special education

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I didn't have any accommodations through high school and didn't need them. Now that I'm in college, I have minor accommodations in math, but nothing else.

Mainstream

Repeated grade 2 (I couldn't read/write); ah, remedial classes on and off. Did reasonably well from grades 3 to 7. Passed grade 10 with the lowest possible grades for a pass (Ds); left half-way through year 11 (lowest grades in my grade--queue all types of teasing).

Completed and passed some college classes several years ago (Criminal Justice); will probably take that up again online for the heck of it soon (it's not like I can do any jobs that require said degree, but it's something I like).

I don't know, they say I haven't done too bad overall, considering my level of impairment.

It would have been great to have had accommodations when I was in elementary school. I was picked out for gifted classes when I was in the 3rd grade the first time, but did not actually enter gifted classes till I was in Jr. High. The accommodations I would have liked to have had would have been social skills lessons, and I would have liked to have been kept away from the bullies.

The only accommodations I received had to do with being allowed to go home more frequently than a lot of other kids. I had a major breakdown in fourth grade which should have been a red flag that I was having some serious issues. Instead, I was simply called "emotionally immature" and placed back in third grade...There was no talk of AS or ADD or anything like that at my lousy public school in the 80's.

In 6th grade, I was in honors classes, and I was one of a very small group of kids who frequently got to leave the school campus and participate in academic tournaments....i made an ass of myself, not understanding the protocol and uncontrollably blurting answers out out of turn.... I also spent a lot of time in the library..I wrote for the school newspaper and did a lot of unconventional things that for the most part kept me away from the bullies and the "mainstream" of the school...but there was no formal term for the sort of program i was in.

With the help of a friend in a different school district in the 8th grade (who I think later went on to become a lawyer), I was able to get into the gifted and talented classes....smaller, more flexible classes...that actually counted as "special ed"

anyway...that is the gist of it...I was in those classes till I graduated.

I was in regualr classroom at first then I was in special ed which was mainstreamed and then just got send to the mainstream classroom so the special ed teachers could have a break. I'm now homeschooled.

People with AS should NEVER be in special education IMHO. It didn't exist in the 70s - 80s when I was in school. You have to learn to live and work in the 'real world' with people of all sorts of personalities, abilities and shortcomings, in their academic achievement, as well as personality. If you can't do it in school, you won't success in 'real life' either. If someone knocks you down, you get right up and do better. It's as simple as that IMHO.

I attended mainstream education but did so at various schools and on varying levels/forms because it didn't work out beyond elementary school. I would have needed accommodations badly yet I didn't have any.

I don't think I really needed them as my academic ability is good, but I got 25% extra time on my a-levels.

I was also allowed to take my exams in a separate room, which really helped though.

I was in special ed until the sixth grade. I was mainstreamed, but it only lasted a few months and then I was sent to something called "alternative school," which was more for kids with behavior problems (some were ADHD), than kids with autism or mental retardation (where I was before that). I didn't really do better in alternative school. The class only had seven kids in it, and we were all different grades. I can't say it was great for me. Those kids drank and did drugs....and had a bad influence on me. I was the youngest and the only girl in the class.

I was mainstreamed in highschool. I had an aide only in freshman year....dropped the aide in sophmore year. I didn't actually finish highschool. I left when I was 15 to go to college. I did much better in college. I graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Chemical Engineering when I was 19...I didn't have an aide.

I do think the desire to fit in and socialize and the failure to do so might become an issue and might overshadow academics and cause problems. I've witnessed it myself.

These days "Special Education" has a broader definition than it did when you were in school (and yes, it existed back then, but it was different). In the U.S. being in "special education" simply means that you have an IEP (individualized education plan). If you have one of the disabilities specified by the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), then you qualify for an IEP, or "special education." If the school is following the law and doing their job, it will be tailored to the kid.

As I read your statement again, I find it disturbing. It's clear that you don't have an understanding of what it means to have a disability. I'm glad my son has the law on his side, and a school that cares. He's a really intelligent, creative person, with so much potential. But his mind works differently than the typical kid's, and the one-size-fits all model of public education doesn't fit him. Without the help he gets through his own IEP, school would have crushed him by now, despite the fact that he got the highest possible score on last year's STAR test.

I'm fine and I have AS. I know others like that. Weren't you?

I needed to be in a gifted program very badly, but was in the regular academic stream, with no accommodations, except for one class I took that was all gifted kids (grade 9 english in grade eight). I did well at school, got good grades, honours society all the way through, but the purpose of school is not to get good grades, but to learn how to use your mind. All I learned was how to twiddle my thumbs, so ultimately a formal education failed me, and I had to become self taught after my third university degree.

PS Phrasing the poll in present tense made me feel very old. Just saying.

Last edited by Anemone on 11 Mar 2009, 8:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I always attended public school but I had some assistance classes like speech and learning center (which is for those with a learning disability) so I suppose I have been in a special education class before.

Well, considering that OutlawSteph is probably AS, I would say that they do understand what it means to have a disability.

Sure, special ed isn't automatically a remedial life sentence like it was 15 years ago, but the fact remains that people still treat it like it is, even special ed teachers/aides themselves.

The bigger issue is simply the fact that life ISN'T accomodating. When your son graduates from high school, there is no segregated "special work" employer that he can go to (unless he wants to do the most menial of work for his entire life).

A common flaw that AS people are said to have is inflexibility. So, how is this inflexibility going to improve if every choice regarding the child is made for the sake of their present comfort, rather than their future options? In the past, we were kind of FORCED to be flexible. Sure, it kind of sucked back then, but considering that I may not have made it to University if I was given accomodation after accomodation (or made it, and then flunked out horribly due to lack of hand-holding); I'm really grateful that my parents and my school constantly pushed my comfort zone.

I get accommodations, but I don't need them.

Eh? Life is easy, even with a disability. Can't work in a normal job? Find something abnormal. Menial to one, can be heaven to another. "Making it" to one, can be hell to another. People are still trapped in the social and brainwashed bureaucracy of being like others, even if they are social outliers. It's sickening, and a joke.

O no, you can't go to special education! Because that means you're different! And the world will eat you up and spit you out! You need to tough it and be like me, for I am superman/superwoman! The bullying and teasing of mainstream just makes you able to handle the "real world"! Come on, be "normal", it's in you!

You know, I did my time in mainstream, I nearly killed several people; mainstream sent me to hell, and several years away from it, I work, I put in my hard several hours of physical work a day. I wish I could have gone to special education; I would be doing the same work I am now (probably much earlier, actually), but I wouldn't have gone to hell to get there.