“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 3rd
grader has to read at a 3rd
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.
