Very Special Education

As a teacher of 40 years, I got to learn about Special Education up close and personal.
In the early days, Spec. Ed was reserved for those with obvious physical disabilities, and things like hearing or visual impairment.  Those students usually had special classrooms dedicated to only those.

My elementary school in Oak Park, IL, had one of those rooms.  The rest of us never interacted with those students.  They weren't among us.  When I asked my mother about that one time, she said, "Every time I see those children, I get down on my knees and thank God that my children are normal."

There were no Special Ed kids during my first few years of teaching.  There were, of course, but they weren't in our classes.  Anyone else who wasn't succeeding in school was dumb, lazy, or lacked supervision at home.

In order to be inclusive of students with disabilities, the federal mandate became that each of those students should be put in an LRE--Least Restrictive Environment.  That meant putting students in regular classrooms whenever possible.  Obviously, some couldn't be.  One semester in Pontiac, IL, I worked as a teacher's aide in a "Severe and Profound" classroom--kids with multiple disabilities who were severely/profoundly disabled.  This room was self-contained.  We fed them meals created from our own little kitchen in the room.  We were pretty much on our own in that room.  No administrators, teachers, or parents ever came to visit.

Every event was a teaching tool--and it got weird.  If it was in the student's Individual Education Program (IEP) that he/she should talk, cookies were offered at snack time but only if the kid asked for it when prompted.  These kids of all ages were mostly non-verbal and in diapers, but only one couldn't feed him/herself.  (Shows how basic needs are.)  These kids were the droolers but each with a personality and needs all his/her own.  I was fascinated in working with them.  (Won't go into details.)  Suffice it to say that I learned a lot about disabilities that semester.

And then, over time, society got smarter and accepted that there were other disabilities that hindered a student's ability to learn, through no fault of their own.  Suddenly, students with "disabilities" looked amazingly normal.  Research determined that there are many factors that hinder a kid's ability to learn--anything from AD/HD to the autism spectrum, and many things in between, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and personality disorders.  These kids were "mainstreamed"--put in classrooms with so-called "normal" students in a quest to help them shine on their own.  And then it became the responsibility of the teacher to accommodate those disabilities with things call "modifications" to the usual expectations.

It's a tall order for a teacher.  First of all, the teacher can't single out a kid as a spec ed student.  That's discrimination.  At the same time, it is difficult to apply mods to a child's education without other kids knowing.  Fortunately, I worked in a small enough school that most of the students had been together forever and accepted each other as they were--well, mostly.  And every kid's mods were different, depending on their disability.  Hard to keep track!

What mods are out there?  For the uninitiated, there are many, depending on the student.
*Preferential seating. 
*Providing typed lesson notes.
*Allowing use of a calculator in math classes.
*Allowing use of word-processed themes in English classes.
*Allowing extra time for tests.
*Providing one-on-one explanations of assignments.
*Providing shorter assignments.
*Providing alternate assignments.
*Allowing unlimited restroom visits.
And more.

Thus is the reality of American Public Education.  And today, my granddaughter, who is on the autism spectrum, goes to an education facility of choice to determine if her need for mods--mostly needing more time to finish tests--will be accepted by her early-college-credit education. 
If not, I'm ready to do battle!!