Do you hate the word special education?
You're right. Words are important especially as they relate to segregation in school! Suggest you write a request to the principal, cc to the school board aski them to rename your classes something like English 4 or English (some other number), Math (number) - shouldn't be that hard. Explain that the current wording carries an unacceptable stigma that suggests outsider or outcast, and, happily, it's a problem that is so cured. Put it to them this way: Is there any reason you prefer maintaining the insulting designation, special needs? This is the way we get things changed! Hint: When you want someone to do something for you, provide the solution along with a compelling rationale to support the change. The more do-able you make it, the more likely they are to make the requested change(s).
Why do we hate education?
We don't hate education. We hate the way we are given education.Right from the time we are born we are taught how to walk and speak. We don't hate that do we, because we were taught those things with love and we were taught it's importance in life.Then comes the school. Schools were supposed to educate us but all they do is test our memory power. We give exams by grasping everything can and puking it all on our papers. It is true that it is important to check our grasping power but not this way.By the time we reach college, the place where we are actually given knowledge and educated, we have a mindset of studying just few days before exams because exams just test your memory.It has been this way since many years and isn't going to change much unless someone actually understands that we need KNOWLEDGE but we are getting EDUCATED.Because in the end people will check your education and not knowledge.
What do you hate the most about your public education system?
I hate that students in my special education class are treated as burdens. I work with an awesome group of people, but being alone in my world of special education I’ve learned these things:teachers need training on how to include a child. They need to know what the law says. In California, I was required one class in college regarding special education.It seems like money always floats to the top. Teachers in general buy many materials for the classroom; but one my directors of ed tried to give SPED teachers a budget, he was fired. We protested and got him back only to have him fired again. It sucked.Charter schools, parents think they’re better than a general school. My questions for them are two fold-why are there so much turn around of teachers? If it’s really free, why do all parents have to donate time. Most of the time the teachers are from Teach for America. This program requires that someone teachers teach for two years they get a free Masters’-degree. They advertise that children with special needs, but send them back almost immediately, due to insufficient training. I have 2 credentials, one in gen ed and one in SPED (of which I’ve taught 16 years, and 2 in general Ed Kindergarten.) I’ve been offered a job several times for principal of a charter school. I have no credential in administration, and would not be offered the job in public schools.Teachers are villianized, sent to trainig, and loved by children. However, we cannot seem to get our points high in state testing. Many Newcomers do not understand the question. Now they want to cut our salaries, due to children not doing well on the state tests. There a number of reasons people do poorly: misunderstanding the questions, inability to read the questions, overstimulated by noises in the room + or a tablet in his hand etc., plus the need to do well.In America we have many different kinds of people. This means I get to work with many nationalities. I enjoy that. I don’t understand how I’m already a racist because I’m white. My opinion is two-fold: One, other countries like China, have only one language to speak as teachers(this may not be factual it just seems logical. We, in California have many languages in our classrooms, I’m working on Spanish, and I use Google translator. If a child comes, say in fourth grade, he’s missed years of English language. However, as he is being taught in English, he doesn’t understand or speak. He may also be missing whole chunks of language, social structure.
Do you hate the education system in your country? Why?
I don't hate my country's education system. The Finnish education is widely regarded very good and partly due the great PISA rankings many seem to think that it’s quite unique.What I've read there really are many features in our education that are done quite well. The whole education system is however a more complex question than the quality of education.I like the basic principle of our education that emphasizes human growth in general. It's been written in the basic education act and mentioned in the vocational education acts too. The idea is that it's necessary to develop a person as a whole, not only the intellectual side. How well we succeed in this is another question but I like the princple. I don't know whether this is unique or not.Our education system is based on public funding and I like that too. It guarantees that the education is more or less on the same level in every region in the country. Of course, it's impossible (and unnecessary) to have exactly the same education in big cities and most remote villages but we don't have strong culture of elite schools or poor education in poor or remote areas.The constant problem is the poor funding. Education has been a target of heavy cuttings for years and practically all political parties have been involved with this. It shows in the schools and I predict that it will keep showing in our PISA results and in our competitiveness.Update: one more feature i like is that it's possible to continue to a university even from a vocational school. There are no dead ends in education. But I don'tknow if this is rare or not.Analyzing our whole education system exceeds my knowledge. I'll leave room for other points of view too.Here is a short introduction in English: Education system
Do you hate special education teachers and special ed? What so special about Special education?
Hey, I know exactly how you feel, I've been through the exact same situation. Special ed teachers sitting beside me all the time and taking me to another room to do the work, even though I was perfectly fine doing it on my own. It's very embarrassing and humiliating. I always felt that I would learn better doing it myself and learn to cope on my own, but none of them understood. And I also felt different to other kids, like I was from another planet or something. But anyway, in one of my Special Ed English classes. My English teacher noticed that I was capable of achieving better work and being the normal classes, so she rang up my parents to ask them if it was ok and then I eventually got moved into the normal classes. So really, just work as hard and tell them that you feel a little embarrassed being taken out of classrooms and stuff, I'm sure they would understand. Tell them that you want to learn on your own and whenever you do need a bit of help, just ask someone. I think sometimes though, there is usually a helper in the class, because all the people in the class who can do the work but don't want to, they take all the teachers time, so they can't help other people who actually need it.