Hetero or homo?
Mark Probert
special school which is dedicated to special needs kids with physical
handicaps.
He has been in this program since he was 23 months old. Until this year
the kids were grouped homogeneous. Now, he is in a class with an age
spread of three years, which would not be a problem, except for the fact
that the functional spread is way more than that.
In addition to being extremely verbal and articulate Noah reads well
above grade level, but is relatively weak in math as the school refuses
to push him. We do, and he is doing OK, but has potential for doing
better. Formal reading, 40 minutes a day, and math, are done in small
groups.
His current class has nine students, the maximum under NY rules. We have
no problem with that. The problem is that four of the kids are so non-
functional that in class activities, Noah gets to read "baby books" and
do "baby things" (his words), like reading "The Very Hungry Catepillar"
(which opened the year for the past two years) which he can recite
backward. There is a fifth student who is non-verbal, but is reading and
doing math on grade level. The rest of the class have been classmates
since the beginning and work beautifully together and learn from each
other.
Even at this early point we see that the work is far from challenging.
It is boring! It has been done before, and before and before.
Any opinions about hetero vs. homo?
===>Mark Probert<===
Merrick, Lange Eyland, New York on 09/18/95 at 13:13
* CMPQwk #1.4 * UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY
Jodi Silverberg
ed or regular ed. I'm a special ed teacher, and not a radical
inclusionist, but I think that a child with normal cognitive abilities
and only physical disabilities should be educated in a regular classroom
with his intellectual peers. He could be pulled out for PT or whatever,
but most of his support could be provided in the classroom. I teach
elementary school kids with developmental disabilities, and Noah
certainly wouldn't "fit" in my classroom. Get him out of there!