I am a teacher to my morrow.
I can teach a rock to read.
I have taught and loved special needs children for 25 years.
I was told recently that I didn't do my job by a resource teacher that I had met twice.
She's right.
I was teaching a group of Mild Learning Disabled children while holding a wheel chair bound non-verbal child in my arms who was having a seizure. My team leader burst in and was appalled that I could not immediately file a paper. I'm not flinging the seizing child to the floor to search the holy file cabinet.
I am not going to stay up till 2 AM doing paperwork. (although I recently filled out 5 pages explaining why I had not taught a blind child to distinguish a figure from the background of a picture)
When I started teaching, I had the children in my room all day long. I had them from first grade until they left elementary school. I went to their birthday parties. I was friends with their moms. My room felt like church. I couldn't wait to get to school each day.
Then somebody decided it made sense to take the children out of the special education room and "include" them. Kids who had never had behavior problems stated acting out because they were placed in regular classes with over burdened teachers who had no training in special education. Special education teachers became overpaid aides and paper pushers.
I did a good job.
I loved it.
I'm done.
I retire in December.
I'm counting the days.
4 comments:
There comes a time when you must think of yourself. You did a good job.
YOU ROCK...
AND THEY ARE WRONG...
Another example of the know-it-alls starting with the U.S. Dept. of Education. Mainstreaming the special needs children to "include" them was tried in the early '70's when I was in middle (junior high in those days!) school. The result was the other students were slowed down to a crawl & bored out of their minds. I have never understood why this keeps on being tried periodically. Didn't work then, won't work now, when will they get it? Our schools are no place for social experimentation.
Your experience with the "urgent filing" is one of the reasons I couldn't teach school now. I very much admire you for doing it, & I am grateful for the job you do & for caring about the students the way you do.
I hate to see you go, another good teacher leaving. I think this is a trend nationally because those who have been teaching for some years are just plain fed up with the whole system & are getting out as soon as they can.
Dirk
THE FIRST AMENDMENT, NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT II
http://tsalagiman2.blogspot.com/
I agree with Lyn-YOU ROCK!! pardon my french but their idiots! I'll hold them in prayer. hugz~kbear
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