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I am the "special ed" kid

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by dano218, Dec 17, 2014.

  1. dano218

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    For those with disabilities you may be familiar with having this label put on you if you attended special education and being labeled the special ed kid. It is not just a word wee can change it is a definition used by schools across America. Schools need to have kids with special needs blend in more. Changing the name of the program is just the start.

    I been labeled the special ed kid and it has a bad stigma attached to it. Even teachers can use that label against you.

    I was just wondering your thoughts on this issue.
     
  2. Sepulse

    Sepulse Guest

    I've been in special ed. Mainly because my parents were poor and they needed money to help take care of me. I got diagnosed with autism even though I don't fit the criteria. I still have OCD and ADHD tendencies, so I can sort of pass for autistic when I'm feeling crappy. I was in special ed and it really ruined my life. When I was in special ed it wasn't that bad for me, but it did stunt my development. Now I'm trying to prevent this from happening to the next generation. It's way too late for me, but not for the kids.
     
  3. dano218

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    There is nothing wrong with these programs but there is work to be on them. I think they are necessary but there also needs to more more choices given to the students and students in special ed should be equally treated just like any other student. Some special ed teachers use their power to control their students more and what they do.

    I remember a kid who had cerebral palsy and needed a aide in every class. Every little thing he did wrong he got a detention slip which was almost every day. If he did not have a aide watching his back 24/7 that would of never happened. Leave it up to the class teacher to decide if your behavior is inappropiate.
     
  4. Sepulse

    Sepulse Guest

    I'm not trying to end special ed. I'm mostly trying to improve it. I also want to make sure that people in special ed actually need it. I didn't really need it that much, but being in special ed messed me up. Now that I'm messed up I can barely function.
     
  5. dano218

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    Yeah. It is the word special education that I want to do away with. The system has a lot of work to do and I think a good start is changing the way its labeled.
     
  6. Wuggums47

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    I was applying for a new school and the secretary loudly shouted out something like "We got another special ed here" and called for someone. It felt uncomfortable and I decided not to go to that school.
     
  7. Candace

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    I was put into those classes. I always hated having to tell my friends about my class schedule and why I had to leave class 30 minutes early every Thursday. I got bullied so much for it that I asked my mom if I could be taken out of those classes, only be to met with a blatant "no" :frowning2:.
     
  8. Batman

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    One time, my fourth grade teacher made me stand up in front of the class and tell all the other kids what I do in my "special classes" :grin: That was an experience.

    When I got to highschool, they told me I could drop the IEP and all the special treatment associated with it. Although I was in a different section of special ed, it still wasn't something you wanted people to know. And now that they don't do paperwork for me, I suppose I'm back to being a "normal" child. Interesting stuff.
     
  9. QueerTransEnby

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    I was special ed in pre-school and told I would never graduate high school. Not only did I graduate high school, but I finished as salutatorian and completed my BBA in college with a 3.7. Don't ever let anyone tell you what you cannot do.
     
  10. Aussie792

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    I was never in special ed, but it does remind me of a similar thing. They put me in English as a second language (ESL) remedial classes for my first three or four years of primary school. This was in spite of the fact that not only was my English the top of my entire year group's, English is actually my dual first language anyway and my far my best one. I don't know if they're still in place, but some xenophobic regulations put me and several other perfectly English-literate students in extra classes we didn't need. Even worse, had my English actually been bad, there was never anybody who spoke Finnish who could have actually helped me improve it at school, anyway.

    Fortunately, there was no stigma to it, as almost all of the ESL students all attended regular English classes and proved ourselves more than capable of keeping up with primary school literacy. The school finally saw sense and moved most of us out of that ridiculously ineffective and aimless programme that didn't actually help anyone who needed it.

    As for the actual topic - learning assistance programmes really need to focus on being designed to help students, not throw them into the corner where they won't disrupt the students designated as the good ones. Especially at an early level, it can be catastrophic to be placed into an inferior class that doesn't actually remedy any problems with a student's education, doing little more than telling students that they're substandard.
     
  11. Maeve

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    I work at a middle school, and students with special needs are mainstreamed (in the same class as everyone else) as much as possible academically. The ones who can't be are still integrated into school events, have the same break and lunch times, attend electives, etc.

    Mainstreaming is important and beneficial to the student with special needs AND the rest of the school.
     
  12. BelleFromHell

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    I don't think I was ever in special ed, though I had to take speech therapy classes when I was 8 or 9 (not sure if that counts). I had trouble pronuncing the "th" sound. The therapist thought I was the biggest dumbass ever, or at least treated me like I was. She never would've imagined that I would grow up to learn other languages, especially one as complex as Japanese. If I told her a decade ago that I wanted to be a polyglot, she'd roar in laughter.

    I also had behavioural issues (I showed early signs of bipolar disorder and OCD), and was sent to special classes for that around age 10 or 11. The teacher basically spoiled all the other kids and almost completely ignored me; she even took one to KFC! I was the black sheep of the classroom, and I almost never raised my hand to answer a question because I knew everyone would give me hell over It If I got It wrong.

    I heard emotional abuse by teachers and consulers is especially common with mentally ill/disabled and "gifted" children. To this day, consulers, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists scare the piss out of me, and I avoid them like the plague.
     
  13. Kaiser

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    "I didn't want to tell ___ this, but I suspect they're highly handicapped."



    The exact words I heard a teacher say about me, when they thought I wasn't in hearing range, during a conversation with my mother. This was in the 5th grade.

    You know what makes it even more amusing? It was an English class, at that. The teacher thought I couldn't write appropriately, believing I had an underdeveloped vocabulary and style!


    Bitch, you make us write about what we do in the snow;
    that isn't exactly going to make me into William Faulkner, you know!


    Lol, oh... don't mind me, I'm in a rather silly mood.

    While I was never placed into a Special Education classroom, the fact people could believe I was suitable for that, speaks ill of the education system. When I was in elementary school, all the special ed students were kept separate. This continued in middle school, with some exceptions, like recess or lunch. In high school, they were separated for about half of the day, while the last half they integrated into the rest of the students. Nobody really gave them a hard time, but they were left alone, so much so, they may as well have been forgotten as existing.

    There needs to be more attentive learning practices, and less of shuffling folks in special ed environments around, like cattle, until they get placed somewhere, where they just sort of wake up, waste time, eat, waste more time, eat, go to bed, repeat. But this is one of those easier said than done, idealistic until seen situations. Still, that doesn't mean an effort cannot be attempted, even if it can't exactly be rectified with one hand swoop. Rarely does anybody try to make an effort, and when they do, often times, they get shut down or out. Sad, really.

    Oh, and that teacher that called me handicapped? I never forgot about her. Several years later, after I had graduated high school, with the highest writing portfolio score of my graduating class (2005; I feel so old), I copied those writing pieces and stuffed them into an envelope, but not before signing my name -- in glorious cursive -- at the bottom of each piece, then mailing them to her.

    Sometimes, those who doubt us, are often our greatest inspiration. To be talked down about or thought less of, really can propel you to do better. For that, I thank her!

    LOL~!
     
    #13 Kaiser, Dec 18, 2014
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2014
  14. AlamoCity

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    In our school district, Gifted/Talented students were also labeled as being/receiving "Special Ed." I was selected for that program in elementary school (I don't even remember how exactly I got in, I just remember going to a counselor's office and answering some questions). This label followed me till high school. I didn't notice anything different and wasn't "segregated." I know that this is not the same thing people usually think about when they talk about "special ed," but I always felt undeserving of the label and didn't really feel "special;" I did have self-esteem issues.
     
  15. QueerTransEnby

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    You? A poor writer? :lol::lol::lol: Was she doing meth at this time?
     
  16. Martin

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    I was in 'special ed' myself during primary/elementary school. I had a physical health problem in my ears that meant I developed hearing difficulties as a baby and spent the first 5/6 years of my life partially deaf, and it wasn't something that was picked up on until I got recurring ear infections. Because of it, I essentially started my education a couple of years later than my peers, so I required a whole range of 'special ed' lessons to try and help me catch up as quickly as possible.

    I think the biggest problem with the label is that it inadvertently segregates people and creates a hierarchy within the education system. In my view, education needs to be special for everybody, because each individual has unique learning styles, career aspirations, academic interests etc, and trying to streamline everybody and then create a subset of 'others' for those whom present challenges to that model just seems to kill creativity for everybody. There are cases when specialised classes and/or institutes really are necessary - mostly for moderate to severe learning disability students - but overall education needs a pretty big overhaul to modernise it. There's always going to be the essentials that people need to grasp, but it's quite disheartening to think that I spent so much of my educational life learning things that I've since forgotten because it had no relevancy or interest to my aspirations. Instead of schools actually being able to get to know their students and developing creative and modern approaches to teaching, they're instead required to adapt this 'one size fits all' approach to teaching, and the consequence is that everybody sort of feels like a cog in the system and a mere statistic, rather than actually leaving with any sort of empowering qualities and skills that have contributed to their strengths and aspirations. It was only after I left mandated education and got the freedom over my own academia that I started to excel. Before that, I was an average student. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it seems counter-intuitive to have an education system that suppresses academic achievement just to prop up a streamlined journey for everybody. If education isn't empowering students and bringing out their diverse best then it isn't working.

    I remember watching a TED talk by a guy called Ken Robinson. It's a very interesting speech for anybody who is interested:
    [youtube]iG9CE55wbtY[/youtube]
     
  17. kumawool

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    Special ed, or sped 'pronounced spud' at my old high school, was a stigma for some people.
    Some special education students are wildly successful, as was one of my autistic friends, for whom the stigma was spared (likely because of his success). Ironically, the coping skills that allowed him to be successful came for the special education classes, classes that other students applied stigma to.

    The true damage of the the stigma is essentially that everyone expects you to fail. It's anything but encouraging, and can be unhealthy.

    Personally, I think rebranding the class name as something like success strategies might be better (I took such a class willingly as an elective in a university prep course and enjoyed it), as it removes 'special', and focuses on success.

    Because having a disability doesn't equate with failure, and students, teachers, and sometimes even those with disabilities all need to realize that.

    I'm sorry to see how stigma has touched you in your life.
     
    #17 kumawool, Dec 19, 2014
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2014
  18. Sepulse

    Sepulse Guest

    A similar thing happened to my sister. She gets put in ESL because our parents are from Ecuador. Even though her first language is English. Since I'm in special ed they never really bothered putting me in ESL. I think I was in ESL for a bit, but I actually needed it. According to my sister a lot of ESL students are ther because they have a weird last name. Apperently some of them only spoke English.
     
  19. happydavid

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    It sounds simular to special needs we have in England. I was always labeled with that. Not a nice feeling:icon_sad:
     
  20. jAYMEGURL

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    dano218:

    Your not alone in thinking that you're the only " Special Ed " kid, I, too am labeled
    this way, and it is no fun. But I think that labels on people are just STUPID, but somehow they manage to follow us, it is up to us " Special Ed " kids, to break these.

    For my part, this past summer, I found that being transgendered really helped me
    to cope with this stupid label. Now I know that I make a much prettier woman, and
    I was so much happier than I ever was being a man.


    Jaymegurl