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smdl
I love Gary too..on a plate!
Member since 5/06 32461 total posts
Name:
me
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Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
Special ed. classes don't always educate
Published: March 24, 2011 8:19 PM
The March 16 editorial ";Panel on school mandates flunked," stated that school mandates "help handicapped children get the education they need." Where are the facts to support this statement?
For a large number of special education students, reports about their development exist but are not made public.
Special education students are individually evaluated every three years. At 21 years, when these students "age out," information on these tests should be collated according to the handicapping classifications of the students. We would then know their IQ, mental age, reading and math grades.
Numerical data for students in special education is plentiful. When I was teaching, I read the results of the triennial evaluations with great care.
Consider a 19-year-old handicapped student who matures at the rate of three months a year. Say his education in a BOCES special education program costs $90,000 for a 10-month school year. His mental age is equal to that of a child 6 years and 9 months old, and his previous evaluation gave him the mental age of a student 6 years old. So for $270,000, we have bought nine months of mental growth.
One time, when I mentioned to a psychologist that a student's IQ score had dropped, she said the student had reached his optimal level of functioning and his scores would most likely continue to drop as the required tasks involve higher levels of reasoning and comprehension skills. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act does not recognize ineducable children. This is good for the educational bureaucracy, but not so good for these students. There are students in special education today who will need a lifetime of care and support services, cradle to grave.
These students should get all the services they are now getting, but the services should not be labeled and funded as education. Special education for profoundly handicapped students puts them in a caring, concerned and stimulating environment. It is a remarkable accomplishment, but it does not educate them.
When an editorial states unequivocally that school mandates help handicapped children, the writer is lumping all handicapped children together. There are more differences between the children who are handicapped than there are between handicapped children and average children.
Special education needs to be reformed and a major newspaper like Newsday, even if it wants to keep the status quo, should be giving its readers more than one point of view.
Jane Goldblatt
East Northport
Editor's note: The writer is a retired public schoolteacher who taught mentally handicapped children.
*******
Jane Goldblatt..... you are a nasty nasty person who I wonder WHY THE HECK DID YOU TEACH SPECIAL ED IF YOU REALLY FELT THIS WAY ABOUT THE CHILDREN YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TEACH?
You def. did not have those children at heart to teach them and MAYBE that's why so many of them failed. SN chilren DO learn with the RIGHT educator. With your CLEAR HATE, no wonder kids did not succeed. Maybe you should look in the mirror and see who really failed. SN children or you as a teacher.
Gotta love the "editor's note" too: MENTALLY HANDICAPPED?????? shows how OLD SCHOOL they are.
Maybe we should just put SN children back in mental institutions like it used to be many years ago. Seriously!!!!!
I am SOOOO outerly disgusted with people like her. Even more disgusted that she feels that way after she spent YEARS teaching to a population she hated.
Message edited 3/27/2011 7:34:25 AM.
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Posted 3/26/11 9:51 PM  |
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mom2aidan
2 boys & 1 girl :)
Member since 11/06 1874 total posts
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
I read this today and it literally made my stomach turn. She did such a disservice to generations of children.
Some people have so much hate, ignorance and prejudice in their hearts that I wonder what they'd be like if it were THEIR child who struggled? I don't wish it on anyone, but it does cross my mind...
I know that even though my son is making great progress I am forever transformed by this experience... That's why I cry when I read posts like dm24angel's - what kind of person puts a price tag on that??
I'm grateful to be part of a community of mommies who understand 
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| Posted 3/26/11 10:16 PM |
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Jackie24
~We Did it~
Member since 7/06 6718 total posts
Name:
Jackie
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
WOW  And while we're at it let's just bring back institutions
Is this person serious? I highly doubt she has a child with a disability or has ever worked with one.
Message edited 3/27/2011 1:57:29 AM.
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| Posted 3/27/11 1:56 AM |
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iluvmynutty
Mom to E&M
Member since 12/08 1762 total posts
Name:
D
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
Ugh, what an idiot!
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| Posted 3/27/11 8:11 AM |
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Diane
Hope is Contagious....catch it
Member since 5/05 30683 total posts
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D
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
When I read that I just wanted to punch this woman.
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| Posted 3/27/11 8:32 AM |
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
I literally read this 3 times. At first, I thought she was writing complaining about the education system. Isn't that what she is doing, or is she actually defending the idea of not making special education "education"?
I thought she was complaining that special educators aren't doing enough, so help me out here - is she actually complaining that these students are getting too much??????
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| Posted 3/27/11 12:11 PM |
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smdl
I love Gary too..on a plate!
Member since 5/06 32461 total posts
Name:
me
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
Posted by lipglossjunky73
I literally read this 3 times. At first, I thought she was writing complaining about the education system. Isn't that what she is doing, or is she actually defending the idea of not making special education "education"?
I thought she was complaining that special educators aren't doing enough, so help me out here - is she actually complaining that these students are getting too much??????
I think she is really saying the amount of money spent on those kids it is not worth the end result.
But I think this argument goes for ALL kids. Some kids will be drop out from the regular system so should we just do some prescreening of ALL kids and only keep the gifted one in school since those are really the one that might get a great job and so doing so so in school will only get "mediocre" job hence why invest in ANY kids at all?
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| Posted 3/27/11 6:17 PM |
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
Posted by smdl
Posted by lipglossjunky73
I literally read this 3 times. At first, I thought she was writing complaining about the education system. Isn't that what she is doing, or is she actually defending the idea of not making special education "education"?
I thought she was complaining that special educators aren't doing enough, so help me out here - is she actually complaining that these students are getting too much??????
I think she is really saying the amount of money spent on those kids it is not worth the end result.
But I think this argument goes for ALL kids. Some kids will be drop out from the regular system so should we just do some prescreening of ALL kids and only keep the gifted one in school since those are really the one that might get a great job and so doing so so in school will only get "mediocre" job hence why invest in ANY kids at all?
See, if she is saying that, it must be boggling my mind so severely, that I can't even read it like that  It just goes against the fiber of my being to see students in that way.... Wow....
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| Posted 3/27/11 7:58 PM |
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dpli
Daylight savings :)
Member since 5/05 13973 total posts
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Re: Seriously???? Someone who missed her calling in another career.
Posted by smdl
I think she is really saying the amount of money spent on those kids it is not worth the end result.
I didn't read it this way. I don't agree with her, but what I thought she was saying is that after a certain point of development, perhaps the training and assistance these students get shouldn't be classified as education since they aren't making such big incremental advances.
The statement that criticizes school mandates also got my back up. I think most of us have seen that if there weren't mandates, the schools would most likely cut many or most of the services they provide now.
I see what she is saying about a student gaining only 9 months of abilities since his/her last evaluation, but as a parent, what that says to me is that this student is still progressing and is still able to learn. IMO, that qualifies as education. I also think that taxpayers are less tolerant of cuts to education than they are of cuts to social services. To take these services out of the educational system would be disasterous, IMO.
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| Posted 3/28/11 10:00 AM |
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