What exactly is that supposed to be, just babysitting all the kids until the bell rings?

It's educating these kids to the best of their potential which varies depending on their disability.

CeCe wrote:

It's educating these kids to the best of their potential which varies depending on their disability.

In other places maybe. The three neighbor kids that I'm always talking about ARE in special ed, and not because they DO have disabilities, but because of who they are. The family they come from has been crapped on for the last two generations and everybody else automatically looks at them and says 'oh yeah they're stupid'. So nobody gives them a chance, and nobody works with them, so when THEY are in school, it IS glorified babysitting, nap classes, toys to play with during class in junior high and high school. Nobody NEEDS to read, even if they do if the words are wrong, everybody says it's right, listening is optional, homework doesn't get sent home half the time and the other half it doesn't even matter if it's done or not.

I don't know, MAYBE the classes for 'regular' students actually bothers teaching them something, but what I do know is that these kids are not dumb, they are a lot smarter than anybody has ever given them credit for, but because nobody ever DID work with them and nobody ever DID try to teach them, they've got it figured out that they don't NEED to learn anything, that school is to go and play games, and even if they DO study there, reading and learning is for school, once they come home it's not needed anymore because apparently it'll never come up in their real lives because everything is done on computers. And today, they are in Indiana for the summer with their mother, and the 17-year-old told my mother on the phone that Indiana is a bigger state than Kansas. Every day, every time they open their mouths it's just further proof of how low the school system has allowed them to sink just because they come from a certain family.

Oh dear.

Where's Zman when you need him?

Well i can tell you about Sped here in NJ. It is NOT just based on intellectual disabilities or IQ. It also involves emotional/social skills, and even kids with speech problems are put in Sped. It is supposed to be an atmosphere where the classes are smaller---rather than 25-30 students per one teacher, there is usually about 8-12 kids per teacher. This is supposed to give each student more one on one time.

the problem??? the schools get state and fed funding for each child in the program--- so the school pushes kids into the program who do not really need it. Also, there is quite a stigma on sped from the other students. One of the hot guys i am dear friends with was in sped, and recently told me he would hide in the bathroom until after bell would show up to class late, cause he did not want anyone to see him going to class. He also told me that they did not cater to learning styles. There are 3 different learning styles: auditory, visual, and hands on practical. He was a hands on practical learner---and because of this he excelled in classes like art, woodshops, mechanics... but math/history was harder. He was great in chemistry which he worked in the lab experiments, but was lousy in astronomy which is theoretical.

My sis was told that her oldest needed sped because he was "emotionally not as mature as his peers"... she did not put him in sped. With the second kid, they told her his speech was a problem... so she spent $20,000 on a speech therapist and doctors. By the third son, they said he could not count past 12 in kindergarten and wanted him in sped for "learning disabilities". well that was just a plain lie--- we used to make the kids count coins as kids... they could count the number of coins, PLUS tell you what the amount added up to. Then a counselor told my sis the truth--- the more kids in the program, the more money the school gets.

wants2laugh wrote:

Well i can tell you about Sped here in NJ. It is NOT just based on intellectual disabilities or IQ. It also involves emotional/social skills, and even kids with speech problems are put in Sped. It is supposed to be an atmosphere where the classes are smaller---rather than 25-30 students per one teacher, there is usually about 8-12 kids per teacher. This is supposed to give each student more one on one time.

the problem??? the schools get state and fed funding for each child in the program--- so the school pushes kids into the program who do not really need it. Also, there is quite a stigma on sped from the other students. One of the hot guys i am dear friends with was in sped, and recently told me he would hide in the bathroom until after bell would show up to class late, cause he did not want anyone to see him going to class. He also told me that they did not cater to learning styles. There are 3 different learning styles: auditory, visual, and hands on practical. He was a hands on practical learner---and because of this he excelled in classes like art, woodshops, mechanics... but math/history was harder. He was great in chemistry which he worked in the lab experiments, but was lousy in astronomy which is theoretical.

My sis was told that her oldest needed sped because he was "emotionally not as mature as his peers"... she did not put him in sped. With the second kid, they told her his speech was a problem... so she spent $20,000 on a speech therapist and doctors. By the third son, they said he could not count past 12 in kindergarten and wanted him in sped for "learning disabilities". well that was just a plain lie--- we used to make the kids count coins as kids... they could count the number of coins, PLUS tell you what the amount added up to. Then a counselor told my sis the truth--- the more kids in the program, the more money the school gets.

And why it's so hard for people to accept that fact I'll never know.