Melvin| 12.10.09 @ 7:48AM
It is not the children who have the learning disabilities but rather the government run schools , teachers, administrators, and parents who fall for this bull squeeze.
Pingback| 12.10.09 @ 8:25AM
Read: Special Ed Edition || Dropout Nation links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Ryan| 12.10.09 @ 8:54AM
The article above is precisely why I am planning on homeschooling my one-month-old.
To me, there are two big issues in education. One is parenting - probably the biggest determinator in educational success. A child with good parenting can typically survive in any given education system.
The other is "seat time." Expecting kids to sit still for 8-10 hours a day, practically straight, is the BIGGEST stupidity of the modern education system. Kids have energy and need to get it out. Kids who understand the lesson don't need busy-work for an hour. A school day, on an individual level, can sometimes be condensed down to 3-4-5 hours a day.
John II| 12.10.09 @ 9:06PM
Ryan--don't even hesitate with your plans for your own kids. I hesitated, but my wife finally beat me into the ground, and our last two kids, anyhow, were homeschooled. It IS hard work, and rather daunting when you get down to the minute details, but the rewards are incalculable. As you get into this regimen, notice that, among other bennies, your kids will be getting the 1o hours per night of sleep that everyone under age 20 actually needs. Result: kids who are mellow, sharp as a tack, and good-hearted. What else is there to hope for?
Well--eternal salvation, I suppose. But we've got our duties here on earth. Good luck and God bless.
Al Adab| 12.10.09 @ 10:35AM
Follow the money. The more special needs students the higher the funding levels. Of course they are quick to diagnose special needs.
When instruments of policy like schools, govt. agencies, etc. become institutions serving themselves, their original purpose takes second place to self preservation.
Etta K Brown | 12.11.09 @ 2:02PM
The fallacy in your statement is that schools cannot place children in special education without the expressed signed consent of the parents. Without the parents signed consent, the schools cannot evaluate children, not can they place them in special education. So while more children are being placed, the focus should be upon the parents who are signing permission forms giving the school the right to misplace their children. As a 20 year veteran school psychologist, I never tested a child without the parents permission. Federal law has given all the power over this process to the parents. So start a parent education group and inform parents of their rights in the process. The power was given to parents when research determined that they are the key player in the process of rearing and educating children. Start an effort to inform parents of their rights. Stop blaming the schools and start fighting back. The parent manual that will guide parents through the process at www.understanding-learning-disabilities.com is available at any price the parent states they can afford. No one parent has requested their free ebook.
Roy| 12.13.09 @ 4:36AM
I've heard the incentives are skewed for parents, too, especially low-income parents, because students qualify for additional welfare if described as learning disabled..not to mention some of these kids don't really have parents..
Walter| 10.29.10 @ 6:20PM
My son is very rambunctious and very creative. Two things that don't go well in public schools. I know I have the power legally, but I was just told today that if I don't agree to Special Ed that my son would be sent home every day until I did. Help!
KDL | 12.19.09 @ 1:14AM
Personally we have found quite the inverse to be true. My daughter has an official (from a Dr...all classic symptoms) diagnosis of ASD, but our school district does not agree with the diagnosis and we have to work very aggressively with them to receive all of the services that our daughter is entitled to receive. We hear this repeatedly from almost every special needs parent we know. Generally school districts are hurting for money. They have a certain budget available for "dealing with" special needs students, and they meet the budget by providing minimum services - i.e. they get the parents happy and stop. I'm not sure exactly how the funding works, but it is not as simple as more students = more funding like in the general classroom. It is more like a percentage of the general student population given as a flat amount and if they run over budget it cuts into other areas. I was quite surprised by the premise of this story...it runs totally counter to my personal experience. I am, by the way, politically quite conservative and am frustrated to no end to be so dependent on the public school system to educate our daughter. She needs their specialized training and support, and so it goes...
Don| 12.10.09 @ 10:36AM
Your list for special ed should include aggressively disinterested. That would explain the gender gap.
Pingback| 12.10.09 @ 11:06AM
The American Spectator : Special Education Abuse American Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Eric Damon| 12.10.09 @ 11:33AM
I saw a school system try to label my nephew as learing disabled because he wasn't paying close attention in class in middle school. They immediately wanted to label him as having ADD or ADHD and start him on some type of drug regemine, but my sister would not allow it. The real problem was that he was familiar with most of the material and was simply not being challenged, thus he was disinterested in what was going on in class. Once they began to challenge him more and he knew he had to pay attention to keep up, his whole demeanor changed. But if the teacher and the school had been given their way, he would have been slapped with the LD label.
Etta K Brown | 12.11.09 @ 1:48PM
Thanks to your sister for being a responsible parent. The cause of the special education crisis is uninvolved parents. The schools cannot label kids or place them in special education without the parents permission, so schools are not labeling children to get more money, they are labeling children because uninvolved parents are allowing it by not assuming responsibility for seeing that their child is prepared for school. That means breakfast in the morining and sleep at night. Parents are the reason the children have difficulties in the first place. Certainly an alert involved parent made a difference in this case, and other parents can make a difference in their children also. www.understanding-learning-disabilities.com has a great deal of information on theis subject which will help parents in their role of raising children ready to learn. The parent manual is great.
Conservative School Counselor| 12.10.09 @ 12:04PM
Right on Melvin and Ryan, I work in a public school and I will be homeschooling my two children, most likely with the Veritas Press materials. I recently had the opportunity to propose what I think I should be doing as a school counselor to the rest of the school counselors in our district. It was as follows:
--Teaching Colson’s Law
--Teaching Comprehensive Chastity Education
--Guiding students through the essential questions of existence:
• What is the meaning of life
• What is the reason for being
• What is the point, purpose, and end of human existence in this world?
--Teaching students that Western Civilization is good and should be preserved (i.e. “Great Books,” logic, rhetoric)
--Conduct all my work in accordance with Aristotle’s view that, “The aim of education is to make the student like and dislike what they ought.”
--Promote and encourage all families to be the traditional nuclear model, as much as possible.
--Encourage students to love learning in and of itself.
--Teach students how to critically evaluate media propaganda.
--Teach kids to love Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
--Help students to logically debate a position.
During the awkward silence, the counselors all looked at me as if I had carrots growing out of my ears.
Al Adab| 12.10.09 @ 12:14PM
Counselor:
As to your final sentence, I'll bet they looked at you askance. What you outline above was once known as Education.
Conservative School Counselor| 12.10.09 @ 3:53PM
They most certainly did look at me askance! After all those educational obscenities I uttered, they couldn't even bring themselves to ask "and how did that make you feel?" or "so what I hear you saying is..." Education is not dead everywhere. Those crazy homeschoolers have a habit of outscoring public school students on the SAT and ACT and homeschoolers educate their kids for about a twentieth of what it costs to educate a kid in public school. By the time a student is in 7th grade, my particular state has spent about $80,000 on this student since kindergarten (Special Ed students are a lot more). For that amount of money, I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect more out of students. I had the opportunity to attend the 28th Chesterton Conference in Seattle, WA this last August and met some incredibly well-educated young people. They used words most of the other teachers in my school wouldn't understand. There are some good things going on out there, but it most likely won't be found in government schools.
Melvin| 12.10.09 @ 1:53PM
Counselor, you heathen you, you should be taken out and burned at the stake for being a heretic.
They all probably made mental notes to send you to get deprogrammed.
"If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.−Poster alleged to have hung in the office of former Nixon Aide Chuck Colson."
The major problem with this law in today's terms is that Liberal males have been emasculated and therefore void of testicles, I.E. Harry Reid. The list of Liberal Democrat, and Progressive Republican eunuchs that call themselves politicians is too numerous to put into text and I wouldn't want to bore you.
Conservative School Counselor| 12.10.09 @ 2:26PM
"Burned at the stake?" I hear that so much, it's lost all meaning. Melvin, I see you are familiar with Chuck Colson, whose name I previously mentioned in regards to Colson's Law. A good explanation of this law of human nature can be found in Dr. Peter Kreeft's article, "Your Inner Cop." I have actually used Colson's Law as the subject of a classroom lesson, which really resonated positively with a lot of students. I would also highly recommend "The War Against Boys" by Christina Hoff Summers and the short essay by C. S. Lewis, "Democratic Education." As to the eunuchs, a nation of geldings is much more manageable than a nation of stallions. It's all in Huxley's "Brave New World" and Lewis' "The Abolition of Man."
Melvin| 12.10.09 @ 2:55PM
Damn boi, no wonder you have them running to the drinking fountains to slam their Prozac. Your smoking them on an intellectual level.
They can't compete therefore your a threat.
I can't tell you how many times when I was active duty in the Marine Corps and I was tasked later on in my career to counsel the problem children who had less than six months in the Marine Corps, the one consistent comment that these young Marines kept repeating, "I thought the Marine Corps was going to be more rigid, like it was in boot camp."
These young men craved a rigid, male dominated environment. But on the flip side I had a large percentage of those young Marines also with less than six months who couldn't cope at all with a male dominated Alpha male environment no matter how much one on one counseling they received, they just wanted out.
The common flag that identified these Marines were that they were products of a single parent household with just the mother. These young men felt more at home with a female than with a male, because no one every taught them to act like a man.
Conservative School Counselor| 12.10.09 @ 5:40PM
Thank you, Melvin. The vast majority of students I see have broken or "reorganized" families. It is truly heartbreaking to see what often constitutes a "family" anymore. It is time for men to buck up and be the fathers both their sons and daughters need them to be. Men need to turn off the television and play with their kids.
Margie| 12.10.09 @ 6:16PM
This brings Bill Cosby to mind. I've heard he's gotten sick and tired of seeing children, particularly concerning his own race in this case, allowed to be ruined by non-caring Dads and I've heard him do a good talking to them in general.
We need more like him. Because it really does come down to the Dads!
Etta K Brown | 12.11.09 @ 2:48PM
Blessings to all of you who have discovered that good parenting is the key to children who benefit from public or any other form of education. Without parents, children are lost. One parent households are as successful as the parent who is running it. Some women know how to raise boys that become men. Others don't even bother to raise the girls. Thanks for bring the subject back home to parenting. I have crusaded since my retirment to bring attention to what the toxic environment is doing to children with chemicals preventing healthy brain development, and the parent failing to prepare their minds. The problem is worldwide, and the incidence of learning disabilities in the American public school system is exactly the same as it is in rural India, Europe and the Carribean. Learning disabilities have increased worldwide since WWII, and the FDA is not looking at what some manufacturers are passing off as "food" that are children are fed each day. Some of the toxins in a box of cereal have killed mice in lab research. It destroys brain cells or prevents them from forming in humans. Some children are not learning because they don't have the brain development to retain information. A learning disability implies a lack of central nervous system development, and no lesson plan is going to change the anatomy in a child's brain.
Then there are the teachers who can't teach, children who have never been taught to behave, and as an educator, I have to admit that some of ey colleagues know about as much about educating children as some of these commnents suggest that the writers know about public education.
School Psych near Boston| 12.13.09 @ 9:54PM
In over a decade working with kids with learning and behavior problems -- usually officially diagnosed as ADHD, SLD, or emotionally disabled -- I have worked with hundreds of kids. I can count on the fingers of one hand the numbers of boys who received services who had a clearly normal, functioning, old-fashioned head of the household Dad at home. Part of the education scam being run right now is that everything is "research based." But who's going to do or fund the research which would document what our eyes and common sense tell us. The removal/abdication of Dad from the center of family life is killing us.
"The sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children." I never understood that when I was a kid. I sure do now.
Jack Olson| 12.10.09 @ 12:20PM
If you as a teacher succeed in getting a pupil who is a discipline problem transferred to Special Ed, there is an 80% chance you'll never have to deal with him again. Chances are, his classmates won't be sorry to be rid of him. If he is also an academic laggard who won't study, getting rid of him also helps you and your school score higher when the pupils take standardized tests. He'll probably be resigned to the transfer or even glad of it since it relieves him of the expectation that he'll learn his lessons and eventually graduate.
ray bob| 12.10.09 @ 12:40PM
parents; protect your children from these hacks, especially your boys ... the education cabal will take normal boys and turn them into special ed's for being and/or acting like ... well young boys ... beware ..
Joel Foster| 12.10.09 @ 12:49PM
These so called "Spec.Ed".students who are allegedly "Emotionally Handicapped"or "Emotionally disturbed"wreak havoc in schools every single day.As protected individuals under the so called Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,(I.D.E.A.)principals are virtually powerless to remove them from schools and are almost afraid to deal with them.The most a principal can do is suspend them for up to 10 days.The problem students realize about the Middle School Level that they can do almost anything and get away with it so they progress from disruptive behaviors to criminal ones.So much time,money,effort is wasted on them and the average,regular student is often victimized by them in violent incidents.
Conservative School Counselor| 12.10.09 @ 1:45PM
The mechanism for this in Special Ed, as well as Special Ed's ugly little sister, Section 504, is what is known as Manifestation Dertermination. This is a document that must be filled out and signed by numerous staff any time a SpEd or Section 504 student is involved in a disciplinary incident. The purpose of this document is to determine if the students disciplinary infraction can be attributed to: the disability, inappropriate placement or services, the student's ability to understand the impact and consequences of their behavior, among other possible causes. If the disciplinary infraction can be attributed to the disability or failure on the part of the school to provide "appropriate services," the student is off the hook. The competence of the person writing the IEPs and Section 504s and how they word the IEP or 504 document can greatly influence how this all plays out. The label of "emotionally disturbed" is so vague, that with a little creativity, could be used be "determined" to be the cause of just about any undesirable behavior. If the student's behavior can't be attibuted to the disability or failure to provide services, then the cumulative 10 day rule comes into play. The student may then be subjected to a Functional Behavior Assessment (a mare's nest, in my opinion) to try to find out why the student is doing what they are doing and see if the inappropriate behavior can be replaced with a new and appropriate behavior (as determined by the school).
Pingback| 12.10.09 @ 12:58PM
The American Spectator : Special Education Abuse IM Consultant links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Ned| 12.10.09 @ 3:02PM
My eldest was "diagnosed" w/ ADD - by the school, not a doctor. They then spent the next three years trying to cram him into SpecEd classes, all of which attempts were disasters. There was no distinction made between severly disabled, and just really disinterested boys... all boys, of course. We finally got across to them that we wouldn't tolerate any more of that, and got outside tutors to help get him through, as well as taking all of his high school math from private schools. He now has TWO college degrees. Don't let the losers label your kids.
Margie| 12.10.09 @ 6:06PM
Awesome. Great example of what should happen when the Parents take control. I wish more Parents would do as you've done.
Roy| 12.13.09 @ 4:40AM
By the way it's "uninterested", not "disinterested". "Disinterested" means "impartial".
Then again, this may be one of those wrong usages that eventually becomes "right" through sheer weight of repetition..
Old School Counselor| 12.10.09 @ 3:42PM
I totally concur with the experience of the Conservative School Counselor. This is my 40th year in public education, 27 as a counselor. Identifying a kid as SLD, OHI (Other Health Impaired), or section 504 (ADD/ADHD) usually dooms the child to failure. Oh, s/he may ultimately receive a high school diploma, but this is usually achieved by placing the child in team taught classes with a watered down curriculm (in edspeak this is called "least restrictive environment"). Do you recalll GWB's statement concerning the "soft bigotry of low expectations"? That describes the special ed bureaucracy in spades. In most high schools you will discover that the largest department is special ed and in most districts the SPEDs will have the largest representations in the central office. All this is needed, allegedly, to keep track of the plethora of forms, regulations, timelines, etc. In most districts the sole function of school psychologists is to administer screening instruments to special ed candidates and students and to write boiler plate IEPs (Individualized Educational Plans). In my career, I have only encountered ONE school psychologist who actually agreed to counsel one of my "regular" students who was dealing w/ issues that I felt were beyond my expertise. The others I knew were always "too busy" testing to ever meet with a kid in a counseling setting.
Though my professional ethics prevent it, I wish I could frankly tell any parent to fight against having their child "receive" special ed "services." You may be ensuring her/his becoming a dysfunctional adult with poorly developed coping skills and few academic assets.
Conservative School Counselor| 12.10.09 @ 4:19PM
To paraphrase the words of Bart Simpson (from some early episode in which he was placed in a Special Ed class) "So I'm behind the other kids and I am supposed to catch up by going slower?"
Al Adab| 12.10.09 @ 4:25PM
Or, as the Red Queen told Alice, "Sometimes it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place." No wonder we get frustrated.
School Psych near Boston| 12.13.09 @ 9:44PM
Conservative School Counselor, Old School et al, I was thrilled to have stumbled across this string.
I've worked as a special ed teacher and now school psychologist for 12 years in Boston's inner city, and now in light-pink Boston suburbs -- two circles of the ed-scam inferno. The city game was as you've described it. There's a different game of Monte in the moneyed liberal suburbs, though. What they do is jack up the NCLB-mandated "standards" so high that just-below average students score in the "needs improvement" range of our mandated tests. Never mind that the curriculum (at least in elementary school, where I work) has been ARTIFICIALLY ACCELLERATED-- what I learned in seventh grade 30 years ago is now supposed to be mastered by ten-year-olds. When they test out as average IQ but "not making progress" in class, we call it a Specific Learning Disabilility, and the parents breathe a sigh of relief . Ahh, my child is a victim! So we end up with fully a fifth of kids on special ed plans. My favorite aspect of the game is that the teachers unions (all but mandatory here) get to play heads I win tails you lose: crow about "high standards" and what great strides schools are making; use evidence of school failure as a chance to pass the hat for more money "for the children."
I am praying for the courage to put an "I'm for School Choice" bumper sticker on my car. I like my coworkers personally, but how do you think the stormtroopers of tolerance and diversity would act if presented with such an affront?
At least that's the picture here in Mass. May God help us all.
Jim Anderson| 12.11.09 @ 1:16AM
From 1973 to 1977, I taught 7th and 8th grade English, Reading and Social Studies in a poor urban neighborhood. If you had entered my room during the first two years, you would have seen many - supposedly - ADD boys and some girls.
My classrooms - in short - resembled madhouses.
I knew I was a failure. I spoke to the school's village elder - the guy to whom everyone in the building looked for guidance. Since I had a beard, and he was very conventional in appearance, he wasn't sure if I was sincere. I was. I was like a drunk who had hit bottom.
"O.K.," he said, "This is what you do to run a classroom...."
In less than two minutes - TWO MINUTES - he told me four rules to impose, the punishment for violation of those rules - [which was the same for all infractions - 30 minutes after school that day] no exceptions - and the unerring enforcement of the rules and disciplinary follow up. I couldn't believe that anything could be that 'simple.'
He was right. I followed his rules and policies like religious dogma. The following year, my reputation as an incompetent was fast waning within the first day! The next two years were two of the most enjoyable years of my life and I know the students enjoyed their experiences as well.
An organized and orderly atmosphere can be maintained with any kids. It is the teacher who must set the boundaries, enforce them without fail and be able to 'act' angry without becoming angry.
The analogy is crude but: For someone to teach a teacher how to maintain discipline is like teaching obedience lessons to pets. Almost inevitably, it is the teacher and the pet owner that need the training. The students and the pets are merely reacting to your lack of simple rules, consistent enforcement and personal self control.
One other thing: Discipline in a classroom IS everything. Without it, nothing else good can come. Nothing.
Jim Anderson
anderson.james@att.net
TOM LETOURNEAU| 12.11.09 @ 9:15AM
HAVING BEEN ELECTED TO, AND SERVED ON MY TOWN'S SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR 3-TERMS I CAN UNEQUIVOCALLY STATE THAT IT IS A TOTAL DISGRACE THE WAY THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, THE TEACHER'S UNIONS AND THE PARENTS OF THESE "SO-CALLED" SPECIAL ED KIDS ARE DOING IN SO FAR AS MILKING THE SYSTEM FOR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN UNNECESSARY COSTS!
A LOT OF IT IS ONLY BEING DONE, ESPECIALLY EARLY CHILDHOOD DIAGNOSIS OF THE MOST INCONSEQUENTIAL OF DEVELOPMENT ISSUES, SO THAT THE PARENTS CAN GET FREE DAY CARE PAID FOR BY THE SYSTEM...SOMETHING THAT THEY HAVE LEARNED FROM FRIENDS, OR FAMILY, THAT HAVE ALREADY PLAYED THE GAME!!
ONCE INTO THE 1ST-GRADE THE NUMBER OF SPECIAL ED STUDENTS, AT LEAST HERE IN RI, ESPECIALLY BY UNION CONTRACT, BECOMES THE DETERMINING FACTOR AS TO CLASS SIZE...IN THAT IT MUST BE SMALLER WHICH REQUIRES THE SYSTEM(S) TO, NATURALLY, HIRE MORE TEACHERS!
AND, I HAVE ACTUALLY SEEN IT, AND SAT IN EXECUTIVE, CLOSED DOOR SESSIONS, WHEREIN PARENTS CAME IN WITH "PRESCRIPTIONS" FROM THEIR DOCTORS ORDERING THE CUMBERLAND SCHOOL SYSTEM TO SEND THEIR CHILD TO SCHOOLS SUCH AS ST. ANDREWS, IN BARRINGTON, RI AT A COST OF, AT THE TIME (1995) OF $18,000.00 PER YEAR!
WANT MORE???
c stryker| 12.11.09 @ 5:15PM
I was placed in a special class for slow students in the sixth grade and loved it. I was simply bored and uninterested in the classes.
i did love the special attention recieved and how easy the school work was in the slow classes.
Poor teachers equal poor students. Every child needs tutoring at some point,being labled slow allows the child underachive.
so you were hatched educated| 12.11.09 @ 5:38PM
Gosh, with so much vitriol for educators and education, I'm assuming you were all hatched, fully formed, with doctorates.
This of course being shown to not be true because the *cough* esteemed author didn't realize that dyslexia is an SLD, not an emotional disturbance, autism is a developmental disability with its own categorization, mental retardation is a developmental disability, ADHD falls under Other Health Impaired along with a range of other conditions unless there are behavior issues that make an Emotional/Behaviorally Disturbed classification more appropriate (this is where you find children with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder).
Yeah, I can see why you hate teachers so much, clearly you never learned to even google.
so much wrong| 12.16.09 @ 1:44PM
Thank you for pointing out all the errors of fact in this story. The author has done no reporting...as Al Franken said on the floor of the senate the other day, "You're entitled to your opinion. You're not entitled to your own facts."
Because of all the obvious errors I saw, I discounted the entire story.
Valerie Kaiser| 12.11.09 @ 8:56PM
No one seems to remember the "whole language" approach to reading that started in California school
systems and proceeded to reek havoc across the country. Coupled w/ a lack of phonetic reading instruction and severe misdiagnosing of dyslexia as ADD or ADHD, millions of students were lost in a system that could not address their needs properly. My own experience w/ my child's monumental struggle w/in the public school system to be properly diagnosed as dyslexic was daunting to say the least. Labeling dyslexic children as ADD was done routinely because the public school system did not fund that specific instruction approach. Many parents are too intimidated by the education "speak" that is used
when meeting the team of educators to even question the diagnosis. Doctors overprescribe medication to these students as well as to the overly active boys . Most of these boys lack proper physical outlet time-what used to be called recess and P.E. My child recently graduated w/honors from high school. a Senior Beta member, no less. We had to put her in private schools to have her needs addressed. It was worth every cent and every ounce of struggle to do so for her. She is now enrolled in college and is a gifted writer. Most of these kids have high IQ's- the current system makes them objects of ridicule and shame.
Trackback| 12.12.09 @ 4:00AM
repair credit, on repair credit, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 12.12.09 @ 11:56AM
Used to be a Math/Science teacher here in Florida until being laid off after 9/11. The "Public" schools should be shut down and the money and responsibility for education given to the parents/guardians. To those who say that the kids wouldn't become educated, I'd say that such ideas would have no currency if the schools nationally were turning out a finished product. That is not what's coming out of the government controlled schools. I spent waaay too much time with crowd control and disruptive students. My black students were not there to get an education but rather to raise Hell and spout off about the "Racist" White Man. I likened public schools as nothing more than expensive day care. The entire "National educational establishment" is nothing but a liberal scam of the taxpayers dollars and a fraud intellectually. One of my colleagues, an energetic black female who was a new teacher, said to me one day, after the Police Officer had to take yet another "student" away, "I didn't become a teacher to do this." Shut down the entire failed system.
Pingback| 12.22.09 @ 2:13AM
. o O ( Am I Dyslexic – Dyslexia Screening Online Test Review: Scam or Serious? ) links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 2.10.10 @ 8:49PM
Cleveland Schools Aim for Healthy Students and Teachers links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
poptropica | 4.8.10 @ 10:54PM
I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale
You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. Poptropica
Brandon Neverlee| 4.29.10 @ 2:23PM
I know what you are saying! Special Ed kids should be converted with the H264 into tiny GOP files and then run through the Coulson system of dynamic infusion of Nixonism with a Reagan lunch!!!!! Yes, yes, Tea bagger them so nicely. That's the answer!!!!!!