Your Feelings About Special Ed

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"You ride the short bus?"="You're stupid."

"Did you just ride the short bus here?"="Are you stupid?"

"Come on, you don't ride the short bus."="You're not stupid so stop acting like it."

That?


I have never heard of it being used as an insult or in a derogatory way. I guess I can count myself lucky.

In winter years ago when I wrote the little bus my friends called it the sped sled lmao

People use the term "riding the short bus" to imply somebody is developmentally disabled (mentally ret*d).

Oh man, I know I would have positively hated being in special ed. But then as hellish as my life was in social terms, I was always a pretty good student. While junior high was pure hell, I ended up taking some test and getting a scholarship to a private high school, not a special ed school, but a prep school. That was far less hellish than public high school would have been, if only because everybody was too slammed with schoolwork to worry about much else, and they largely left me alone.

I would find my places on the campus to basically hide away and study. And I even played team sports, which enabled me to make a pretty good friend. All in all it was a lot of work, but I was far happier doing all the school work than having to deal with the harsh social structure of a public high school. And it worked out OK in the end. Somehow I ended up finishing at the top of my class (to everyone's shock, including my own). Doubt I would have been so fortunate if I had been placed in special ed.

It would have been nice to know why I was so different from literally everyone else in my class, and I could have definitely used some special instruction in social interaction, but I am very glad I was kept in with other kids academically, because it allowed me to really thrive in the classroom. My academic success gave me some sense of self worth, in spite of being perceived as a total freak by most of the other kids.

That's the only way I've ever heard it used:

http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meanin ... -short-bus

I rode the short bus from seventh grade on. I don't remember ever it ever being used against me as an insult but if someone used it I'd know they must be a person to avoid since they are obviously prejudiced against mentally handicapped people, that or they'll feel really horrible and embarrassed when you bring up your time on the short bus.

I was in some special ed classes in sixth grade, the special ed class all day in seventh and eighth grade, and special schools from then until I quit at 16.

I don't think they helped me at all. I think the only thing that would have helped me is being home schooled. I wouldn't have managed in regular school though so I guess it's good that I got out of there.

Wow, this is really interesting. I never knew that about the "short bus" being code for something derogatory either. But then, I never went to public school. I was homeschooled until high school, and I wonder if I'd been in school if I'd have received a diagnosis of Asperger's or at least social anxiety/depression.

Thanks for your responses everyone!

It sounds like in many cases, special ed is a waste of time. But did anyone make especially good friends with someone in their special ed class?

Yep, two of my friends I still regularly talk to and go over their houses and whatnot, despite me not being in school since 2007, from my SPED class. So I did make friends at least. One of those friends, they're 2 brothers, same class, one kinda likely does have AS, his mom suspects it, and he's got the problems associated with, just the catchall diagnosis back then was ADHD, so yeah... His other brother despite being sorta nerdy, not like that, they're both twins, but not identical, though. So I guess it's somewhat of a plus.

As for the diagnosis, I had a somewhat similar situation being in a private Christian school for all of elementary.

That's cool (that you made some good friends there!). I've noticed that a lot of my students who are mostly mainstreamed but do have IEP's are pretty close friends with each other, but almost no one wants others to know they are in special ed. That's totally understandable, and as a teacher I do my best to respect it, but it becomes hard to keep a secret when you are making accommodations for someone like giving them modified tests. I don't think that applies to Asperger's, though.

I had lot of friends in special ed when I was six and seven and eight before I went to my new school but they were maybe all acquaintances. Neither of them came to my home nor did any of them invite me to theirs.

What do you mean you don't think it applies to Asperger's? Do you mean aspies don't need their tests modified? I have had my tests modified because they were too hard for me and too abstract so they had to make it concrete for me. I was told my AS effects my learning.

It depends, I have never been in special ed, but if the teaching is any slower than it is in mainstream education I have only one thing to say:

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz snore zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I spent half my time daydreaming whilst I waited for everyone else to catch up in regular classes as it was!

Although I could have done with some 'how to socialise and make friends' classes. I was fine with the academics though.

I never made friends in any special ed classes or schools but I also didn't stay in the same school for longer than one year after grade school. They kept switching me to different schools.

I was in special ed in 1st and 2nd grade. It seemed like most of my classmates were disturbed or had behavioral problems. Occasionally, one would have an outburst and I would be scared they would hurt me. That would occur on the short bus I was on too. I sorta made a couple of friends. One basically was annoying, and I went over to the other one's house a few times to play. But he did some bizarre stuff and things then went nowhere.

Well honestly I don't have any students with Asperger's in my classes, but I said that because even if students with Asperger's do need modification, I suspect it's usually the kind of thing that doesn't have to be made super public. For example, you can still give a student with Asperger's a written exam and not an oral one, etc. But I could be wrong! Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I was never specifically in special education but I did get put in a reading program because I couldn't read well out-loud.

This was very frustrating and humiliating for me since I had learned to read silently before the other kids, and just had a hard time reading out loud (same verbal issues I have when speaking, only as a new reader and pressure of the class listening they were amplified)

I spent a lot of times begging and pleading in tears to get out of the program and finally was let out partially by 5th grade... (4 years in) and only had to go once a week... It was the beginning of my disgust with my relationship with the school systems.

By Jr High, I had a similar problem. I was put into advanced math in 7th grade... and while it caught my attention I had a similar issue as bumble above where I would daydream as everyone else caught up. Around that age I stared to become lazy about homework with the help of learning how to lie to my parents about its completion and ended with grades in the c's and b's...

she dropped me back to regular math... I fought constantly explaining that the only chance I had to even be half interested in math and science was to get proper classes... but they didn't listen.

By sophomore year I had dropped out my first time, and went back junior year only to drop out again. I somewhat attribute that outcome to my time in the reading program that I was bureaucratically placed in because of my verbal fumbling... my bitterness grew greatly over the years based on those sorts of things.