Special Education is the most often over looked division of the Educational System. We concern ourselves with special interest programs aimed at gifted and talented students, extra curricular activities and a hand full of students that make extra effort to reach out to less fortunate community citizens. But what about those students who are faced with the challenge of succeeding period? Special Education often handles mentally handicapped, but the handicap deemed is not always visible.
When I graduated High School I was a member of my High School band, JROTC, Model Rocketry and the school newspaper. I was also, in Special Education /.EA (Early Adolescence). Form my 6th grade year of Middle School to m y High School graduation day I was a "SpEd".
"SpEd" was generally used a derogatory term implicating ones lack of intellectual ability. In shirt is was just another way to call someone a "retard". It was true, that some of the student in the Special Education program were mentally and physically challenged, not all of us suffered from these conditions. We did, however all share some form of learning disability. For some it was ADD / ADHD, others it was mental underdevelopment, and other still just behavioral problems. I was the former with ADD.
Diagnosed with this 'problem' at the age of 10, I had already supposedly established a majority of my work habits and work ethic. I had already begun to form a social appearance and build relationships with groups of kids outside of my neighborhood and I had already begun.... to fail at them all. So, my parents, fearing I was a 'troubled' child, took me to doctors and therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists - looking to do what every parents wants but all parents fear: To fix a problem beyond their control.
After a brief stay in a psychiatric institution over a summer, I went to Middle School, but rode the "short bus". The students were just as rowdy and loud, smaller vehicle with a bigger stigma. Thus, the system I had grown to hate and the building I learned to despise became the home of a system that was my salvation.
I'm going to skip over my Middle School years, as they were uneventful (unless you'd really like to learn about Inuit tribes, John Steinbeck novels, a Diamondback Terrapin Farm, adopting a Humpback Whale, and a bone pencil). High School... some of us loved it, other (like me) spent years trying to forget the social aspects of it. This, however is where the Special Education system worked for me.
I attended Lackey High School in Indian Head, Maryland (Class of '95).. The Special Education section was outside, in small trailers that we kept to ourselves in. Most of us had behavior problems and were considered too disruptive to allow other students to properly learn. We had very small student body presence, normally about 5-15 students per class. This allowed us to concentrate with out ambient distraction, and allowed th teacher to focus more on each individual student. We learned the exact same things as the rest of the "normal" students and were administered the same tests usually. The difference was in the method of teaching that was administered to us.
We had a level system. Levels 1 -4; Level one you had no privileges, and level 4 you were fully integrated within the regular populous, taking 'mainstream' classes only showing up to the trailers for homeroom. We earned our freedom so to speak. If we proved we could achieve what was given to us, we were rewarded with more of a challenge and encouraged to participate in every school event we wanted to. I was a Junior before I was "level 4" (then again there was no level 4 before I came along, so...). It was at that point I noticed the differences between the 'mainstream students" and the Special Education system of learning.
Regular 'mainstream students' had everything most of you who attended public school will remember. Bulky books, lots of homework, summarized chapters and long essays about "Why James Joyce used the color blue and skulls in both 'A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man' and 'Dubliners'.... all the stuff that is seldom important later in life (I mean seriously, I still don't think Mr. Joyce intentionally used skulls and blue in both books to illustrate anything other than personal affinity. I got an 'F' on that essay for saying that too.). In the Special Education arena we had smaller books that were given out more frequently, they appeared to have a tighter focus on the material at hand they they often required some sort of project to illustrate what you learned. The difference between memorizing, names, dates and places and understanding them became clear. This was the line between Special Education and Mainstream Education. The teacher didn't necessarily care more or less, but the material and the way I was taught made the difference.
I look back on my years in school and see all the people from both sides and have noticed that more people from Special Education who were not mentally disabled succeed than those who were not in Special Education and had no mental disability. Now, it would seem to me that the educational system in whole would look to the Special Education departments to see what is being done in the way of right so they the mainstream system can follow suit.
Also, note that my observation only reflects a very small demographic. I can not speak for the majority of the country. The educational system (as I understand it) has its lesson plans dictated nationally, whereas the Special Education system has their plans dictated by the state and school district. I just hope that people can see and understand that Special Education isn't for the 'dumb' and we don't graduate with less of an education that anyone else. There is no "easy button in that program.
