What are special teachers like?

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Well, apparently if I don't get special teachers or a special tutor before the end of this school year, there's a good chance that I'll fail this grade. The counselor said that it's best that I get assessed very soon before it's harder to when I start high school.
Anyway, I am trying to imagine the possibilities here. I hate school, because it's hard to learn certain things in literature and stuff. The counselor said that it's because of asperger's, just like almost everything else is because of asperger's, like always. She said that some aspies are better off in a special education class, and some aren't. I read that too. My elvish, aspie friend is better at school than me, but only slightly. She agrees. Maybe it's because she's an elf, and I'm not one. I just say that, because several things that I shan't mention end up going positively differently for her, and not me, and some of them are because she's an elf.
Has anybody here went from not special education teachers to special education teachers? Did you like them better? Has anybody here always had them, and do you like them? I want to imagine a world where I'd not feel out of sync when trying to learn stuff in school all the time, and maybe it will become better. I get confused in school so much that it's tiring, and it's been old for a long time.

Special teachers work much more closely with you and seem to try to understand you more on a personal level than non-special teachers. I was mainstreamed for a semester in 8th grade in which I struggled and felt like I didn't get any understanding or consideration from the school staff; when I was expelled and subsequently went to a special school for kids with mental illness and substance abuse problems, the teachers there were much more willing to work with me on a personalized level, which was just what I needed at the time. If you're having difficulty on a subject or with school in general, even with effort, then a special teacher might be helpful.

It really depends on the person. Some are kind and understanding, others are mean and condescending.

I have done the opposite. I had special education up to the 7th grade (in the USA)
and now I am in a regular public school. Although I still have some special ed.
The reason why we have learning difficulties is because our brains process things
in an unconventional manner. Special ed teachers who have been trained to work with
us kids on the autistic spectrum, know how to teach us more efficiently. And are also
a lot more hands on.

There were special helpers in elementary school and in 6th grade.
I have always been in normal classes, but these were special ed teachers that were there to help people who had problems (not only diagnosed ones or people with mental disorders, but even those who just had problems but didn't have any disorder).
I don't remember the 1st grade special ed teacher. The one in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade was quite grumpy towards other students but she was not towards me and the two dyslexic kids in my class. She actually liked me and even if my classmates hated her I liked her.
In 5th grade there was a teacher with a funny accent and I used to talk to her.
In 6th grade there were two. The female one was awful and used to bully the kid with Down's syndrome in my class; the male one was nice to pretty much everyone.
Since 7th grade I have never seen any other special helper.
It's not like this in every school. Andrew is dyslexic but in elementary school there weren't any support teachers in his class (he has always been in normal clases as well).

I wish that I would have teachers like that. School is only getting worse and worse, and 8th grade has been the hardest. Did you like having special teachers better? What kind of hands on things did you do?

Have you had a tutor for your weaker subjects?

Special ed could go either way, helping you advance or stalling you at low level.

No, I haven't had a tutor, because I have been completely and stubbornly rebuffing it since the idea came up, and because my mom just didn't look for one, I assume.

I would try a tutor before special ed. Why do you resist the idear?

Based on what I heard about special ed from local high schools (good public high schools), they learn nothing.

Sitting a room room alone with a strange human pressuring me to learn difficult things makes me uncomfortable and dizzy.

Maybe you should find ways to learn on your own, if you can't learn from current teachers, tutors, or special ed teachers are not much different from the others. I spent most of grade school learning on my own.

I don't know how to. I don't even understand exactly what it is I'm supposed to learn.

Well yeah special ed teachers know how to work with autistic and learning disabled kids, and regular teachers only really know how to work with regular kids. Now I have never had a private tutor or anything like that. I have been in special ed private schools, that have much smaller classrooms than public schools - like 20 students per class. And the same is true of the couple of special ed classes I have now in public middle school 8th grade. Special ed schools and classrooms are not that much different, just smaller and geared towards special education, and the teachers work a lot more closely with you and are more understanding of your difficulties. Although I will say I have had a few special ed teachers over the last seven years that have kinda sucked.

What did they do that you didn't like, and what hands on stuff did you do?

Its hard to say specifically, its just compared to other teachers, they did not seem as good.
Because the class size is smaller, a special ed teacher can sit down with you during class and go over things with you more and stuff like that. And its seems like it takes a special kind of person to want to be a special ed teacher, and that shows through. Probably the teachers I liked less, had less of that special quality. My one and only friend is like that too. He is just naturally really good with working with special needs people.

Overall special education teachers don't really have that much focus on academics. Personality wise some are very nice and pleasant, while others are condescending. The special education teachers get taught that their classroom is a form of segregation, and that their classroom should be eliminated and replaced with inclusion (meaning that the kids attend the same classes as everyone else). Some teachers have a special needs background themselves and might be very good teachers, but usually get pushed out of teaching, and wind up on disability instead of helping the kids.