Bigots take so many forms… It is easy to spot the ones iunthe white hoods, or with the swastikas tattooed on their forearms. Not as easy to spot the ones who use racial pride and historic anger better left in the rchives than in our more advanced society. We see the madmen in the Middle East and we know them for what they really are…
But what of the subtle ones, the ones who exist all around us and never get recognized for who they are in the deep recesses of their petty, narrow minds? The ones who achieve positions of prominence and professional stature? The ones who are too often entrusted with that most precious national treasure, our children?
http://specialed.about.com/library/weekly/aa101201a.htm
Oh Where's My Hankie?
It is inspriational stories like these that make me realize what a wise use of taxpayer money special education funding is. I bet it only took her aide, an OT specialist, a speech therapist, and a special education teacher, and regular ed. teacher a year or two to teach her to say the Pledge of Allegiance. That’s only roughly $170,000!
I just wanted to let my friends on the Parenting a Child with LD that I have been quite busy this school year. Not only have I been promoted to SPED director of my district but I have just been selected to serve on President Bush’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education.
All of you who spend your hours reading this bulletin board instead of tending to your children and have read my posts these past years know how dedicated and how tirelessly I will work to set the course for a new special education policy and how the more than eight billion dollars in annual federal special education funding used.
Exemplifyingly,
Peter Principal
:-)
I have yourr dang hankie!
Peter:
Sorry I needed your hankie, didn’t think you’d mind. Really, if you would just get the janitor to refill the roll in the visitor’s john I wouldn’t have needed to borrow it like that. I saved it for you tho, it is in the top left drawer of your desk, right next to your (apparently unopened) copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. (I would suggest laundering it before you use it…)
Had you read the article carefully before you excreted your usual discourse, you might have noted that this child was only 5 at the time, so I doubt it was 2 years of various specialists who taught her this. And considering that the principal in this story was less than enthusiastic about providing services, I doubt that it was a team of specialists involved, probably just one teacher who can think outside the box, or even more likely, a lot of hard work by Mom. But then I guess it is silly of me to expect you to actually get background information on the subjects you hold opinons on when you obviously know everything already…
$170,000 spent on one child??? Whachoo bin smokin’ Petey? I would have settled if the schools had actually spent the money they did get for Sped services for my boy on Sped services for my boy, instead of diverting so much of it into “overhead”.
I spoke to a friend in Washington about your appointment Petey. Seems like they needed a bad example on the Board as well, so they can demonstrate how NOT to administer Federal Laws using Public Moneys. I am so very glad that out of all the qualified applicants they saw you as the superior candidate that you are.
Your serve Whistlehead
Re: Oh Where's My Hankie?
Or early retirement? [big evil grin] =)
Kathy G.
marion wrote:
>
> I thought you were on an extended summer vacation.
Re: Oh Where's My Hankie?
You never cease to amaze me. Now you’re a political appointee. What is the secret of your success? Did you sleep your way to success, bribe people, or blackmail them? Or is it just simple nepotism? (Did you get out your dictionary on that one or just guess its meaning?)
Why don’t you think about adding a few parents of children with special needs to the committee?
LJ
Re: Oh Where's My Hankie?
However, the intent of such performances is precisely to get to the emotions. The reality is that no one but mom knows just how much effort really went into teaching the young lady to recite the Pledge. could have been a week and could have been 6 months. Anytime we present the culmination of something out of context, people draw assumptions, right and wrong.
We need this committee to have facts, not performances that are calculated to elicit emotion.
I remember the chill in my gut hearing my principal make a flippant, snide remark about the number of kids from a certain bus stop who were in special ed. In half a sentence he covered all the bases — hey, you’re from the wrong side of tracks, we don’t expect anything of you anyway… in fact, you’re so low you’re in that group that we have to babysit but what a burden it is. And with his words and attitudes he helps fulfill his own constricting prophecies so he can stay smug and snide, so I do my best to chip away at the odds, one kid at a time. And people *have* been known to see the light…