Constructive vs destructive

Not according to IDEA. My dyslexic child is to receive educational benefit from a free and appropriate public education. It must meet her unique needs and prepare her for employment and independent living.

It is not my responsibility to identify her dyslexia, fund remediation by any one of the evidence-based methods, or learn the evidence-based methods myself to remediate her dyslexia at home to ensure she receives educational benefit.

Rage is but a symptom. Let’s see – we’ve paid our taxes as required by law, we’ve sent our kid to school as required by law, but she can’t read year after year after year. It’s a straightforward, unemotional violation of the law.

It’s especially fitting to me that you use the medical model analogy because my husband is in the medical field. I can just imagine the fallout if he applied your methodology to the patients he works with every day. He could make it the patient’s responsibility to educate him on their condition and what he should do to get the best outcome to the diagnostic tests he performs. When the waiting room is standing room only with patients that have waited weeks for an appointment, he could remind them that their aliment is their own problem (or their parent’s) and they should hold a bake sale in the neighborhood to purchase more equipment, supplies and hire more qualified staff. How long do you think he’d have a job???? Not long, because he’s NOT employed by the government or protected by a collective bargaining agreement. If medical care in my community was delivered under the model and practices employed by my school district, our local educators would be the first to file a law suite.

My dyslexic daughter receiving a FAPE from the public school district we reside in is constructive. I’m sure we alienated more than one educator and administrator when we stopped coaxing, begging and threatening – and took the necessary steps to hold them responsible for their failure - not my daughter’s or ours as her parents.

Your husband’s medical research and salary is all paid for by taxes then?
Oh it’s privately funded? Perhaps he’d like to be funded in the same way as schools? Would he pay for patients prescriptions and treatments himself? Out of his own salary?
Aren’t medical patients entitled to free and appropriate treatment that will save their lives? Do not Dr’s still allow patients to die, be crippled, maimed everyday because they can’t pay for the BEST treatment? Shouldn’t they be sued for not giving the most expensive and best researched treatments available in the best funded hospitals to everyone? I’m afraid your moral superiority falls down there.
You can scream and pound your shoe on the desk that the law says…
but laws and their interpretations change. Do you support higher and higher malpractice awards? If the school has something they can give your child and they’re denying it then fine fight them. If it’s not available to any other child where do you think it’s going to come from? Is your school district willing to raise it’s taxes in order to pay for that free and appropriate education. Go and repeat what you’ve said on this board to all the parents in your school district. I’m sure your attitudeand manner will unite them behind you. And then your problems will be solved. Or will they unite to changethe wording and interpretation of that law?

If the parents are responsible for educating the kids that the teachers find “too hard”, what are the teachers for? Lets make everyone homeschool!

Even an HMO will allow the sick person to see a specialist and be treated. If that doesn’t work out they are allowed a second opinion.

The attitudes you describe come AFTER the polite requests, begging, pleading, the $$ given to teachers to help supplement their classrooms with tools.

Parents should not be blamed for the ignorance or lack of training of
the “experts”.

This is the PARENTING bb, not the teaching bb. If you want to whine about parents, do it over there!

I agree that special education is to provide FAPE. Can you post the language in the law that states that the school WILL prepare your child for employment and independent living?

When I visit a doctor for treatment I expect treatment, but my doctor is not held legally accountable for curing me of whatever I visit her for. She needs to try, she should have a paper trail in the unlikely event I file malpractice against her, but she is not legally obligated to “cure” anything at all.

Teachers are obliged to try, to identify needs, to teach to those needs. No one can assure you that your goals for your child will be realized.

Just to jump in here. Errr the largest portion of a Doctor’s salary is paid for by the gov’t.

Medicare and Medicaid ring any bells.
Actually it is widely known that patients under medicare and especially medicaid qualify for the most coverage for most medical conditions.

When I worked as a visiting nurse we used to hate to get patients that were covered by private insurance. It was far easier to get things covered under medicare and medicaid.
Also many states supply coverage for children even if the entire family does not meet the financial requirements for medicaid.

We have a tradition of taking care of children in this country. It is truely a tradition that, I think, makes our country great.

We were actually held to high standards of care to receive that state funding. There was after all competition in the form of other agencies also eligible for state funds. HMM maybe an argument for vouchers.

I am tired of hearing the argument that the schools can’t afford it, especially when I have seen my own district place expensive bandaides on problems that could be dealt with effectively with real research based solutions. Yep, we still have mostly a whole language based curriculum. An appropriate education for all children would be cheaper than the mess that currently exists. The schools are a beauracratic, ineffective nightmare. Surely a system that worked would be more cost effective on numerous levels.
I personally think that the schools should do something that hospitals were forced to do in the 80s. All persons in a decsion making role should be trained in effective business management techniques. I will volunteer my organizational development expertise.

There is ample research on the cost benefits of quality. This research has been used in almost every area of our society to improve productivity and make this country stonger. Without management that pursues quality as a real and substantitive goal there remains the just waste and stagnation in the system, any system.

Teachers are obliged to use techiniques that have the support of the latest research.

The analogy that springs to mind is that if doctors practiced at the level of educators that do not follow the latest research. (not lumping all in here I believe the one’s on this board do) at your next MD appointment you would have the bumps on your head read.
So, I do not expect a cure where there is none. There is a cure for most maybe all children with reading problems, yet so many still can’t read.
Is this not similar to a child who has diabetes that is denied insulin? There is no cure for diabetes but there are effective methods for treating this ailment. Children with diabetes have a right to a healthy and productive life.

I am sorry. I am not into teacher bashing. I believe most are just good people trapped in a really bad system. I know that parents have to do alot themselves. We have a responsibility to help the good teachers change the system. They can’t do it without us.

I think this discussion is a positive one if we can discuss neccessary changes to the system. Let’s everyone keep this out of the realm of personal attacks.

I have often thought of this comparison between medicine and education. My thought being that if my child were ill, I would be presented with a treatment plan for the most accepted methods. If those failed I would be presented with lesser used treatments and eventully experimental choices. Nevertheless, I could feel that experts had laid out a plan and funding etc. was discussed regarding the options I might choose.

Educationally, no diagnosis was decided on, no treatment options explored. In fact, like an educational HMO, it was don’t discuss that because we, the school, doesn’t want to pay. As parents we were left with hunting high and low to find someone who could tell us why our son could not read and what to do about it.

My little brother had leukemia in the 1960s and while I am well aware of the differences in this comparison, my mother had more help, more direction with her severely affected child then I have ever had with mine. My brother was given the accepted treatment of the time, when that wasn’t effective he was given more experimental treatments. AND at no time was his illness blamed on him or my parents……

Yes, we are all now faced with HMO education. Under fee for service medicine, which once prevailed, if one doctor gave unsatisfactory service, you just went to another. No bureaucratic hoops to go through the way you have to with an HMO.

The interesting thing to me is that public education has pretty much been an HMO all along (the costs of switching out of your assinged school are very high or there may be a lack of anything to switch into), but it is only relatively recently in its long history that kids have gotten HMO service. Hence the rise of charter schools, vouchers, homeschooling, etc. I often wonder why—in view of the high cost of switching problem—it was that schools were pretty good for so long at doing what in the end has to be the rationale for government-funded education—ensuring that all citizens are well-educated in order to uphold the democracy on which this country is founded.

Is it increasing power of the unions, the rise of better paid opportunities for the most intellectually gifted women elsewhere, the breakdown of families, weakening in dedication to the core mission of producing well-educated citizens, or something else?

Personally, I have come to expect very little from the schools, but am deeply grateful to the old-fashioned (and old) first grade teacher who taught my child to read. This was pronounced a miracle by the SLP who tested the child’s language skills. I know others who were not so lucky, kids who have finished third grade not knowing how to read. I mentioned this casually the other day to a middle age woman without kids and she was shocked to learn there are middle class kids like this. At first I was puzzled by her shock—doesn’t everyone know about how school are failing etc.? But in thinking it over, she should be shocked as should we all—do we really want to become a country with vast numbers of illiterate voters?

.

No, I don’t blame LD on parents or children. I am sorry this happened to you. Nor do I sit at the table and ask parents what treatment they want. My doctor doesn’t ask me what treatment I want. My doctor usually provides minimal information, sometimes none. I generally have to ask and badger to get much explained to me. I do think I talk and explain as much as parents are interested.

You know, if you went to a free clinic where you pay nothing and the patients are stacked in the waiting room, you won’t get the individualized attention and treatment we seem to be calling for either. To get this kind of attention from busy practitioners you usually need to dig into your own pockets and pay for private. When the services are paid with tax $$$$, there are usually just plain too many patients (students), too few practitioners (teachers) and too few hours to give the level of attention and support we wish for. Look at public social workers. When the American public wants public services to meet this level of expectation, then they are going to have to ante up more. So, I continue to do my best to give quality every teachable moment. I try to answer parents’ questions and be helpful. No, I probably won’t be holding meetings to the depth you hope for at the present time and under the present conditions. I think we want private level services on the governments’ dime. I don’t think this adds up. However, it is an opinion and this is the level of expectation I have always had of public school and probably will continue to have. It’s a factory, it is a darn sight better than nothing, a darn sight and we slam our American schools, the only schools in the world, where everyone has a right to be in school and to receive an appropriate educations, far more than they deserve. Sure, you can go to Janpan or Germany or China or Singapore. What would be the fate of our handicapped children in these nations? What rights do the parents of those children have in those nations have?

We have so much here and we just keep demanding more. There is no such thing as enough and there never will be, until people are required to pay for what they get. Funny, how quickly we can appreciate what we pay for. And, when we pay we have greater freedom and more rights.

I submit that we already are a country of vast numbers of semi-literate voters. The framers of our constitution did not enfranchise every adult citizen and for a reason. They did not trust the minimally educated masses to read, think, discuss and debate the issues to make informed decisions. Most people do not. They preferred a republic.

I don’t really know enough about the history of education to know if public education as a goal had anything whatsoever to do with a literate electorate. I do know that factory owners and managers wanted a modicum of educational level to be attained by their workers for their own “selfish” reasons. I don’t really think our nation ever pledged a maximal education for all, certainly not a college education for all.

Our public school system, however and despite its weaknesses, ( despite the many who dropped out early on in years back when they did not learn to read) was a huge success. It did enable more and more of us to become middle, upper middle and even upper class. It was and still is, I believe, a huge success. Where else can you achieve the class mobility we Americans enjoy? So, as we realized the doors that widespread mass education opened for people, we middle class and lower middle class parents aspired to more and more education for our children, that they might surpass our parents’ economic and career accomplishments.

Wouldn’t it be easier if you didn’t have time you suggested to the parents that they look for other help.

I would have felt better if the teachers came to me at the meeting and said “I want the best for all my children, but money and time won’t allow it, please try and do some things with your child on your own. I will do my best with what I have!”? At least I would have known in advance that I needed to be working on getting outside services.

K.

Anitya,
I actually share some of your libertarian bent. The U.S. is of course a republic—but voters do choose their representatives, which means they should be acquainted with the issues and be educated enough to vote for the person that will best represent their views. I know some believe public education was actualy started to serve the interests of business owners who needed an educated work force, and that may well be. However, I don’t believe that holds up conceptually as a defensible rationale for government-funded public education. I do find the idea that government should fund education for its people to ensure educated voters (who will of course see the merits of republican system—we hope) a much more compelling reason on a conceptual level.

Of course we do have many illiterates and semilitereates in our population—most of them thankfully don’t vote. But I have an interest in making that potential voting sector as small as possible, as do those without children and those whose children have long grown up. A childless person’s vote for a school bond issue can actually be in their self-interest when seen from this point of view; otherwise one is just relying on the uncertainties of a compassion vote from those who are not directly affected by the level of school funding the way parents of school-age children are.

I agree with you that public education has been a huge success—I guess that unlike you I am beginning to believe it is now becoming far less successful than it was.

Those of us who are certified have almost all been driven out of the field - driven out by incredible demands with a laughable salary - driven out by systemic abuse - driven out by personal abuse from those who in many cases are the sole cause of their child’s learning problems - driven out by a lack of resources - driven out by inane laws and paperwork designed to assuage the egos of errant parents and voters with little thought to the needs of kids with disabilities - driven out by dangerous classrooms - driven out by other opportunities which demand a lot less while rewarding (intrinsically) a lot more - driven out by children unable to receive quite simple, effective interventions because of the lack of money, care, and support of (choose one)

administrators
peers
universities
parents
parent activists
courts
inept foster care
tragedy
greed

Special ed has been killed by all of the above and I prayfully await for the next step.

It is a success for those without LD. I think the point of Idea without getting into the semantics about the law was for all to get the same chance.

This reminds me of a discussion I had with my sister a long time ago. When my son was acting up she said, “You should spank him.” I said, “Absolutely not.” She said, “Well I was spanked and I turned out all right.”

I replied, “Well, actually, you could be better.”

Sorry, that one still cracks me up.

I’m sure those in the medical profession would strongly disagree with your argument.

I have to disagree. The public school system as a whole is only successful if families are fortunate (literally) enough to supplement their child’s education. We are turning out mediocre, brain-washed robots at best.

Absolutely, K! I would admire and respect the teacher who was bold enough to tell me this up front. I sure would have saved me and my son years of frustration and aggravation.

I speak for myself. This is exactly the attitude that makes me nuts. I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to feel sorry for those who lie in the wet bed and say nothing when the ultimate sufferers are the children.

Maybe it is just what we say about those who say ridiculous things in mainstream society; lack of education.

I’m sorry, but the educators are not the ones I feel sorry for. At least you have a handle on your future; some kids may never realize their potential because of all of the excuses and those who pass them on because they say their hands are tied.

Shame on those who use a screwed up educational system as a crutch. Praise to those who rise above despite the obstacles.

I found that socialized medicine works quite well in New Zealand. Also, we have it here, it’s called medical. We pay for it with our tax dollars for people who can’t afford insurance and then we pay for our insurance as well. I’ve seen people get better medical care with medical than with insurance they paid for and end up with less paper work as well. So… not only is you logic regarding special education flawed but so is your analogy. Yes, this topic enrages me. I’ve had the school district bail out on three IEPs and so now nothing will be settled regarding my son’s fall placement until fall semester is already underway.

These children willl “have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to MEET thier unique needs and PREPARE them for employment and independent living…”
20 U.S.C.s1401(d)
My neice just graduated high school. She has been in special education since 2nd grade. What will you do now, I asked her…… “I don’t know. Something that I won’t have to read or write. The kids I babysit read and write better than me.”
Sounds to me like someone broke the law here. Her goals were not met, could they haev been. YES. I’ll tell you something else, her Mom never questioned the program the school provided. She believed they were the experts here. This will not happen to my 6 year old dyslexic child. I work WITH the school to set up the appropriate program for her. It has been my experience that they need all the help they can get.
And yes, doctors do have an obligation to cure what is curable. If they don’t it is called NEGLIGENCE.

I hope you’re right, Ken. I hope special ed is dead and gone – the sooner the better. Has there ever been a dyslexic student that learned to read in special ed? I’ve never met one.

I have some teachers in my family. They love having the summer off with their own kids, so none of them will leave (or have been driven from) teaching for my husband’s job. He is not a doctor, but works in the medical-technical field. His annual earnings are comparable to that of the special ed coordinator at our local high school.

However, my husband works 40 hours per week PLUS he is required to be on call every other night and every other weekend. Doctors rely on his findings to determine a course of treatment for their patients. He gets 2 weeks off per year, and 7 major holidays. Well, he gets paid for 7 major holidays, but he still has to work half of them.

For a similar level of education and annual income, our local special ed coordinator works 180 days per year, has a superior benefits package, and his job is protected by a union contract no matter how poorly he performs – and believe me, he’s incompetent by any private sector standard. He is also completely comfortable with awarding students of average to above average intelligence a diploma despite the fact that they demonstrate early elementary level reading and writing skills. He simply hands them the phone number for the department of rehab at graduation so another state agency can do what he neglected, prepare the student for employment and independent living.

He looks to me like he rather enjoys the job. In fact, I don’t think anyone could pry him loose let alone drive him from the profession.

/

That is very sad. That is how my brother feels. He is excited to be going to a vocational school where he will actually be learning a trade and getting to use his hands. He wants to be in the marine or auto mechanics shop. Which I think would be fabulous for him, however, he is going to have to read manuals and with a 3rd grade reading level how well will he do.

My brother never received the “Free and Appropriate Education” The only thing he ever recevied was a “Free, Inappropriate, Unacceptable, and Unfortunate Education” He was hardly given a fighting chance by my school district.

I have beenr reviewing his IEP Goals and noticed that they have been the same for almost four years. When I spoke to “The professional” we hired, he said well they are only goals, if he doesn’t meet them it is ok. HUH? I don’t think it is ok at all. I understand where your niece is coming from. It must be heartbreaking to not be able to reach for your goals in life, because you were set up to fail.

K.

You know, I too could handle it. But, one never knows what they CAN say anymore.

When I have spoken to some of my nonteacher special ed. colleagues to the effect of “gee, I am already working all day long, teaching every minute, I don’t know where I CAN find the time to teach this new student to his needs, esp. when he does not fit into a slot or group I already have going.” The answer is “you’ll just have to find time.” That is always the answer given to all teachers no matter what they are already doing. So, you find time by pinching it here and there from students you are already serving.

There is just an expectation that we feel from our superiors and often from parents that we can and will be able to do everything they task up to do, no matter how much and how many. I would never get away with saying this and if it went back to the admin. I would get nailed. I can speak honestly on the internet.

Wouldn’t it be ok to call the parents? Invite them in for a meeting or even an email meeting or Instant messenger meeting?

I know you probably can’t tell them you have no time for their child but you could enlist their help. Maybe in the beginning of the year send home a flyer asking for parental volunteers, retired grandparents, siblings.

I am not working right now, if my brothers teachers said that they needed my help, I would have been there every day volunteering. I did nothing all day but clean my house and volunteer at my son’s school. I could have easily made a difference, I could have helped other children not just my son.

K.

OK, if we are doing a poorer job today, what has changed? Parents’ rights are a huge issue, never was an issue too many years back. Education for all is a battle cry, never was in the 1950’s. Could it be, from a libertarian view, that the things we have implemented to try to improve the outcome for all students are the very things that are causing the system to deteriorate?

No one ever promised that we could make LD children the same as their peers. We just need to try to teach them and try and try. Sometimes we do better than others.

Yes, I know there are some dreadful teachers out there and I wish I could personally take all the youngsters who suffer under well-meaning but ignorant teachers.

I remember when I was a kid each classroom in the k through 2 grades had a classroom aide. This is before the school system was the way it was now. I remember that the aid was the phonics teachers. When it was reading time in class, certain students would go with the aide to a section of the classroom that had been designed for these students. I don’t remember any teasing by the other children. It was explained to us that the aide, whos face I can see but name I can’t remember, was helping the students. Not a big deal.

It is such a shame that so much has changed. I think that the system worked out perfectly back then. It is too badthey couldn’t implement something like that now. Have the children get their special ed help right in class. As always it comes down to money. It is better, in our district, to pay a million special ed teachers and give them separate classroom, instead of making them share a classroom ?/

Just a thought
K.

Symptomatic of how much older I am than you-
When I learned to read it was in a Catholic School- fifty kids per class (I have my third grade picture) in five fows of ten kids each with one nun using Dick and Jane. Everyone read the same book. I finished it in September. Some kids never did. Didn’t matter- we plodded through each story week by week. Better? hmmm- I don’t think most parents would tolerate much less pay tuition for this now. :)

Robin

Wow, that doesn’t sound like much fun for any kids nevermind kids who have reading trouble.

I realized after my positing that I was in first grade about 24 years ago, eek! It would be naive of me to think things could stay the same over that long a period of time!!!

K.

Let them, I don’t agree that we are the incompetents and failures we are often made out to be, either.

>I guess that unlike you I am beginning to believe it is now becoming far less successful than it was.<
Yes it is far less sucessfull. In 2 words..”Whole language”. That idiotice thory that childrem magically absorb reading skills thru having books read to them is sheer idiocy. To me it signifies laziness. We no longer need to learn how to teach reading…it magically appears! Now the teachers who were educated during this era haven’t been taught how to teach reading!

Anitya:

We are not asking for teachers to make LD kids like their peers, all people ask is that when the kids with LD request accomodations or understanding that the teacher not give them the third degree like they are making it up. Parents just got more demanding, because some educators talked nice to the kids/their faces but were putting derogatory information in the official file. Knowing all along, that the kids could not see it till 18 or 21 unless, their parents filed a request of review. A bit of self worth you might say.

As a former special ed teacher (and parent) I will reply to some of this.

“They love having the summer off with their own kids” Having summer’s off never happened in my life. I had kids to support so got to do all kinds of wonderful low-paying jobs as well as go to college to maintain my certificate. You are describing some of the teachers I’ve had the most problems with, those who teach as a hobby. Well, that’s what we’ve voted for in education. You will never get proper diagnoses and intervention with the present model.

However, my husband works 40 hours per week PLUS he is required to be on call every other night

My Dad was a teacher who worked easily 60 hours a week and was on call every night. We also attended his students’ churches and social events on most weekends. When he died, a lawyer looked at his assets and asked, “Is this it?” Yes, that’s it. I bet your husband’s portfolio shines.

For a similar level of education and annual income, our local special ed coordinator works 180 days per year, has a superior benefits package, and his job is protected by a union contract

Special ed coordinators in the real world are administrators and have no union. Most I know are involved many hours with federal audits and law cases.

no matter how poorly he performs – and believe me, he’s incompetent by any private sector standard.

sorry your local public schools are so inept - the rest of the world has many valiant workers being undermined by an uncaring public and govt

He looks to me like he rather enjoys the job. In fact, I don’t think anyone could pry him loose let alone drive him from the profession.

If this incompetent is an administrator it seems the onus is on you to elect a school board to have him removed.

When teachers and parents league and fight for kids change happens. When the system has atrophied through neglect then GOOD RIDDANCE

You know how it’s really frustrating for kids to be told “You’re just not trying hard enough!!!”

Being told “Don’t tell me your hands are tied, that’s an excuse!” is exactly, exactly the same kind of thinking. Those teachers often feel just your frustration with those kids, the same kind of refusal to “Feel sorry” for them.

It’s really hard to change the “Just try harder!” mindset in teachers who would have to change how they think and do a lot of things and be a lot more flexible in their approach to solving problems.

Think about the parallels to what you are saying.

The law explicitly says that if a student is determined to need something for a “free appropriate public education” that the school is required to meet those needs. It explicitly states that not having that service in place or funding assigned to it is NOT a legally valid reason for not providing it.

Of course, the people who passed that law sorta didn’t bother to worry about how to *GET* the funding to pay for the servi9ces.
So teachers learn rather quickly (early in training) *not* to ever say a child needs a service the school cannot provide.

Praise to kids who rise above obstacles like bad teachers and disabilities. Is that what you are saying?

Yes, Ken, my husband has to get those CEUs to maintain his certification in the medical field also. He has to pay for them himself, and use his vacation time to attend. He gets no inservice days like our special ed coordinator.

He doesn’t get the summer off to play OR augment his income. He’s required to work all 12 months of the year for an annual income similar to what our special ed coordinator is paid for 180 days.

Whatever our special ed coordinator is involved in, federal – legal – or otherwise, it will never be done before 7:45 am, or after 3:30 pm.

My husband’s portfolio isn’t very shinny just yet, probably because he has to make all the contributions himself.

It sounds like your dad was very dedicated to his students. I have to wonder what era he taught in because I went to school in the 60s’ and 70s’, and my children from 85s’ to present, and no teacher I’ve ever met was “on call” every night or attended personal functions (nor did/would we expect that). We expected our children to leave their class each year with basic grade level skills and a command of core curriculum irrespective of the teacher’s personal feelings or lack of them for students.

I’m sorry some educators feel unappreciated and that the public and government is pulling the rug out from under them. I don’t think my husband feels this way in the medical field, but I think that’s because he realizes he’s paid to do a job and expected to do it if he intends to keep it. I suspect the realization that a teacher shapes the lives of developing children can probably get pretty emotional and heady.

In my husband’s case, he participates in medical care that improves the quality of life for some, saves the lives of some, and helps some prepare for the finality of life. He finds it very rewarding, but (like teaching) knows it’s still a career – a job. He doesn’t blame the public or government for the undesirable aspects of his job (and every job has some), nor does he expect the public, government, or a union to improve his earnings and benefits, limit or reduce his patient load, or to rise up in support and affirm his contribution to the community and society at large.

It must be different in the real world, but I recently read that only 40% of the students in my state can read at grade level. I assure you that my husband’s employer, nor our community, would tolerate that level of performance from him or his coworkers.

The funding is there. They system is wasteful and inefficient. At my school district they spend there money on whole language programs that are ineffective and therefore costly. Anything, anywhere that is ineffective is costly.

Please don’t ask for more until that which is there is used efficiently. I am not saying this is your job alone, but the job of everyone who is a part of the system and with that I would include parents, teachers and administrators. We can all say that it is just that way, throw up our hands, and say it can’t be done. We all play a part in owning this system and are therefore are responsible for making it better, more efficient, and make it work for the children. As adults, are we really to expect the children to just make it work.

I don’t know many places where that would fly, except, based on your post, where you work

Even if you think the system you work in is a highly efficient well oiled machine there can always be improvements, it is only with that attitude that things improve.

I have very low expectations of my school district. All I want now is that they don’t kill his innate thirst for knowledge, his emotional stability and his motivation. I have taught him to read, am teaching him handwriting, am providing him with various therapies to improve his visual perception and sensory integration, teaching him math, organizational skills, all kinds of information that he didn’t pick up throughout the year. I consider this my responsibility. I realize until things change these things are beyond the scope of the schools.

Well- from s’ters point of view fun wasn’t needed or wanted:)
I am however an omnivorous and rapid reader now who would rather read than almost anything. So maybe they didn’t do too badly after all!

Robin

Your husband makes a five figure salary?

No, my husband doesn’t - and neither does our special ed coordinator.