School Special Education! Pointless?

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What is the Point of School Special Ed? All it does is make you stand out. I Mean if the school is trying to help then i'm oblivious to it.

I needed it for math. I begged my counselor to put me in it, but he wouldn't. Found out later that wasn't legal. I think if it's needed then why not. I am still severally math handicapped. 45 years old and I am probably 3rd-4th grade level math. Went to a private school for a year, and they got me up to 5th grade level. But I lost what I learned when I went back to the public school. I didn't know I had discalculous untill I was in college.

It also depends on the school. To take one bad school experience and delegate it to all school experiences is not very wise. There are a lot of kids who need the special training.

Schools have outrageously large classrooms. There is no way that some of us can get the kind of education we deserve if we are to be placed in an outrageously large classroom, where the teacher has to deal with thirty to fourty students.

I advocate smaller classrooms and individualized planning for all students. Maybe then, the idea of "special ed" will be a thing of the past. Until that time comes, however, it has to be the way it is.

- Ray M -

To understand the stigma behind special ed, you have to understand the structure of schools in general. Schools are designed for group mentality where everyone thinks and acts alike and outsiders are ridiculed. That is why many students in special ed are considered targets.

As far as forcing schools to educate students who are not normal, the system either has to take in all children, or it will take in none. Before the passage of IDEA in the US, most schools refused to take in any student who needed special help. They did not want to deal with anything that would mess up the system where all cogs work alike. IDEA forced the districts to take in all students, regardless of the severity of their disability. If it were not for this force (say a line was drawn), the district would make sure that as many students as possible fell outside of the line so that they would have to deal with as few different children as possible (this is regardless of potential for each individual child).

Special Ed is a necessary evil because of the way that the school system is designed. There are other ways to educate that is not so schedule bound but that is a discussion for another time.

I HATED it in 6th grade. I was the only person with autism/asperger's at my elementary school, and the special education class they put me in was full of rowdy and low-functioning ADHD kids.

If you live in Illinois, absolutely.

I can't say about other states; I just remember overhearing stuff like, "They're not in here for them; they're ret*d. They're here so other students can learn."

They put me in special ed for "organization" issues. But they put me in the room with kids who actually were mentally ret*d or had down syndrome. You know what they had us do? A stupid typing program. Talk about preschool-level math. Address envelopes. To somewhere else in the building.

...Does that answer your question?

[PS: I'm no longer in Special Ed, THANK GOD.]

I couldn't learn in a general ed classroom. I bounced around from school to school, and I didn't learn anything, until they placed me in self-contained special ed. Thanks to the special ed teachers I had, I was able to catch up for all that wasted time, and I ended up going to graduate school to be a special ed teacher myself. I shudder to think where I would be right now, or even who I would be right now, if I had stayed in general ed.

There was no special ed at the school I went to, but then I started school in 1970 and mine was a private school. My kids school has special ed and I know the lady who used to teach that class (it was one class). She said the kids are very low functioning and they really don't get beyond about 5th grade level, if that, and she taught in the high school.

I've been at the school bringing somethting to my daughter when the bell rang to change classes, and we were standing in the hall talking. The lady I know who teaches special ed came by and had her class following her. All the mainstream kids were saying hello to them and any of the kids they passed would high five them. You may have one or two jerks in the entire school, but overall the rest of the kids treat them fine. Everybody calls them "the special kids" and they don't do it in a mean way. I asked my son the other day, after reading something on the forum, if the other kids were mean to the special kids. He looked at me like I had two heads and said "Are you serious Mom? If somebody were to be that low as to mess with one of them, do you have any idea how many people in that school would jump them for it? You just don't go around doing stuff like that, wouldn't nobody I know do that". So, thats good that they aren't picked on or anything.

That's the situation with special ed at this rural county high school here.

Yes, I was in a similar situation. An even worse situation as they were the troublemakers and i was an easier target in there.

I guess it's different for me because I was one of the "troublemakers". (I have ADHD as well as AS.) I'm not sure why they saw fit to place you in such a class. That would never happen at any of the schools I've worked at. But it is not fair to say special education is "pointless" just because it wasn't right for you. There are many students who really need it and benefit from it.

i hate it, especially having an aide

<warning, long post>
First off, let me remind you i'm not American, I come from Denmark.

In some larger schools there are special ed classrooms, but in other cases "special" kids are enrolled en dedicated special ed schools. I was in one of the latter from 1st grade to half of fifth grade, and IMHO it did me more harm than good in the long run.

I was in one of two classroom dedicated to HFA kids, while the third was basically a daycare for LFA kids.
The environment was strictly controlled for those with sensory issues, which was a good thing. six students in class of varying ages allowed me to immerse myself in my work, and it was quite good for the first year or two, but by grade 3, it was slowly driving me insane. The scoolwork stopped being challenging (I basically tore through math and grammar books, most were completely done within a few weeks even though they contain a year's worth of work), and after some time it just felt like I had been dumped there. I ended up doing not much else than playing chess with one of my classmates.

Eventually though, I was moved into a normal classroom at a neighboring school for math and music lessons. It was great at first, but after a while I felt like I was being treated like an imbecile by the other kids, it was hard to make friends in this alien place... nobody wanted to be with that weird kid who had a teacher following his every step. Apart from that, the work was challenging and I ended up sitting down at my desk as soon as I got there, not to hit the books, but to observe the other kids and their doings.

Later on I found out more about the regular school system and its inner workings. I was able to make a few friends in the normal class and helped them along with math and grammar work. The teacher/aide quit following my every footstep and was usually in the hallway talking to some of the other teachers at that school. It was great during this time, and I got to learn many of the social cues that I was denied before I came there.
I eventually started bugging my parents to get enrolled in a normal school, not only because of the more challenging work, but also because of me being able to suck up all the social cues. I was denied until a golden opportunity rolled along around the middle of 5th grade; My dad was being stationed in Australia by his job, and my mum and I were coming with.

Due to the Aussie school system being different regarding special ed, I ended up being enrolled in a regular classroom after being evaluated by a psycologist, it was a dream come true. The other kids were very hospitable toward me (in the true Aussie spirit ), and I tried the best to hide my AS away, even though it regularly failed. I had an aide, Mr. Henry, who gave me additional English lessons after school. I learned very quicly, sucking every iota of information up like a sponge. After a month and a half, it was decided that I no longer needed Mr. Henry, and that I could function in the classroom on par with the others, but there was one problem lurking in the background.
Because of the strict conditions at my previous school, I eventually grew a problem with authority. It felt like I was not in control of the things around me. It was great when I was at math and music at the other school, where I could exert control over myself and things around me. It ended up with me questioning every rule, and the pros and cons around them. If I could not get a satisfactory explanation of these rules, I didn't care about them.
Australian schools are mainly built on the very disciplinary British school system... I was probably too independant to fall into this system. I walked to school by myself, did grocery shopping for my parents after school etc. Something not exactly considered safe by the teachers. They had this problem of having to tuck me neatly into this little box of theirs, probably being too independant for their taste. This ended up in numerous conflicts where they'd get pissed off, and as a result that pissed me off.
When my dad's job in Australia was done, I was evaluated by the same psychologist that had diagnosed me with Asperger's at age 4, and I got enrolled in the local school, because I stated that I was under no circumstances going back to the special ed school, I wanted to become something, get a real job on my own under the same circumstances as anybody else.

But did the special ed school do more harm for me than good? In my opinion, very probably. First off the education was stunted at a lower level than at a regular school, even considering my performance. At the same time, there was no social roleplays or anything really that could make me work out in real life, I had to learn all that by myself. The authority problem still nags me to this day, although it's now limited to a distrust in uniformed personnel (police mostly).
I dread at the thought at what would have become of me if I stayed there, I guess I wouldn't have been able to go through college or my current education in computer science.

In some cases special ed might be good, but in my case IMO it was bad, i'm lucky I got out when I did, or I wouldn't be where i am today, but rather in an institution, still living at home or in jail due to the violent meltdowns I used to have.

Seriously, I am where I want to be, I am nearly done with my CS education (writing my final paper), I have a newly started company, a nice apartment and plans for my future. I wouldn't have had that if I had stayed in the special ed school.

It is embarrassing to have an aide.

One thing that makes this issue complicated is there is wide variation in the quality of self-contained programs, even in the same district. In some places, its a baby sitting service / filing cabinet for so called defectives where they pay lip service to documenting interventions and put on a show for visitors but in practice just sit around and have the kids string beads all day. In other places, the staff really care and gives 100% and tries to get the kids to be the best they can be.

No kidding! And I say this having myself been an aide for 2 different teenage kids, on either side of the spectrum. Still, if you look on the bright side, the school is spending a huge amount of money to give you that one on one attention.

"wow you are smart you can add triple digit numbers" just a quote from a special ed class luckily i never got put into that class and instead i was put into academic excellence (despite my spelling)

It does depend on the school a great deal. I went to The Gifford School and I loved it since it was the only school were I
felt all the staff really cared about us. Every student had AS,ADD or other issues so making friends was easy.
I never would have graduated if I went to a regular high school I would have dropped out.