The Standard and the Special Educator

 “When am I ever going to use this stuff again?” That's a sentence all of us have said. I can specifically remember saying it for classes such as Geometry and Trigonometry. It is a legitimate question, however. If I were being honest, I don't think I've used geometry once since sophomore year of high school. Does that make the time spent slaving away over hours worth of geometry homework absolutely worthless? Should have just not taken it all? No, I may not have benefited from it, yet, but it is knowledge gained. However, let's say geometry wasn't knowledge gained. Let's say I were a student with autism, non-verbal with math skills at a first grade class trying to be mainstreamed into high school geometry. Is it worthless to me now? Education is so much more then what a standard says it should be. Okay, so you've heard this a million times before, but let me take you a step deeper. Education is life; it's the everyday experiences you encounter connected to valuable, academic knowledge, and for the disabled student it's learning how to live. Rather then spending our time trying to teach the disabled student the names of each president America has ever had or every battle fought in the Civil War, why don't teach them how to keep a bathroom clean or use a debit card. My favorite quote regarding this matter is by J.K. Wing and it says, “The purpose of education is to help the handicapped person derive as much satisfaction and enjoyment from life as possible.” Educating the disabled is helping them find joy in life and teaching them basic life skills. Education should be life and life should be education.


Education is life so to be educated is to live. Each experience connects to another and academic school just ties into it. For general education, our education is to be connected to real life experience. For example, if a student just learned to ride a bike let's teach them something we can connect to riding a bike. John Dewey talks an awful lot about connection within education in his book Democracy and Education. He gives education a solid definition saying, “We thus reach a technical definition of education: It is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience.” So experience is life and experience is academics so academics is life. Now let's take this a little bit more literally in terms of special education. Their life experiences are so very different than that of the general educated student. Many disabled students don't experience the same things as their peers. A kid with cerebral palsy isn't going to learn to ride a bike, but he may learn how to use a computer with his assisted device. Instead of taking our standards and using life to teach them, let's teach life and make a standard out of it. Teach them how to live; how to find the most joy out of life. So this is a great idea! Why haven't we incorporated this in our special education classes, yet? Well, there are lots of this that stand in our way.


Let's take a look at the No Child Left Behind Act. Currently, this goal is meeting it's deadline, but what it calls to do is what I want to address. No Child Left Behind calls for every student to be on their proper math and reading level. So every 3^rd grader has to read at a 3^rd grade level; no excuses. This includes special education students. There are disabled students that can't even say their own names and they are expected to perform with the rest of their peers. This is very controversial seeing as many people are all for equality and see this as a good thing that disabled students are being placed at the same level as their peers and it is. I am all for viewing each student as equals and seeing the potential to be great in each of them, but an act like this places a lot of pressure on our educational system. As great as the idea is, the affects are harmful. In the book Hope in Troubled Times, the concept of ideologies within education is discussed. Rather than me trying to explain, why don't we read what the authors say about ideology. They say,


"First, ideology consists of an absolutized political or societal end goal. Second, ideology requires a redefinition of currently held values, norms, and ideas to such an extent that they legitimize in advance the practical pursuit of the predetermined end. Finally, ideology involves establishing a standard by which to select the means or instruments necessary for effectively achieving the all-important goal."


If that's what an ideology is then our educational system is oozing with it. Not only is No Child Left Behind an ideology but our educational standards are as well. We tell teachers and students that this is what they must learn while in the grade they are in. Standards are our absolutized educational goal that redefines our values and establishes a means necessary for achieving it. So what does that do our students? It forces teachers to stuff that knowledge down their throats. If students in general education struggle with meeting standards imagine how the disabled student feels. If educating the disabled student is to help them receive the most joy out of life then perhaps we need more change. Perhaps we need to step back and view things through a periscope as the authors of Hope in Troubles Times would say. Rather than looking forward and seeing only the ideology we should look and see what it does to our students.


This kind of educational system oppresses our students especially our special education students. Teachers feel rushed to get the content the students need into their brains that all they care about is the test score to get them to pass and not the actual worth of the content. Special Education students get it even worse. Special education is made for students that need extra support; that can't take general education classes because of their disabilities, yet with standards like No Child Left Behind they are expected to be at the same level as their peers. They try to learn all these concepts that they will never use in life. They learn Algebra when they still don't know how to use money or how do laundry. This isn't okay. So what do we do with this? Paulo Freire uses the word praxis in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He says,


"To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Human beings are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection. But while to say the true word is – which is work, which is praxis – is to transform the world, saying that word is not the privilege of some few persons, but the right of everyone."



We name the problem and we change it. We see the problem and, as humans, we are driven to fix it. Praxis is exactly that; reflecting and acting. So, here's our problem let's fix it. I propose that instead of trying to teach or mainstream our special education students into general education let's teach them some real life skills. Our students deserve to be happy. We want them to be able to live on their own and be as independent as possible. Our teaching methods should be aimed towards helping our students be as independent as they can be. We should teach them how to wash their clothes or use a microwave. Their parents won't live forever and where it is easy for a student without disabilities to figure out the kinks of independent living it takes a lot more work for the disabled student. We want students that can function in society and contribute just as we do. They deserve hope for the future just as much as general education student does. 

Dominoes

Education: a word made up of nine letters; a word that plays a role in every single person's life whether it's no education or the best education. Of course, when one hears the word “education” it goes hand in hand with the word “school” because that's what schools are for: education. School is, also, a necessity, a must-have element in life. It is place where you learn the ins and out mathematics, proper grammar, scientific methods, and historic events. When a student arrives home he practices such studies by preforming the wretched task called “homework.” Now, of course this all common sense, everyone knows that education is found in schools, however, perhaps I were to say that it was not. What if I were to make a bold step forward and say that education is a process, praxis; an ongoing process that only ends at death because that ongoing process is life. Education is the reoganization of each and every experience, inside and outside of school, connected and leading into the next experience forming one's mind and character accordingly. We see education in such a different light because that is how society has created it to look like. But that is not the case at all. Education is life; it's every moment every breath compiled into one experience creating you, but society dimishes that incredible revelation into a 8 hour long school day creating within a dread for education.

In Democracy and Education, John Dewey argues that education reaches out and into every corner of life. Work and play, method and application, school and life are all education are all life. Not only are they life as whole but they are identical. Dewey argues through out the book that education should be connected. If I were to choose two words to sum up Dewey's two most commonly used points they would be “connected” and “experience.” Our experiences in education should have a snowball affect. What one has learned in the past connects to and impacts what and how one is learning which connects to and impacts what and how one will be learning.

As I've already addressed, education reaches farther than school and academics. When Dewey makes the statement that education is life he isn't saying that education is a means for life or that it is what one's life revolves around but that it literally is life. Just by living we are learning. We learn to speak. We learn who our parents are. We learn how to interact. We develop a culture, a character well before schooling even begins. Each experience we encounter is preparing the way for the next experience to follow through. Babies learn how to lift their heads up which leads into lifting up in to crawling positions. Education literally is life. But why is this concept so mind blowing?

We grow up with the idea that school is not fun. The teachers don't even want to be there. They make count downs until winter break or summer break. They celebrate Fridays because that means no school for two days. Students are taught to dread education. For eight hours straight they sit in a desk and listen to someone teach them what they've yet to learn. They see on there favorite television show when their favorite character is dreading going to school. They see hear it from their parents when they say that they know school isn't fun but that they have to do it anyway. It's all a form of oppression; educational oppression. Our teachers and parents don't mean to oppress. They are just doing what they've been taught to do because at one point they were a student and their parents and teachers did the same. This is how it is. One must just go with it to be successful. That's the midset that's been set. That's just how it is and how its' been. How can we change it?

Paulo Freire uses the word “praxis” in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He defines as the process in which one reflects and acts upon the world in order to transform it. Praxis is stepping back and looking at the reality or the oppression and acting upon it by making changes. Praxis is like using the periscope method of looking at idealogies that we find in Hope in Troubled Times. Periscopes are used on submarines. Pilots use them to look above the water and see what's around them. Periscopes turn in a circle giving the viewer an all around look at what it around them. That is was praxis is. Looking all around at the oppression and changing it. It's not a revolution. We shouldn't go riot against our education system, but we're all teachers. Whether we've got licensure or not we are all teaching someone. You can be the basketball coach, a nurse, a secretary, a parent. You're teaching someone. But for those of us who are licensed teachers, how can we change our curriculums and classrooms to break the mentality society gives our students about education?

If education as life is connecting past experiences to current experiences then education in school should be the same. Rather than approaching our lessons as “This is what's on the curriculum next,” we should create a lesson plan that connects to what the children have learned previously not just in the classroom but in life. The word Dewey uses is “interest.” Students have to feel like they can connect with the topic they are learning and if the educator can connect the lesson to the students past experiences then the students can feel a connection to the topic. For example, the “Engage, Connect, Launch” portion of the lesson plans shouldn't just have creative games that demonstrate the topic at hand but dig deeper and connect it to what they've already experienced whether it's a previous lesson or riding a bike or playing an instrument. If we can create this kind of connection within our students then they can carry that on to their children or students. It's like a domino effect. We effect of students who effect their peers and their children and so it goes.

When we approach education as a continuous effect, as life, and we acknowledge that life is experience we can rearrange a students view of learning. Our philosophy of education should be that education is living and that each and every experience connects and leads to the next. Education should be like Christmas lights. Each bulb is unique and a different color, but they are all connected and are a part of one strand of Christmas lights. If we can give our students that kind of mentality we can show students just what education looks like and help them to see it in their own lives inside and outside of school. Thus should our philosophy be each lesson and experience brought together to form one life. Let's create a domino effect.

The Class Standard Ideology

As imperfect humans we are constantly in search for perfection. Our sinful nature takes perfect solutions and twist them into must-have goals. We see a solution and as a result of our need for it we push and pull and do everything we can to achieve it regardless of we must destroy or minimize to get there. Ideologies control our society. Ideals are what we as imperfect humans are constantly on the hunt for. Our educational system wants for all its students to be at the same academic level. It wants for students to be educated. When a possible option is proposed for students to all be at the same level it is reached for and forcefully attained. Schools place a list of standards on every grade that determines the effectiveness of the student and the teacher. Those standard become the end goal of the entire class therefore taking the title of ideology.

I have spent the last few weeks with a great group of fellow students working through the ideas represented in Hope in Troubled Times. This interesting book does well to paint a clear picture of what an ideology looks like. It uses parallels such as communism or Easter Island. Along with its rather dark take on ideology it ties hope in as a factor. It brings about new and interesting ways that one can help 

to instill hope in trouble times.

Our educational system is one of the many things affected by ideologies. Human's need a solution. From the beginning of time we've spent our time searching for God. Our sin has left a void within us; a void that is intended for God to fill. However, God doesn't offer quick fixes. He comes in slow movement. He offers solutions that take work and time and shaping; that take faith. He doesn't always sweep in and save the day. Sometimes he steps through the storm to stand beside us rather than stop the storm. His purpose is to teach us not just fix us. He wants us to learn to trust him. He wants us to learn from our problems not just fix them. But ideologies offer so much more. They offer a sparkling solution on a silver plate. When put in comparison to God and his solution, the ideology looks like the better choice. The quick fix for all of our solutions is going to bring about the end of suffering, the end of poverty, the end of terrorism. Let's take a step back and gather together on page 34 of Hope in Troubled Times. In regards to the very essence of an ideology it says, “Ideology in it's original, classical sense involves a conscious, deliberate departure from the ways of loving service of God and neighbor.” We know God is an option. The Bible screams out to us that God is the answer. He gives and takes away. He is gracious and merciful and time and time again he restored the Isrealites; his people. Yet, we choose the ideology because it's so pretty and it took God forty years to bring his people to the promise; we can't wait forty years to end suffering. When the authors say that choosing an ideology is a “deliberate departure from the ways of loving God and neighbor it goes back to definition of an ideology. Turn back to page 32 when the authors give a straight definition saying that, “[Ideology is an] entire set of conceptions and beliefs subscribed to by a specific group of people.” As addressed already, it's an ideal idea created as a solution. There doesn't seem to be anything negative about an idea to help solve an issue. He, then, says that ideologies consist of three things: an “absolutized” end goal, a reshaping of society to make the ideology work, and finding all the possible ways that the ideology can be met. In a sense, ideology is taking the place of God and filling the void intended for Him. An ideology becomes all that matters.

 In schools, grades and averages determine The school's and the teacher's worth. If the students aren't up to par then they aren't good enough. Teachers are stressed to make sure each students meets each standard for their grade. For example, one of the first grade standards for the state of Illinois is students must “use frequently occurring adjectives.” When first graders graduate to second grade they must use frequently occurring adjectives. Teachers must make sure those standards are met. How is it that this way of teaching came about? Some students can't keep up like others. If a lesson is taught once and a student doesn't get it then it's the teachers job to make sure that before they move on that student gets it. It hasn't always been like that, teachers would teach a lesson and if a student didn't understand the teacher would move on. It's a great idea to go back and help students and make sure each one is keeping up with their class. Our educational system wants all of our students to understand and apply the material they're learning in class. But in the process, the teachers are stressed out by the students that are behind, and the students are stressed out by tests and grade averages. The fun in learning has been removed and replaced it with endless tests and standards. School isn't a place to gain knowledge when children are bombarded by standards. It becomes a place where kids are reminded of what they can't do. It becomes an ideology. It becomes the number one priority in the classroom and teachers do everything they can do achieve it even if that means risking the happiness of their students.