The Learning Curve - Special Education

I didn't intend this article to focus on my hardships in school, though there were some to be had. I wanted to explain that hte SpEd EA program is something worth saving and understanding, that is DOES do a lot of good with kids who would have otherwise failed.

Well... each child is different both in ability and in aptitude. I had an issue concentrating so I was placed in smaller classes and with children who had a more severe learning disability. I fought to create a new method within the school system that allowed kids like me slowly move to the mainstream classes at their own pace and ability almost completely within the 'level' system.

Some kids are behavioral problems (for whatever reason), others have distinct learning disabilities (as you've said not a fault of theirs).

One of the more recent discoveries about ADD and ADHD (commonly confused, and very different) is that a child with ADD who has a higher intelligence than those around them become bored when left unchallenged. Once boredom happens the child creates their own adventures. I did a lot of this. I got suspended, temporarily expelled and sometimes just neglected my work. One of the things my Special Ed teachers learned though myself and a couple of the classmates who were enrolled for the same reason was that once you challenge us, you have our complete attention. Perhaps your teachers were not aware of this since gen pop students are almost completely the opposite.

I can't totally agree that an unruly student such as ourselves may have done better in mainstream classes to begin with. I say this because we both probably started our school careers off in gen pop and had to be transitioned INTO Special Ed. Now, At that point neither of us had the proper idea or habits to succeed in gen pop which was the point of being in Special Ed. However, Special Ed also needs to be broken down a bit better and looked over a lot less. Again, all children are different so we handle things differently even though we share many of the same characteristics (Special Ed and unruly behavior in this case). This adds to the increasing difficulty in identifying how to tap into a child learning behaviors. I know I often was labeled a daydreamer, doodler, or disruptive. Its really hard to get - "challenge their mind more" from those labels.

CORRECTION:

Special Ed also needs to be broken down a bit better and looked over a lot less

This is the opposite of what I meant to say. I meant to say:

Special Ed also needs to be broken down a bit better and OVER LOOKED a lot less.

I'm glad you found it enlightening, Claus. Since this disorder became 'common' in the late 80s, many different medications have been used to combat or suppress the urge to become overly impulsive. While in most the impulsive tendencies occur in a lack of consistent thought pattern, for some it also bleeds into physical action.

Its an interesting affliction and have in some ways given me the power to fly through thoughts, however the side-effect is that at terms I can't spend too much time on any one thought without the subject changing uncontrollably. I've had to kind of make a mental balance between subject and substance as well as quality vs quantity. If I can sort of feel that I'm about to switch subjects I push a little harder mentally to make my last few seconds of a thought count.

The worst aspect of ADD for me is that when I try and remember something, its not always in the right order. In doing a bit of research on my own I've read that people with ADD can come off as liars at times. In the mind of the person with ADD they can retell a story and as far as they can remember it is completely true. To the listener who may have been with the ADD person, the story is only half true. The order in which we sometimes remember things gets skewed, parts omitted, or opposite. most of the ADD people I know (who truly have ADD), are urged by their doctors to take frequent notes. Not only to remember events the way they happened, but so that we can also stay focused.

Ritalin was the first medication they used on me, and not until I was at three times the normal dose with next to no effect did they switch me over to Imipremene (or Toffernel), which worked out much better. Imipremene is now also used for insomnia. I no longer take medication as I've learned to cope with out drugs, but I still lose focus very easily at times. It annoys me to no end. I'll be in the middle of a really deep thought about the human condition and suddenly I'm off in a completely different direction wondering how hungry the person was who figured out that you had to cook a crab alive in order for it to be eaten without getting sick.

now, if this all sounds like some horrible and incapacitating affliction, its not all that bad really. I've coped and mode it thus far in life. Will I need help sometimes? Yes, but who doesn't? It's definately a very interesting thing to try and understand, especially when you have ADD.

I'm sure you DO have some thoughts, and I'd be very interested in hearing them (becaue you do work in that field). A High School buddy of mine, who was in Special Ed with me, is now a Special Ed teacher at the High School we attended. I hope to see him when I go on vacation in a month or so, and I'll be getting some of his thoughts on this article and perhaps write a lengthy article with much more depth.

In any event, feel free to email me anything you'd like to say, as candid as you'd like to say them at the times you don't feel your end of any conversation would suit 'ol google.

1.) do you agree with most of what I've said?

2.) are their key points that I've missed that might potentially cause me to rethink what I've said?

how predictable...

I'm hoping to go see one of my teachers soon and sort of interview her on her experiences, and then contrast that to a former student of hers / classmate of mine who also teaches in SpecEd, then incorporate an expanded version of my experiences outside of the classroom and on through life - what I carried on and what I threw to the wind, why and why not.

I know... I walked into it... but - I read your explanation before I read your y/n responses. But, to keep consistent I answered in a fashion that indicated that I had not read your explanation first... I'm a dirty liar / cheater...

Well a special group that focuses on Special Education might defeat the purpose. As it is tehr are a lot of groups and I would think it important to discuss with mainstream teachers things involving special education since, it can sort of lend its practices to the betterment of ALL students, no?

That would be what I think to be a great introduction of the 'sub-genre'. If it creates a moderate following then make it official