Did special ed make you shallow?

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I think being in special ed made me a shallow person. It made me have a phobia of nerdy things. It's getting better. I used to have a phobia of wearing glasses. I don't have that phobia anymore.

A few years ago I had a phobia of associating with nerds and special ed types. At the moment I'm fine being friends with those people, but I still don't want to date them. Someone accused me of being shallow because of that.

I guess this phobia does make me shallow.

I don't think Special Ed made me shallow.

In fact, it can be said that it made me deeper as a child than I would have been had I been in "regular" classes.

This has helped me with depth during my adulthood.

Special ed taught me that when you have a disability, you get a different set of rules to follow and not all rules apply to you. Then when I was in my teens, I found out I had a disability so I all of a sudden expected special rules and have everything go my way and not have all the rules apply to me. This was real hard for my family because I had this idea in my head and I had to be taught it was all wrong what the parents and teachers do to their special needs kids.

Whom do you mean by nerds? My idea of nerds has nothing to do with special ed; in fact, they're nearly the exact opposite. Special ed is for people who have trouble with school; nerds love academics and tend to excel at it.

I actually had rules that only applied to me and was denied certain rights all the other students had. Taught me early about the concept of double standards.

I have to say so, because for me special ed was so stigmatizing. When, in 10th grade, I had finally broken free of being put in a self-contained classroom and now went to all "normal" classes, being completely mainstreamed, I dreaded any thought of being associated with that anymore (despite still having an IEP). I was afraid to go anywhere near the school's resource classroom because of this stigma.

LOL, I was in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade I noticed only the rules applied to me but not to anyone else and I hated that. Kids could get away with doing things and whenever I did them, it was a big deal. I hated it so I acted out and tried to be like the other kids more and my school thought I had behavior issues. I didn't even know I had a disability then, I only knew I was different so I was being treated as such. But I can also relate to being denied certain rights, I had to fight to take drama and driver's ed. But this was when I was in mainstream and I was no longer in that special program. where everyone had a disability or a developmental delay. But sadly this is what they do with special needs. They enforce the rules on us but not on the normie kids.

This is the precise reason we decided to put my daughter in mainstream schooling. If we want to teach our child independence then she should learn the ropes of the NT world rather than hiding/protecting her in a safe but unrealistic bubble which is special ed. I'm largely driven by the concern over how she will cope when we are not around in future. Of course the trade off is being exposed to more triggers for social anxiety but she is getting better at coping with these over time.

I disagree. Special education programs teach students how to be independent. I am almost certain that I never would have gotten to where I am today if I did not go to a special education school. But I guess it depends on the individual. I can only speak for myself.

I couldn't really say since I was only in special ed for a short time because I was too high functioning to be in that program. The thing is that I did get occasional speech therapy, so being pulled out of class made me stand out, and not in a good way. For me, I think that being in a special ed class all the time would have hindered my education because I got a lot out of the academics. When I started school over 30 years ago, many special ed programs were basically glorified babysitting programs because people thought those with disabilities couldn't handle academics.

I believe we were both talking about self contained rooms where you keep the special needs students isolated from the normal kids.

But anyway, that program isn't for all special needs kids, some do better in mainstream while some might do better in self contained room.

If you have a kid that copies and mimics everyone around them and copies behaviors, you do not want them in that classroom.

Also they were not teaching me anything that other kids my age were learning such as US History or science or money or any famous people who are dead. They were just giving me the same work over and over I already knew how to do such as my name and address and phone number and I already new the alphabet and the sounds they all made and I already knew addition and subtraction. Why weren't they giving me anything else to learn? It was the same work over and over so I was being held back in education. My work was dumbed down.

I'm not sure if it was 'special ed' necessarily, but when I was very young and saw that I was autistic and not mentally ret*d, they gave me this 'special complex' that caused me to have a huge ego and think I was above everyone else. That doesn't happen anymore though. So yes, I would say special ed made me shallow in a sense.

I went to a "special school"--but I was on an academic track. The curriculum was probably on a par with a "normal" public school classroom.