Question about Education
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marie Howarth
Apr 29, 2010, 2:14:17 PM4/29/10
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Hi guys,
I have a blog where I often voice my very controversial opinions. after speaking to a friend of mine who lives in the US, and went through the mainstream educational system herself who currently knows someone going through the same system, I am completely and utterly appalled by the things this kid can get away with partly because, as we believe she is visually impaired. Coupled with our own general election going on here in the UK and one party's manifesto indicating that integration for disabled kids will be cut back if they get into power, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts on this were. What were your experiences from an educational point of view; did you receive special treatment, I.E. not having to take exams because you were visually impaired or were allowed to go home and have poor attendance simply because you were visually impaired? Or did you feel you received the same treatment as your peers and in your opinion was this fair?
I think it is only right I tell you of my experiences so you can see how I think some of the situations I have heard of are completely disgraceful.
I was partially sighted until I was six and attended mainstream primary school. When I lost my sight completely, my local education authority insisted I should be moved to a specialised school. The nearest one to my home was a school for multiply disabled children and my mum, her friend, the head of the local visually impaired authority and my head teacher fought to keep me at my school.
They won!
After primary school was over, again the Local education authority pushed for me to attend a specialised school. Both schools I was accepted for were to be boarding schools and so at eleven I would have to leave home. This would have been funded so my parents didn't have to foot the bill but they wanted to see me grow up and maintained I could achieve the grades after my year eleven exams at 16. So they again pushed for mainstream education. And won again.
During my primary years, I was supported after my total sight loss by a learning support assistant who did withdraw me from class during fun activities to teach me braille, learn me how to use my senses, in short to teach me how to be blind. Further on, these sessions changed to mobility work and they were essential to my adapting to my sight loss. At this point in my education, the withdrawals from play times or some art classes did not affect my school work and without them I may not have developed effectively to my sight loss. However, in high school, there was never withdrawals from class except once for sex ed where my LSA used tactile dolls to educate me while the others had the video. Anyway, during the time of my GCSEs, which are nationally set exams, my visual impairment team thought it may be beneficial to have me drop a class in order to utilise my LSA's more efficiently for things like diagrams and such. However, the Local education authority refused and so I took the exact same number of exams as my peers. The only special treatment I received, was extra time in exams and a scribe or a reader. This was essential in some exams such as maths or science where diagrams may have been or in literature open book exams to find the quotes I needed. However, I don't think I hardly ever used my extra time and got my exams done in the same time as everyone else with very good grades. My exams were done in another room to my classmates but this has to be done so as not to disturb other students. I know similar schemes are in place in the US higher education system as I have used them there also.
I never got away with not doing homework, I was yelled at if I forgot my book for class, by both my class teacher and LSA and having time off because I felt like it was never allowed.
Please let me know what you think about this topic.
thanks
Marie
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I have a blog where I often voice my very controversial opinions. after speaking to a friend of mine who lives in the US, and went through the mainstream educational system herself who currently knows someone going through the same system, I am completely and utterly appalled by the things this kid can get away with partly because, as we believe she is visually impaired. Coupled with our own general election going on here in the UK and one party's manifesto indicating that integration for disabled kids will be cut back if they get into power, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts on this were. What were your experiences from an educational point of view; did you receive special treatment, I.E. not having to take exams because you were visually impaired or were allowed to go home and have poor attendance simply because you were visually impaired? Or did you feel you received the same treatment as your peers and in your opinion was this fair?
I think it is only right I tell you of my experiences so you can see how I think some of the situations I have heard of are completely disgraceful.
I was partially sighted until I was six and attended mainstream primary school. When I lost my sight completely, my local education authority insisted I should be moved to a specialised school. The nearest one to my home was a school for multiply disabled children and my mum, her friend, the head of the local visually impaired authority and my head teacher fought to keep me at my school.
They won!
After primary school was over, again the Local education authority pushed for me to attend a specialised school. Both schools I was accepted for were to be boarding schools and so at eleven I would have to leave home. This would have been funded so my parents didn't have to foot the bill but they wanted to see me grow up and maintained I could achieve the grades after my year eleven exams at 16. So they again pushed for mainstream education. And won again.
During my primary years, I was supported after my total sight loss by a learning support assistant who did withdraw me from class during fun activities to teach me braille, learn me how to use my senses, in short to teach me how to be blind. Further on, these sessions changed to mobility work and they were essential to my adapting to my sight loss. At this point in my education, the withdrawals from play times or some art classes did not affect my school work and without them I may not have developed effectively to my sight loss. However, in high school, there was never withdrawals from class except once for sex ed where my LSA used tactile dolls to educate me while the others had the video. Anyway, during the time of my GCSEs, which are nationally set exams, my visual impairment team thought it may be beneficial to have me drop a class in order to utilise my LSA's more efficiently for things like diagrams and such. However, the Local education authority refused and so I took the exact same number of exams as my peers. The only special treatment I received, was extra time in exams and a scribe or a reader. This was essential in some exams such as maths or science where diagrams may have been or in literature open book exams to find the quotes I needed. However, I don't think I hardly ever used my extra time and got my exams done in the same time as everyone else with very good grades. My exams were done in another room to my classmates but this has to be done so as not to disturb other students. I know similar schemes are in place in the US higher education system as I have used them there also.
I never got away with not doing homework, I was yelled at if I forgot my book for class, by both my class teacher and LSA and having time off because I felt like it was never allowed.
Please let me know what you think about this topic.
thanks
Marie
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