[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Andy Wallis <rawallis at panix.com>
>Date: 2007/04/13 Fri PM 03:29:20 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

<snip>

>Simply put, Special Education is a quick way of making a teacher burn out. I don't blame the school
>district who worries about the severly profound kid coming into the district. There is no way that
>kid will ever succeed.

It wasn't a concern about the ultimate succes that concerned the school administration, it was having to find $300,000 with 4 weeks notice to fund the education of this child. There is no possible debate about the requirement the student be treated to the best education they can handle, but at $300,000 the most likely scenario would be that teachers would be cut from the school, increasing class sizes to anunacceptable level, impacting the education of probably a hundred or more students, all because this kids parents wanted to move to our "neighborhood"...

The needs of that $300K student should be funded by the state, not the local tax payers directly.

> I can't stand the breeders who demand that their kid is mainstreamed and 
>treated like a normal child.

Well, the issue isn't the breeders that demand their child be mainstreamed that are the problem around here, it is that an IEP (in NJ school district talk, Individual Education Plan, IIRC), once created, must be followed, and some school districts try to cut corners and offer "similar" support in-house instead of hiring professionals.

> Simply put, if that kid is always going to have the mental age of a 
>child or toddler, he/she will never be normal. 
>While most parents of the mentally retarted have accepted that concept, I always curse when I read
>articles about their lawsuits and refusal to accept reality.

I think the issue there is that someone failed to give the parents an honest assessment of the child's abilities and prospects early on - not wanting to upset the parents at a difficult time.

The child should be offered whatever they can handle, up to the point they absorb no more, and then let them get on with their lives...

Lionel