Danoff
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- Mile High City
The US invents a lot of problems that don't exist in schools - dangerous books, dangerous clothing, dangerous discussions, etc. etc. But there is actually something a bit odd going on in US schools and I wanted to call it out and understand what's happening in other countries, because the way we're doing it is not working well. The issue is the way we educate special needs children in our public schools.
At present, the US system works something like this. Suppose your child has some significant disability or impairment. In the US, the child is ultimately the responsibility of the parents, who have an obligation to provide for the needs of the child. Some state assistance (and possibly even federal, I honestly don't know) is available for those parents. Public schools are required to provide education for all children in the least restrictive environment possible for the child at no cost to parents. And public school tax dollars are thin.
The result of this system is overwhelmed and under-funded parents, who have to forgo careers and income for the sake of significant child care. These parents then place their child in the hands of the public school, which is also under funded, who essentially ask teachers to pick up the slack. What this often looks like in US public schools, especially in my area, but I believe this is happening around the country, is that children who have significant needs are put into the same class with everyone else, and the teacher, who is generally not equipped to handle the need, and who generally does not know much about it, is asked to accommodate the child. I know because I have a child who is hard of hearing, and she has such an accommodation with the school.
What this looks like in practice is a 5th grader who sits in a pile of feces (for some time, not the whole day, but until some care worker can get them cleaned up) during the class while the other kids are asked to focus on their schoolwork. What it looks like in practice is that a child screams the entire way through the school musical while 4th graders attempt to sing their lines over him. What it looks like in practice is that the class is evacuated while a child throws chairs across the room. What it looks like in practice is that a completely overwhelmed teacher sacrifices the education of most of the kids to fail at the job of teaching a child who needs a specialist. I thought this would stop in 6th grade, but it continues (although to a lesser extent).
Someone I know well, who I see every day and is a great guy, just got a child who is allergic to milk. They didn't recognize it immediately because the child was born with the condition, and so the infant turned mother's milk to alcohol in her body for a few days until the hospital was able to figure it out and remove milk from her diet entirely. This is a potentially debilitating condition. We don't know whether or to what extent the infant's brain or other organs were harmed by the alcohol that the body produced. We don't know to what extent she is allergic, and to some extent this allergy can turn all sugars into some level of alcohol (at least this is my understanding of it), and so the child has a decent likelihood of growing up with significant challenges, and a high likelihood of health complications down the line, infertility is apparently more likely than not. My point about this story is that this guy had no idea and was not prepared. Essentially no prospective parents are prepared for this or the many worse conditions that can arise from childbirth or injury.
In China, kids with severe needs are often institutionalized. They receive special education within the institution, and when they become adults, they are transferred to adult institutions that do the same. I'm not necessarily saying that this strategy is without drawbacks. I think almost every kid can benefit from having loving parents and a one-on-one connection with caregivers. I say "almost" because there are kids that are perhaps so severely impaired that they may not be aware enough to benefit. Institutionalized care makes sense from the perspective of the heavy burden (financial and physical) on parents and schools. But institutionalized care sacrifices an emotional connection that can lead to its own lifelong impairment.
So let's take china on the one hand, institutionalization, likely at the expense of some emotional and social development. And the US on the other, individual care likely at the expense of adequate care and at the cost of the lives of necessarily unprepared parents. A middle ground is surely needed, but what exactly that looks like I don't know.
I can tell you what I do know, our public schools are not equipped to handle the burden we're placing on them. And the result is lost education and opportunity for scores of children. I do admit that there is an educational benefit to having to come face-to-face with disability and learning the realities of a person that can't manage their basic needs - but I don't think that educational benefit should come at the expense of all other forms of education.
At present, the US system works something like this. Suppose your child has some significant disability or impairment. In the US, the child is ultimately the responsibility of the parents, who have an obligation to provide for the needs of the child. Some state assistance (and possibly even federal, I honestly don't know) is available for those parents. Public schools are required to provide education for all children in the least restrictive environment possible for the child at no cost to parents. And public school tax dollars are thin.
The result of this system is overwhelmed and under-funded parents, who have to forgo careers and income for the sake of significant child care. These parents then place their child in the hands of the public school, which is also under funded, who essentially ask teachers to pick up the slack. What this often looks like in US public schools, especially in my area, but I believe this is happening around the country, is that children who have significant needs are put into the same class with everyone else, and the teacher, who is generally not equipped to handle the need, and who generally does not know much about it, is asked to accommodate the child. I know because I have a child who is hard of hearing, and she has such an accommodation with the school.
What this looks like in practice is a 5th grader who sits in a pile of feces (for some time, not the whole day, but until some care worker can get them cleaned up) during the class while the other kids are asked to focus on their schoolwork. What it looks like in practice is that a child screams the entire way through the school musical while 4th graders attempt to sing their lines over him. What it looks like in practice is that the class is evacuated while a child throws chairs across the room. What it looks like in practice is that a completely overwhelmed teacher sacrifices the education of most of the kids to fail at the job of teaching a child who needs a specialist. I thought this would stop in 6th grade, but it continues (although to a lesser extent).
Someone I know well, who I see every day and is a great guy, just got a child who is allergic to milk. They didn't recognize it immediately because the child was born with the condition, and so the infant turned mother's milk to alcohol in her body for a few days until the hospital was able to figure it out and remove milk from her diet entirely. This is a potentially debilitating condition. We don't know whether or to what extent the infant's brain or other organs were harmed by the alcohol that the body produced. We don't know to what extent she is allergic, and to some extent this allergy can turn all sugars into some level of alcohol (at least this is my understanding of it), and so the child has a decent likelihood of growing up with significant challenges, and a high likelihood of health complications down the line, infertility is apparently more likely than not. My point about this story is that this guy had no idea and was not prepared. Essentially no prospective parents are prepared for this or the many worse conditions that can arise from childbirth or injury.
In China, kids with severe needs are often institutionalized. They receive special education within the institution, and when they become adults, they are transferred to adult institutions that do the same. I'm not necessarily saying that this strategy is without drawbacks. I think almost every kid can benefit from having loving parents and a one-on-one connection with caregivers. I say "almost" because there are kids that are perhaps so severely impaired that they may not be aware enough to benefit. Institutionalized care makes sense from the perspective of the heavy burden (financial and physical) on parents and schools. But institutionalized care sacrifices an emotional connection that can lead to its own lifelong impairment.
So let's take china on the one hand, institutionalization, likely at the expense of some emotional and social development. And the US on the other, individual care likely at the expense of adequate care and at the cost of the lives of necessarily unprepared parents. A middle ground is surely needed, but what exactly that looks like I don't know.
I can tell you what I do know, our public schools are not equipped to handle the burden we're placing on them. And the result is lost education and opportunity for scores of children. I do admit that there is an educational benefit to having to come face-to-face with disability and learning the realities of a person that can't manage their basic needs - but I don't think that educational benefit should come at the expense of all other forms of education.
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