Sunday, October 17, 2010
Do our students need us (and their parents) too much?
It has recently come up in my department meetings (special education) that perhaps our department is doing TOO much to support our students. Are our students at a disadvantage because we over-help them? Are students given enough opportunities to make mistakes without the safety net of their parents and teachers? I am thinking of looking into this topic as I examine the workings of my building's special education department. But first, I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts.....
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In my experience, the special ed teachers I've worked with have provided exactly the right size "net" for students to fall into, mainly because these teachers know their students so well and maintain high standards for achievement. Sometimes that net needs to be larger and closer to the student, and sometimes it needs to be farther away and much smaller. The question of how much help to give speaks to the difficulty of being a special ed teacher--knowing your students and their needs is key, and you have to constantly reassess depending on the assignment, the class, personal circumstances, etc. Special ed, in my opinion, is paving the way for what education should look like -- why doesn't every kid have an IEP, learning difficulties or not? (Answer: Because it would necessitate smaller class sizes and people already think that we teachers have it too easy. Depressing!)
ReplyDeleteI think that, in the two buildings I've been a part of, the only "over-help" I found was in terms of deadlines. "Extended time" can be a be a nebulous term, and it often falls to the special ed teacher to make determinations about late work and credit. As a gen ed teacher, I trust the special ed teachers I work with to give me honest feedback on individual students in terms of setting reasonable deadlines to complete work. Developing a culture of trust in a school between gen ed and special ed teachers, in my opinion, is so important.