1/21/07 My experience with "special needs"
In eight grade we had an inclusion program, so that special education students were in the same class as the other students. I understand why this is great for them because they go through their lives feeling stigmatized and maybe resenting being left out, but I hated it. I was already probably on the "gifted" end of the spectrum, since there weren't honors classes yet, so it drove me crazy when we had to go slower so the other students could get extra attention. I especially hated it when the special education teacher, who co-taught in all of these inclusion classes, taught, because she was more experienced at teaching to their level, (I thought she treated us like we were in kindergarten) so for me it meant we would go even slower than usual. It also didn't help that I had "inclusion" classes for 4 out of 7 classes each day, which meant I had the same peers in all of my classes, and the special education teacher that I really didn't like, was impossible to avoid. (Of course, she was also my homeroom teacher!) So that's a little background on my own experience, (or lack thereof) with "special needs" students in school. In high school for the most part everyone was kept seperate, there were several different tiers of "special needs" classes. I never really understood the difference between them, and never was very interested in finding out. Now that I am going to be a teacher, I am realizing how inadequate my experience with this topic is, and hope to change this so that I know how to best interact with all of my future students. Our special education labs start this week, so hopefully that will be a start for me in this project!