Mainstreaming Special-Ed

View 785 Monday, August 05, 2013

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barrack Obama, January 21, 2009

 

Sable is recovering from her sprained hip and wants to take our usual walk, limp and all. She remains a happy dog, and has fun sitting with us in the evenings, as well as exploiting our indulgent feelings by begging at meal times. Plenty of spirit. But every day is a blessing.

I have never thought to see this:

Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html

I need to think on this one. It could be important to the future of the country.

‘Mainstreaming’ Special-Ed Students Needs Debate

By

· MIRIAM KURTZIG FREEDMAN

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323309404578613532497541300.html

She is correct in identifying this as a major subject for education decisions. The debate has to start with just what is the purpose of public education? Why should taxpayers pay for the public education establishment with its unions, inefficiencies, often corruption? Of course those with children would like to have others help pay the expenses of educating them, but what do those who have no children get from the enormous public school and higher education establishments which generally eat about half the state taxes, as well as comprise a not insignificant part of their federal taxes as well.

And if part of that answer is education as an investment, and part is “fairness” to the disabled, what are the costs? Include among the costs the well established fact that putting handicapped, particularly severely handicapped, students in normal school classes – mainstreaming them – severely impacts on the education achievements of the dull normal, normal, bright normal, and gifted students in the classroom since the teacher must spend a disproportionate time on keeping the disabled from falling behind.

The first thing to note is that this has been federalized. Since the Constitution has nothing to say about education, and little to say about disabilities, it is easily argued that the federal government should have no say in the matter: it is to be left to the states, and in fact leaving it to the states can produce by experimentation and example better solutions than those of a bunch of Washington bureaucrats some with education degrees but few with much actual experience of what goes on in the classrooms.

Before 1975, more than a million students with disabilities were excluded from schools and some 3.5 million did not receive appropriate services. That year, Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, now called the Individuals With Disabilities Act of 1990. Students identified as disabled have since been guaranteed access to what the law calls a "free appropriate public education," and their parents have the right to participate in (and dispute) the school’s development of an annual "individualized education program" for their child. No other group of students or parents enjoys such rights.

Today, six million students with disabilities (about 14% of all students) have the right to a free appropriate public education and an individualized education program. Between 70% and 80% of these students have mild or moderate disabilities, including learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, social and emotional disabilities, and other conditions, such as ADHD. Only 20% to 30% have more severe disabilities, such as cognitive impairments, multihandicapping conditions, deafness or blindness.

Back before the federal government got involved in education – back when “Federal Aid to Education” was only a liberal dream, not a crushing reality — there were different approaches in different places. Some counties had special ed schools; it was sort of up to the parents to get their children to them. But back before and during World War II, different places simply did the best they could.

We had a couple of crippled children in my Capleville grade school. I don’t recall much special about them. They sat in the seats nearest the door, and walked with wooden crutches, their legs in braces; at least one was a polio survivor.  There was generally at least one in every class, and I never saw any cases of bullying of them. Everyone knew polio was still out there, and you could be next.

Our school had two grades to the room, and above 20 pupils to the grade. Numbers varied because this was the only school for miles around. We had no blind pupils, and I am not sure what provision if any was made for their education. As to mentally handicapped, they were either ‘mainstreamed’ at Capleville or their parents found other means – home schooling, transporting them to a Memphis school for the retarded, institutionalizing – for taking care of them. But not all of them. When I was in 5-6 grade – about 48 desks, not quite all of them filled – we had a 15 year old girl among us. She was quiet, well behaved, pleasant and actually rather well liked, and not as noticeably dull as you would think given that she was among 10 year olds. She could read. She didn’t comprehend what she was reading, and on one occasion read the picture captions in the history text book along with the text itself, making no distinction – words was words, and she could read words just fine even if she didn’t know what they meant. When a few in the class giggled or tried to correct her, the teacher rather gently instructed the class to be quiet. We learned a lesson in kindness, and I don’t think I was much the worse for less of the teacher’s attention – but then I had started history with Hillyer when I was 6, and had read Van Loon before I got to 5^th grade, and there was little in the text that I needed to learn, and nothing the teacher was going to teach me. The teacher left me pretty well to my own devices, which consisted of reading library books, some young adult novels like Blueberry Mountain, all the Jack London I could find, and various other stuff available to a 9 year old out in the middle of the countryside. I couldn’t haul a Britannica volume into class – that would have been too conspicuous – and comic books were forbidden, but so long as I looked busy and didn’t cause disruptions I was pretty well left to my own devices. On reflection, I was treated just about the same as Maria the 15 year old trapped in 5^th grade, and we both learned about the same amount from the classroom. Which was probably about the best result that could have been expected.

So: I open the subject for discussion. I start with the proposition that the first thing to do is to repeal the Individuals with Disabilities and the Education for all Handicapped Children Acts. The matter should be returned to the states. Given the massive state education bureaucracies that probably will do little good, but it may make some experimentation possible. Surely there are a few places where the sentiment favors the proposition that schools are places for learning, and those who aren’t learning – either because they will not, or because they cannot – should be somewhere else. The remedy to the problems of the handicapped are not to cripple those more fortunate, and indeed that is counterproductive. It is a lot easier to divide a large pie than a small one, and without an educated work force you will not get large pies. While we are at it in this debate, it may be time to open the question of differential education: as production gets more complicated and demands more mental resources, nations which don’t develop their intellectual capital won’t have any big pies to distribute. As to what happens to those who used to contribute to the economy but whose jobs have been automated forever, that’s another discussion and one of great importance.

It’s time to go write something, so I’ll leave this for another day, and yes, I am aware that is two items I owe you: the rest of the autism and inoculation story, which is important but complex and has implications for both public policy and science resource investment; and a continuation of the education entitlement concept. Obviously to assert that every child is entitled to a world class pre-university prep education is to say that no one is entitled to it, because if everyone is to have an equal education the standards must be kept really low. Nor can everyone be entitled to a shot at a world class university prep education: at some point they have to be weeded out so that the ones who may benefit from it can be taught. We’ve been through this before, but it’s time to look in detail.

I await suggestion and discussion.

It’s unfair to leave the story of Maria without giving the surprising ending. Recall this was in World War II. After the United States entered the war and sent an expedition to North Africa, the Army took increasing numbers of prisoners of war. Some were German, but most of the earliest prisoners were Italian. It happens that Memphis was surrounded by small farms. Many of these grew vegetables, which were trucked into Memphis markets – there were still mom and pop corner grocery stores, weekend farmers markets, and such as well as Kroger, A&P, and other “Supermarket” chains. The small vegetable gardens located 10 to 20 miles from the city were known as “truck gardens” because the farmers used to pack their harvests into trucks and take them to the city to sell directly to stores or in the farmers markets. Most truck gardeners were Italian. Maria was the only daughter of Italian (second generation American) truck gardeners. The US didn’t have any prison camps, but it was clear that most of the Italian POW’s had no enthusiasm for war against the United States, and within weeks it became the common practice to parole Italian POW’s to American farmers as low paid farm hands, thus solving the problems of the labor shortage brought on by the war, and the logistics of feeding thousands of POW’s who were no threat to the United States. The program worked brilliantly.

One of the POW’s was paroled to Maria’s home. Romance ensued resulting in marriage. At the end of the war he stayed in the US – he had his sponsors – and eventually inherited the farm. Maria’s parents were delighted: she had a husband. Maria was delighted. She had a husband. The young caporal was delighted. He inherited the farm, became an American citizen, and last I heard had three perfectly normal children as well as a wife of good disposition who adored him. She could even read although she didn’t really understand what she was reading. But then she didn’t have to.