On Monday 10 Oct 2005 10:52, Kathleen Salkin wrote:
> Deri, as Bobby said, this assumes that the special ed teachers
> actually teach mind-challenging classes.    Mine didn't until the
> sixth grade, when I had a teacher who was alarmed at  how poorly we
> were prepared to go out and academically compete in the real world.
> So she pulled together a group of the kids in her class whose parents
> were planning to send them to "regular schools" the following year,
> and drilled us and challenged us to excel.  I am still grateful Mrs.
> Holzer to this day for pushing us to do the work, not just baby-sit
> us to the end of our elementary school terms.
>
> The special ed attitude of the day seemed to be "the most important
> thing is to  get them on their feet and the rest will follow."   I
> remember that kids who couldn't walked seemed to be regarded as lazy
> or deemed incompetent, which of course was not the case at all.  But
> by the time I left elementary school, the attitude shifted to a more
> realistic view and I recall the state issuing new standards at some
> point for special education.
>
> Kat
>

Hi Kat,

I am not trying to argue that Special Ed is automatically better than
integrating into the main stream school, just that the PC attitude that
integration is "always" better is not correct, no matte how often repeated.

In my experience, quality of education has a good correlation to finance,
after all, the rich, often privately educate their children by sending them
away to a boarding school. I'm sure we would all agree that the extra expense
in giving a disabled child a "good start" is something a caring society would
expect to support. The problem is that resources are limited, so is it better
to cut this cake thinly giving a small portion to every school just so
"little willy" can go to his local school, or is it better to have fewer but
much better funded schools particularly focused on different disabilities?

It could be argued that the Blind are particularly successful at integrating
into society and the workplace, certainly on my daily commute they are the
largest single disabled group I see. Yet, certainly in this country, they
have retained their segregated Special Ed boarding schools, rather than
demanding "integration" they demand the extra funding for their own schools.

In your original post you also touched on the point that some parents of
disabled kids are too protective, stunting the child's sense of independence.
A by product of attending a boarding school is that the feeling of
independence must be strengthened.

I know I am a lone voice in the wilderness here, and perhaps this need to
"stand up for Special Ed" is caused by a sense of guilt that I was a lucky
one. One whose education cost many times more than non disabled kids, paid
for by the state, but returned in full to the Exchequer through paying tax on
3 times the average UK salary.

Cheers

Deri