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conulyI haven't read it yet (I'm about to!), but apparently this teacher thinks you shouldn't teach blind kids.
I'm going to read it and comment as I post, because I like tormenting myself. I do, I do! God help me. (Italics will be mine.)
there's no way to say this without sounding heartless
We're at the title. If you can't say something without sounding heartless, may I suggest that you take your fingers off the keyboard and go get drunk instead?
I was talking with my dad about my experiences this school year and all the fun challenges therein. While telling him about one of my students who is blind, it finally occurred to me the extent of the resources spent to educate one person.
She's no doubt about to sound less *heartless* and more *senseless* - unless she thinks it takes fewer resources to produce a productive educated citizen than it does to take care of them for the rest of their lives. (And no - I don't think giving resources to people who find themselves unable to keep a job, for whatever reason, is wasteful either. That's just one of the responsibilities of a civilized society.)
* The student had one full-time aide and another part-time aide.
* All of the textbooks were transcribed into braille, the math book alone costing $25,000.
* Braille printers were put into each of the classrooms that the student used as well as multiple typing devices.
* A good chunk of special ed director's time was spent dealing with the student's parent and making sure all the t's were crossed and i's were dotted. Meetings and IEP's were frequent and lengthy.
* For each lesson, It took me anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes extra time for planning and making materials for this one student.
So... there's a problem with encouraging literacy? There's a problem with this woman doing her fucking job? What would she do if it were a sighted, non-disabled child who needed extra planning, she'd just throw that child to the wolves? Doesn't sound like a very good teacher to me. IEPs? I'm of the belief that EVERY child should have an IEP. One size does NOT fit all. But note how she mentions "t's crossed and i's dotted", like it was less about helping the child and more about fitting arcane regulations. She's trying to make something important sound trivial.
As far as the textbooks go, that's a reusable resource. They're sure to get the money back when they sell it to some other school.
Adding up everything, it's reasonable to say that one year of education for this one student cost an additional $60,000. That could be the salary for one full-time teacher who could serve up to 150 students. However, there are lots of physical and hidden costs so a better comparison would be per pupil spending, which in my state is something like 6000 to 6500 per student. So the amount of money spent on this one student is the equivalent spent on 9 or 10 other students.
Yeah, out of different funds, dipshit. Duh.
Of course, if we're going to boil down a child's future to COST, let's consider the COST of welfare. For life, because this child wasn't educated at all. Hm. Seems much higher to me. I'm not working the math out NOW, but....
And here's the part in which there's no way that I don't sound like an asshole: given how bad school budgets are in pretty much every district across the country, is it reasonable to spend 10 students worth of resources on one student? Paid classroom aides for the general population are a thing of the past. Art and other elective programs are disappearing. Teachers are getting laid off in order for districts to save money, so class sizes are increasing so each student is getting less individual instruction. All of our kids are getting a worse education and that's the way it's going to be for quite some time.
Remember the whining about the aide? That *aide* kept the teacher from having to spend as much time on this particular student - but now she's complaining about increased class size.
I agree, the economy sucks. What of it? It'd suck worse to be blind and uneducated because everybody thought it was better to screw you over than to "waste" money that could go to "normal" kids.
I'm not arguing that the student doesn't deserve the same educationists everyone else. I am not arguing that children with disabilities should be tossed aside or discarded.
Yes she is. Yes, she absolutely is, and she's going to try to wiggle out of that.
However, times are very hard in education and students without disabilities have had services cut dramatically. it may be time to consider cutting services to students with disabilities. The country can't afford to give everybody the education they deserve. We have to start giving the education we can afford and admit that it's gonna be harder on our disabled students, because that's what's happening to the non-disabled students.
I can think of a few ways this country could provide everybody with a better education, if it were only a priority. Just because it's not doesn't mean we should accept foolish arguments for cutting help to the students who need it most. If you're looking at this like a pie, every cent not spent educating these kids is another cent, or a whole dollar, that's going to be spent supporting them because it'll be even harder to get a job in the future. And it's *already* hard to get a job! I don't know, not being blind, but I'm imagining that getting a job while blind is no picnic.
Well, that was fun. Sounds like she's getting thoroughly educated in the comments.
I'm going to read it and comment as I post, because I like tormenting myself. I do, I do! God help me. (Italics will be mine.)
there's no way to say this without sounding heartless
We're at the title. If you can't say something without sounding heartless, may I suggest that you take your fingers off the keyboard and go get drunk instead?
I was talking with my dad about my experiences this school year and all the fun challenges therein. While telling him about one of my students who is blind, it finally occurred to me the extent of the resources spent to educate one person.
She's no doubt about to sound less *heartless* and more *senseless* - unless she thinks it takes fewer resources to produce a productive educated citizen than it does to take care of them for the rest of their lives. (And no - I don't think giving resources to people who find themselves unable to keep a job, for whatever reason, is wasteful either. That's just one of the responsibilities of a civilized society.)
* The student had one full-time aide and another part-time aide.
* All of the textbooks were transcribed into braille, the math book alone costing $25,000.
* Braille printers were put into each of the classrooms that the student used as well as multiple typing devices.
* A good chunk of special ed director's time was spent dealing with the student's parent and making sure all the t's were crossed and i's were dotted. Meetings and IEP's were frequent and lengthy.
* For each lesson, It took me anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes extra time for planning and making materials for this one student.
So... there's a problem with encouraging literacy? There's a problem with this woman doing her fucking job? What would she do if it were a sighted, non-disabled child who needed extra planning, she'd just throw that child to the wolves? Doesn't sound like a very good teacher to me. IEPs? I'm of the belief that EVERY child should have an IEP. One size does NOT fit all. But note how she mentions "t's crossed and i's dotted", like it was less about helping the child and more about fitting arcane regulations. She's trying to make something important sound trivial.
As far as the textbooks go, that's a reusable resource. They're sure to get the money back when they sell it to some other school.
Adding up everything, it's reasonable to say that one year of education for this one student cost an additional $60,000. That could be the salary for one full-time teacher who could serve up to 150 students. However, there are lots of physical and hidden costs so a better comparison would be per pupil spending, which in my state is something like 6000 to 6500 per student. So the amount of money spent on this one student is the equivalent spent on 9 or 10 other students.
Yeah, out of different funds, dipshit. Duh.
Of course, if we're going to boil down a child's future to COST, let's consider the COST of welfare. For life, because this child wasn't educated at all. Hm. Seems much higher to me. I'm not working the math out NOW, but....
And here's the part in which there's no way that I don't sound like an asshole: given how bad school budgets are in pretty much every district across the country, is it reasonable to spend 10 students worth of resources on one student? Paid classroom aides for the general population are a thing of the past. Art and other elective programs are disappearing. Teachers are getting laid off in order for districts to save money, so class sizes are increasing so each student is getting less individual instruction. All of our kids are getting a worse education and that's the way it's going to be for quite some time.
Remember the whining about the aide? That *aide* kept the teacher from having to spend as much time on this particular student - but now she's complaining about increased class size.
I agree, the economy sucks. What of it? It'd suck worse to be blind and uneducated because everybody thought it was better to screw you over than to "waste" money that could go to "normal" kids.
I'm not arguing that the student doesn't deserve the same educationists everyone else. I am not arguing that children with disabilities should be tossed aside or discarded.
Yes she is. Yes, she absolutely is, and she's going to try to wiggle out of that.
However, times are very hard in education and students without disabilities have had services cut dramatically. it may be time to consider cutting services to students with disabilities. The country can't afford to give everybody the education they deserve. We have to start giving the education we can afford and admit that it's gonna be harder on our disabled students, because that's what's happening to the non-disabled students.
I can think of a few ways this country could provide everybody with a better education, if it were only a priority. Just because it's not doesn't mean we should accept foolish arguments for cutting help to the students who need it most. If you're looking at this like a pie, every cent not spent educating these kids is another cent, or a whole dollar, that's going to be spent supporting them because it'll be even harder to get a job in the future. And it's *already* hard to get a job! I don't know, not being blind, but I'm imagining that getting a job while blind is no picnic.
Well, that was fun. Sounds like she's getting thoroughly educated in the comments.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 02:12 am (UTC)As to the extra work... teachers are overworked. I have sympathy for the complaint that it takes more time that she is not paid for. Although I do wonder if some of that extra time could have been handed over to the aide. Perhaps not. I do think we ought to spend more money on education in general, so we can lower classroom sizes, which would both reduce teacher workload and increase the overall quality of the education, by allowing teachers to pay more attention to each student as an individual.
Arguments though to stop teaching individual students will not help us to get to that point though.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 03:57 am (UTC)Actually, I was wondering why there were multiple Braille printers for only one student (if that's the case, and not that in fact the school has many blind students). I didn't want to ask there, though, because I don't want to encourage her. I don't know if it's reasonable to have more than one or not.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 07:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 08:31 pm (UTC)Plus, it's a cost that wouldn't be nearly so high if they taught all of the students Braille. The only reason this is so much money for one student is because society ~chose~ to be vision-centric. It didn't have to.
Not that I support switching to Braille as a primary reading mechanism for most people. It does have serious disadvantages. The paper must be thicker, which makes it bulkier and inherently more expensive. But it also has advantages, such as being able to read in the dark without disturbing anyone. People forget that the reason some people need "special" accommodations is because society specifically designed itself to give advantages to people who fit a special mold. It is particularly noticeable with things like left-handed scissors. It would be just as easy technologically for that to be the default. But we chose to give right-handed people an advantage and make most things specifically to work for them. When there is nothing better about a right-handed scissor except that it's easier for a right-handed person to use.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 04:20 pm (UTC)Why does a mainstream school have to invest all this money in equipment when it could be used to send the child to a school devoted to the particular problems and challenges of teaching the blind?
Now, I'm of two minds about "mainstreaming"--I think some aspects of it are isolating. *Anecdata: a lady I used to take care of--blind from birth--attended a school for the blind all twelve years of her schooling and said she loved going to school because it was full of people like herself and she wasn't half a step behind all the time (because people would be, well, SEEING and reacting to things she had to have explained to her).
OTOH, one can't live in a colony of like people forever.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 06:51 pm (UTC)If nothing else, I'd be concerned about travel time. If he doesn't live close to one, that might require boarding... and while I'm not really able to debate the various merits of boarding school v. day school, I do not think it's appropriate to force no other choice BUT boarding school for children of any group.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 06:52 pm (UTC)This is admittedly a huge selling point: It's easier for 90% of the population!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 09:07 pm (UTC)The reason accommodating the blind student is so difficult is because they made a large number of choices that do not work well with blindness. And I feel that point gets ignored. They have set up a system that does not work for that student, and then they complain that it is hard to accommodate that student. Yes, yes it is, odd that.