The sad part is how easy it is to have a child diagnosed with some
sort of disability..... poor parenting and laziness now gives children
carte blanche to skate through school- this way there is no effort
required by the kid or by the parent. Win win.
The situation needs to be scrutinzed and changed- no more of this ISP/
504 plan crap for every little teeny tiny minute problem that kids
have or parents claim that their kids have. The purpose of the ISP/504
plan has been so bastardized that it now covers a kid who has a "small
baldder" and has to be allowed to leave the classroom at will because
they have to pee. They used to be for legitimate exceptionalities,
now, it is possible to have 10 kids in one class who have them- and
teachers HAVE to comply- or face losing their jobs. So much blame gets
put back on teacher but no one realizes how many rules that teachers
have to follow in order not to:
offend a child ("sit down and be quiet" is offensive, especially to a
child who "can't control themselves through a diagnosed handicap such
as ADD/ADHD)
insure success of a child (which can mean that a teacher must give
credit to one child just because he or she can put their name legibly
on a piece of paper but the child next to them must get more than 50%
of the answers correctly to get credit for the work- so success is not
really something you can measure or quantify)
encrouage the children (but you can't set unrealistic expectiations
for children who have been diagnosed with emotional handicaps- this
could upset them, "you can do better work, you are capable" that is a
huge no no- they can't do better- they are EH!)
and heaven forbid if a teacher tries to have any boundaries or
classroom rules or behaviour management in the classroom- you can't do
that when you have a number of children who have 504 plans or ISPs-
you can't require THEM to sit and be quiet or sit and do seat work...
so if you can't have part of the class under control, there is no way
to control the rest. And you surely can't send them to the office- if
you do, they will send them back to you and then chastise you for not
having good classroom management skills. You can't look at the class
of 30 and say "ok, 21 of you have to sit down, be quiet, and do your
work, the others are going to be swinging from the rafters, running
around, and disturbing you and that is ok, just ignore them, they have
a special plan that you don't have."
Teachers hands are tied and they get more and more restrictions placed
on them because of these kids and their parents.
I taught for years, my mother is a teacher, my dad is a retired
teacher, my sister is a teacher, both grandparents were teachers.
Teachers seem to get the blame when students do not succeed or can not
read.... it is the system, not the teachers (for the most part), that
are failing to properly educate our youth.
With all of this said, there are children who have legitimate special
needs- but these needs should be met in special education settings,
not in the mainstream- it does not work- the concept has been
misconstrued. Kids with special needs need special attention- parents
do not want their children "ostracized" but what they do not realize
is that it is for the best for that child- it is not because no one
wants to deal with them or they are being punished- if anything, this
works so much better for them in the long run but parents, in their
ignorance of the way they system works, make demands that their child
be acommodated so accommodating takes place- at the expense of the
quality of education everyone, including their child, receives.
Special education requirements need to be met by teachers who are
specially trained for this. Regular education teachers are not trained
on how to deal with these special needs children, they are just told
what they can and can not do, and what special accommodations have to
be made for them. That is it!
Until someone who really cares about education, someone who has been
in the trenches, teaching grade 7 for years- until someone who truly
understands what the needs are and where the shortfalls are- until
this person steps into a role of power- the true problems will never
be made public, and the solution will never even be suggested much
less put in place.
Post by m***@hotmail.comPost by GabbyPost by m***@hotmail.comI disagree. I've seen too many cases firsthand to agree. The education
system is a joke. Keep in mind Mr. Warren, that the morons that are
being ouched through school will be running the country when you're a
senior citizen
Anecdotes do not provide sound evidence of a given phenomenon but they
are more persuasive thaan other forms of evidence because they are
often personal and emotional. Sure, you could find students who have
graduated from the system in NL who are academically incompetent but
they in no way are generalizable to the population of students in this
province. By your logic smoking is a great thing because most people I
know who have smoked for many years have lived long healthy lives.
The real evidence lies in students' actual grades as they progress
through the school system, in combination with the results of
standardized tests - province wide comparsions which are valid can be
made from such data. Having analyzed such data from several school
years (within the last 6 years) I can tell you that student scores
across all subject areas are where they are supposed to be for a
normal population. The education system is not a joke - at least not
based on the few cases you have observed.
Mark
I don't put too much credence in the 'standardized tests' since I
found out from a teacher friend of mine that teachers in that school
routinely change answers for their class in order not to look bad.- Hide quoted text -
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This is a problem and any teacher who acts in this manner should find
themselves without a job. There are shady teachers out there, as with
other professions, which can give others a bad name.
Mark- Hide quoted text -
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