Thanks. I'm always pleased to find areas of agreement.
I am amazed by the dedication and love I have seen in the special education and resource teachers I have met. I like teachers, in general, but the people in special education have a special place in my heart. They aren't always right, they made mistakes with my son's placement, but they serve such a spectrum of disabilities, and they do it with such grace, that I have no idea how anyone who knew anything about the system could want to do anything but support it. Of course that's the point, most people don't know anything about the difficult students that public education serves.
All of you reading this-if you don't know about the difficult student, you can count yourselves lucky for having a normal child who doesn't need special services. But for parents of children with disabilities, or parents of children with other problems, the public system is their only option unless they are wealthy. Our local Lutheran private school refused to take my son because of his disabilities, as did our local Montessori school. We were willing to pay the fees, but they didn't want our money badly enough to educate my son. |
