Day 6: Glass Ceilings

      Special Education gets a bad wrap in schools. If a student receive services they can feel ostracized from their classmates. They can feel inferior and begin to use their disability(ies) as a crutch. Too often do I hear the words, "I can't do it," or "I'm too stupid," or even worse "retarded." These learned behaviors come from their home life, teachers, classmates and friends. They think because they are in Special Education they do not need to work as hard as their classmates, because throughout their lives they have had the answers handed to them or were simply pushed along through the system without a care in the world.
      By the time students have been with me a month they have learned that I do not accept that kind of language or behavior. They learn that Special Education can mean working three times as hard as other students just to break even. They learn that their glass ceiling isn't McDonald's or being dishwasher, but if they end up there in the end then that's okay to.
       Not every student is made for college, but by not talking with them about higher education, or focusing strictly on Trade Schools, I believe we are doing a disservice to both education and to our students. Just this week I had to sit down with a young man that had announce to the class, "We don't need to learn this, because Special Education kids are too stupid to go to college." This vile and nasty proclamation about himself and his classmates is a learned behavior created out of the fear of hard work and failure. Its not the students fault he feels this way and to be honest, I can hardly blame him for feeling that way. Looking back, I am sure I have felt the same way when my teachers tried to show me some obscure form of equation that allowed you to calculate the circumference of a three dimensional shape. But, thankfully my parents and teachers always took the extra time to help me when I felt like giving up and more importantly made me a better person, because of those failures.
     Many students, especially students in Special Education and Life Skills, need that kind of support in their daily lives. Pushing them along or creating a glass ceiling for them not only does them a disservice, but also makes their education that much harder later on in life. So please if you have a student that is struggling or a student that feels they are a waste when it comes to learning, talk to them. Make them see that they are worth your time and effort and even if they don't make it to college, make them believe they can if they want to. 

Image links to some very interesting Special Education blogs and includes resources and teaching ideas