<p>
</p>
<p>…reminds me of a kid we had that attended a special school for “behaviorally challenged” students. Went to a meeting on him entering his senior year in which he was present. Sat there thinking “we’ve spent close to $350,000 on this kid over the past 8 years & he’s no different than when we sent him”, never graduated & has been in & out of jail since. The “rights” of the few are really beginning to detrimentally affect the good of the group as budgets are cut.</p>
<p>MY D is in TFA. Unlike the title of this thread, her stress comes from administration and a few fellow teachers. The politics and administrative BS is too much.</p>
<p>Xiggi - you seemed to comment that it is not true that teachers work at home. I think they have a choice. My D works a LOT of hours. She has 11 and 12th graders who can’t write a paragraph. She makes extensive comments on their papers and makes them rewrite many times. It is a pain but she wants the kids to be able to fill out a job application or write a short letter and have it make sense. Time could be saved just pushing the kids through or using multiple choice tests but the kids would not be well served.</p>
<p>I think the biggest key is what you said about school hours. What other industry closes the doors for 1/4 of the year? At risk youth would benefit by having school 8 hours a day al year long. School would include physical education, arts, music, etc. in addition to academic subjects. Oh yeah, provide child care for those who have kids while still in school. Nothing good happens during summer vacation for these kids. They are not getting adequate nutrition.</p>
<p>cobrat – I understand and agree with your position. Let me clarify, in case I was misunderstood. When I say that I am a strong supporter of inclusion, I am not talking about inclusion of children with serious behavior problems. I totally agree that they are a huge source of teacher stress, especially when they have parents who are not supportive of the teachers.</p>
<p>There is a big difference between children who have unusual behaviors, such as the rocking and spinning that can be present with autism, and dangerous behaviors. Children, if taught about behavioral differences, can understand and accept classmates who are different. They can understand that “John” is bothered by loud sounds and can cope with them by rocking.</p>
<p>What is totally unacceptable is an situation where students who are dangerous and/or totally disruptive or disrespectful cannot be removed from a classroom and put in an alternative learning environment.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Marsian,</p>
<p>I was putting that account not to argue against inclusion, but to illustrate how powerless teachers and parents are when faced with a few extremely disruptive/violent students who turn classrooms/schools into warzones due to dis-empowerment of classroom teachers, educational administrator/bureaucrats who micromanage/neglect as they feel like, “not-my-angel” parents of dangerously disruptive/violent students, misinterpretation of educational ideas/movements to absurd extremes, and educational admins/school boards that play favorites. </p>
<p>Incidentally, it is the students with disabilities who end up suffering the most in school/school district environments enabled by problems that my client grand-D’s high school had with students like that stalker. </p>
<p>My position on inclusion is probably much closer to yours. Only reasons to separate out students is if they pose a safety threat to other students or in the case of public magnet schools which choose on basis of demonstrated academic potential/capability…didn’t meet that standard.</p>
<p>For those people that their child/themselves went to a very nice school, no offense but need to be quiet.
There are many schools in the United States (especially New Orleans public schools) are extremely poor (behavior, academics, money…). However, there is no way to make them to become good kids.</p>
<p>For teachers, it is extremely stressful because many (and I mean it) students have behavioral problems because of their environment. Magnet schools and vouchers suck out most of the good students in the area. Also, teachers are given a very limited resources. On the other hand, the air conditioner are extremely cold or hot, regardless of the weather.</p>