Problems, Who's at Fault, Solutions

I want to present some case histories -- all true but nameless, of course.

A family with several (five? Didn't they ever hear of ZPG? But, that is another thread.) daughters insists on having each child on an IEP, or special education subscription. Why and how these girls were first launched on a SPED career is unknown to me at present (but I will make inquiries). The girls eventually end up in honors classes but hog most of the time the Orton-Gillingham (phonics based reading instruction) teacher has (42 slots weekly, and two girls currently in the HS take up 11 of them).

In the meantime, I have a child on my caseload whose reading comprehension is "less than first grade." She needs to learn to read. Everyone is dragging their feet on the matter, although the reading teacher has no openings.

My daughter says if your child is 16 and can not read, you are guilty of child abuse. I agree. Its a little like sending her to the store on foot wearing a blindfold with busy streets to cross and an expectation of buying the correct things.

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Here's another case. THe son of a woman who was a special ed student herself was expelled from the local VOKE. He has been in high school three years and hasn't enough credits to finish his freshman year.

I have seen this kid's writing. He is basically at level one literacy (no one is really illiterate today in the sense the word was held in the 19th C. Level one means a person can construct simple sentences and do enough computation for daily life and, if (s)he reads something basic, like a sports story in the paper, (s)he can pick out one fact.)

He has outbursts in class and swears and wanders the halls and just leaves. He can "tolerate" school for two hours but not longer.

Everyone at his meeting today seemed to ignore his level of literacy and concentrated on getting him psychotropic drugs (which he may need). Somehow, I hear the chorus from West Side STory singing, "Officer Krupke."

My own solution to some of the special needs problem (11% of the kids in this country are SPED) is this.

With the exception of those with really low IQs, a big part of their problem is inability to read well.

I suggest that rather than send these kids to an ordinary high school, that, at the ninth grade level, they be sent to do reading, physical education of some form and productive work (rather than just stocking in grocery store or selling t-shirts, agricultural work or weaving or painting or auto mechanics). It, at the end of a year, if they can read, then they can pursue a standard high school education.

As for the parents of the girls described first, I think the school should talk to them like adults and let them know that there is still a stigma to SPED and they may be harming their daughters more than they know; that the kids do not need the attention; that others are deprived to service their girls.