Classroom dilemma: ‘special’ kids
When Alice Bender started teaching as a 20-year-old in 1969, two of the students in her special education class at Richelieu Valley High School were older than she was.
She dealt with “everything” in her classroom – mentally handicapped students, bright kids with learning disabilities, teens with behavioural problems.
“Whoever didn’t fit was just thrown into that class,” said Bender, who retired as a principal in 2003.
As a novice teacher, Bender didn’t have all the answers, but said she believed there had to be a better way to teach students with special needs. “And to me, it wasn’t by putting them apart.”
“They hung around together, they caused problems. They were in the crappy part of the school,” Bender said.
The way Quebec schools educate students with special needs is far removed from that era. But the current approach, which favours integrating them in regular classes, still causes plenty of friction – so much so that it’s going under the microscope.
Read more here: Classroom dilemma: ‘special’ kids.
Note: To support the site we make money on some products, product categories and services that we talk about on this website through affiliate relationships with the merchants in question. We get a small commission on sales of those products.That in no way affects our opinions of those products and services.
Share this:
About The Author
Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts is founder of Support for Special Needs and has been a regular contributor since its inception in May 2010. A mom to two kids with special needs, she didn't want other parents to feel what is the often isolating world of raising a child (or two!) with disabilities. Her kids had kidney transplants at the age of eight and will need liver transplants in the future as a result of ARPKD/CHF. They both have vision disorders and learning disabilities.
I think its fine for special needs to be able to interact with individuals that have the same struggles that they have but I do not think it’s humanly fair for them not to have a choice of which they can interact with or what group they should belong to because of their differences. I think it’s horrible how the system sometimes segregate individuals for learning differences. I believe that if you give anyone the opportunity with the right support they can achieve anything. When you put people apart you make them feel that they are not capable but if you give them the same opportunity there is so much they can do. I feel that having a supporter in the traditional classes to support the primary teacher that can be of help to the special needs child would be great…and if would be much better if the supporter help the other traditional students, so the special needs students won’t feel as though they are being set apart.