Accommodate
Ask any teacher, and they will tell you that mainstreaming of students with educational handicaps is one of the biggest problems schools face today. Boardman Local Schools has always ranked as one of the top school systems here in Mahoning County. But for the last few years, their ranking has fallen. The Superintendent of Schools bluntly told the media after the last round of state testing, the reason for the decline in Boardman’s ranking was due directly to a hand full of students with developmental problems who are required to be tested with the rest of the student body, notwithstanding any physical or mental handicaps that would hinder their ability to learn.
In another local system, the principal has warned the high school staff of the incoming 9th grade class which has a disproportionate amount of students with educational handicaps. Rulings from various courts require the school to “accommodate” these students. That means giving them special seating, special tests, reading tests to them. One of my clients, who is also a teacher, complained to me that these students take up almost 40% of his classroom time.
In one school system just south of here in Columbiana County, there is a student who suffers from a debilitating physical handicap and is confined to a wheel chair. That, in and of itself, is not a problem. But this student suffers from seizures, bladder and bowel problems, limited motor skills, and has to have a full time aid with her at the school system’s expense. Aid notwithstanding, this girl’s teachers, in case of an emergency, are required to lift her out of her wheelchair and physically move her. Given this girl’s family’s propensity to sue, the teachers are worried if the girl suffers any injury in this process, they would be held liable.
Is this any way to run an education system? In this feely good era of political correctness, do these parents want these students mainstreamed for the good of the students, or to make the parents feel better? Teachers have a tough enough time with restrictions coming out the proverbial whazzoo as to how they can discipline a student, how they can grade a student, how they teach a student, how to raise mandatory test scores, without having to worry about teaching special needs students, for which the teachers are not trained, taking up the majority of their teaching time. No one learns in that kind of an environment, least of all the special needs student.
While we like to believe in this country that we are all created equal, the fact of the matter is we are not. A one size fits all approach to education simply won’t work. It is time our lawmakers and our courts come to their senses. The key word in public education is “education”. And that is what has stopped in our schools in order to accommodate students who frankly shouldn’t be in a mainstreamed classroom. Some students, simply stated, need special help and educational opportunities. The education of the vast majority of students should not suffer, in this day of high technology and specialization, in order to make somebody feel good.
I suggest that we need, as a society, to re-examine our approach to students with special needs. The needs of these good folks should be given MORE attention and MORE focus so they can become productive members of our society, and to achieve such self sufficiency as their abilities will allow. But it should not be done at the expense of the learning of the vast majority of students in the classroom.
In another local system, the principal has warned the high school staff of the incoming 9th grade class which has a disproportionate amount of students with educational handicaps. Rulings from various courts require the school to “accommodate” these students. That means giving them special seating, special tests, reading tests to them. One of my clients, who is also a teacher, complained to me that these students take up almost 40% of his classroom time.
In one school system just south of here in Columbiana County, there is a student who suffers from a debilitating physical handicap and is confined to a wheel chair. That, in and of itself, is not a problem. But this student suffers from seizures, bladder and bowel problems, limited motor skills, and has to have a full time aid with her at the school system’s expense. Aid notwithstanding, this girl’s teachers, in case of an emergency, are required to lift her out of her wheelchair and physically move her. Given this girl’s family’s propensity to sue, the teachers are worried if the girl suffers any injury in this process, they would be held liable.
Is this any way to run an education system? In this feely good era of political correctness, do these parents want these students mainstreamed for the good of the students, or to make the parents feel better? Teachers have a tough enough time with restrictions coming out the proverbial whazzoo as to how they can discipline a student, how they can grade a student, how they teach a student, how to raise mandatory test scores, without having to worry about teaching special needs students, for which the teachers are not trained, taking up the majority of their teaching time. No one learns in that kind of an environment, least of all the special needs student.
While we like to believe in this country that we are all created equal, the fact of the matter is we are not. A one size fits all approach to education simply won’t work. It is time our lawmakers and our courts come to their senses. The key word in public education is “education”. And that is what has stopped in our schools in order to accommodate students who frankly shouldn’t be in a mainstreamed classroom. Some students, simply stated, need special help and educational opportunities. The education of the vast majority of students should not suffer, in this day of high technology and specialization, in order to make somebody feel good.
I suggest that we need, as a society, to re-examine our approach to students with special needs. The needs of these good folks should be given MORE attention and MORE focus so they can become productive members of our society, and to achieve such self sufficiency as their abilities will allow. But it should not be done at the expense of the learning of the vast majority of students in the classroom.
Comments