Comments on: Should a free education be unconditional?

By: tweenteacher.com » Here’s why test scores shouldn’t be the only criteria…

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:10:44 +0000

[...] Thursday I had a meeting with a mom whose kid (see my prior post on him, “Should a free education be unconditional?”) is writing “Kill, kill, kill, Help, help, help” on his agenda and whose writing goes [...]

By: Edgar

Edgar — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:16:48 +0000

Hello. My name is Edgar and I’m an editor at OpposingViews.com, the debate website. Since we both cover education issues, I thought I’d drop you a note. I would’ve e-mailed you but I couldn’t find an address.
See, we’re currently having a discussion about whether or not homeschooled kids are at a disadvantage. You can see it here:
http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/are-homeschooled-kids-at-a-disadvantage
Although vetted experts are the ones doing the debating, anyone can contribute by choosing a side and posting comments about the experts’ arguments.
Check it out and, if you have the time, let me know what you think at eacosta@opposingviews.com
Thanks!

By: tweenteacher

tweenteacher — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:17:53 +0000

Thanks for your advice. I agree that as a teacher I need to be proactive for him as well as for my other students. Believe me, I come out swinging. I will be moving forward for this kid and a resistant school psychologist isn’t going to stop me. And comments such as yours really help arm me with support, and I thank you again. It is just a shame that it feels like those meant to support a child aren’t all on the same team.
I will let you know as things progress.
Thanks again,
Heather

By: Pat

Pat — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:10:25 +0000

I agree with Rho that a student deserves a free and appropriate education. It doesn’t seem like this is the appropriate setting for him. I would ask that he be retested. By keeping him in the mainstream, the school is not doing what is in the best interest of this student or the other students in the school. If your school psychologist is resistant, I would speak to the special ed director and show all the documentation. I look forward to the updates.

By: tweenteacher

tweenteacher — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:50:01 +0000

I really appreciate your situation. I once worked at a district alternative school that kept its numbers so low that they didn’t have to provide legally certain elements to help the students. Needless to say, our numbers, however, went up around testing time in the spring. There were no special ed services, no ELD textbooks or support, and we shared a school psychologist with the other schools in the district. Every time I needed to be out (flu, professional development, etc…) hell would break loose in the classroom and there were even some injuries. It didn’t happen on my watch because I had ditched the curriculum to work on classroom environment, but whenever I was gone, the &*^% really hit the fan. It’s an immense pressure on a teacher to be the sole provider of stability and professionalism for their students. We all need support. The most important support should come from the home, but when it doesn’t, the schools needs to be prepared to be on deck.
Thanks for your comments. Please feel to check in. I’ll update my website about the student as it progresses.
Take care,
Heather
aka Tweenteacher

By: tweenteacher

tweenteacher — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:43:50 +0000

Thanks for your comments. It seems like you and your school are on top of the problem and moving ahead. Just remember to keep your incident log of comments and actions to create a paper trail should the mom need evidence of the problem. Especially include any info you get from the brothers about home life. I email the counselors and cc the principal after each incident as my paper trail file.
Take care, keep me informed, and good luck with your classroom environment.
-Heather
aka Tweenteacher

By: ms_teacher

ms_teacher — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:44:49 +0000

I could not agree with you more. I had a student last year who was clearly emotionally unstable. His mom knew this and had known for years, but was unwilling to do anything. This was severely effecting his education and when he was in the classroom also effecting the education of his classmates. Due to severe budget cuts, we do not have any counseling staff and only have school psychiatrist who is at our school site 2 times a week. Our only option was to send him to “anger management” which had nothing to do with his particular issue.

By: Rho

Rho — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:02:54 +0000

Well, after 3 weeks of two brothers who came to us from an SBH unit; and who could only “tolerate” half a day there-went home for the afternoon every day–I say get him out of your room. I am finding out more each day how frightened and tense these kids make all of the other kids. I am not willing to sacrifice 98 freshmen to “save” two 17 year “freshmen” who have caused huge problems wherever they go. No father and a mother who doesn’t get them the medication they are supposed to take.
One of them, this morning, when told to get his head off the desk, to get his hoodie off his head(after being told at least 3 times daily to do so), and then to get his books out of his locker outside my room (he had planned to sleep all period)told (screamed at) me to “shut up you fu***** bitch. Go to hell.”
By great good luck, the principal was right down the hall and I passed it off to him. I handle discipline, too, but not that kind of language! Not at the high school level; not fair to all the rest of my kiddos.
They were clearly relieved when he was taken out of the room by the principal. They thought it was awful; we proceeded to have a great class as I did all that I could to lift their spirits. They are afraid of him and his brother and they scare me too. I can picture myself at the end of a pistol or knife with this kid- way past normal mouthy kid stuff.
Our principal is calling a meeting because they are doing this to everyone. Our usually laid-back SS teacher is even spooked by them and it takes a lot to rattle him. Principal believes that our students are in danger from these two and is trying to get them back into the severe behavior units. They need more help than we can give them in our little rural school.

By: David Cohen

David Cohen — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:36:16 +0000

Two responses -

1. Be aggressive about this now. Compare your present situation with what you learned about the past and stick to your guns. It’s not comfortable, but it’s important to be able to say to a parent that these are serious and ongoing concerns and they’re not improving. If they’re not improving, then intervention is almost obligatory. You’re well within reason in maintaining standards for your classroom. He’s not meeting them. What will be done about it? As long as he doesn’t meet those reasonable standards, then the response about what to do cannot, ethically, be “nothing.” Push back – but make it clear that it’s out of concern for helping the student, not because you don’t like him. That’s why the beginning of the year is optimal – it doesn’t look like you have run out of patience or like it’s festered and become personal. You’re just the new teacher who’s reacting to a student’s observed needs.

2. I believe the legal principle is “free and appropriate” education. (Not sure if that’s CA or fed. language). By this principle, we have the obligation to provide special education services in public schools, and the state also pays for the educational placement of many children in settings other than regular, public schools, when the students’ needs can’t be accommodated otherwise. The student placement is, I believe, guided by the idea that students should be in the “least restrictive” placement possible, but it must be appropriate.

Relating back to your initial question then, I’d say that yes, it should be unconditional to provide free education, but the placement issue is not so cut and dry.