Trying To Understand Something Insanely Crazy

This is the teacher in me making this post.  One of the things that I struggle with as a teacher looking for work is the absolute glut of Special Education Teachers (SPEDs) that are in the schools today.  Something that consistantly amazes me is that there are SPED teachers getting SPED pay that do absolutely nothing all day but act as glorified instructional assistans (aides).  They go into a classroom, stand over little Johnny or little Suzy's shoulder, basically tell them the answers to the question, read tests to them, watch them use a calculator instead of their minds, and even go so far as to write for the students.  This is all done in the name of "full inclusion."  I'm sorry.  When I was going through school during the 80's and 90's, that sort of thing was never done.  I have been in classes (as a substitute) that have about 20 kids and four teachers/aides.  That is crazy!  I then go into other classes in other schools where one teacher is in charge of 30 hellions, and they have no help.  How screwed up is that?

On top of paying SPED teachers SPED pay to act as instructional assistants, some students even have their own "behavior specialist" with them.  The role of this person is to basically tell the student how to act.  These people are basically there to help manage the classroom because there are a large number of kids who think that the rules of the school and classroom don't apply to them.  I say, if the kid can't behave, they need to be disciplined in accordance with the rules of the classroom and school.  If they can't behave in socially acceptable ways, then they need to go to some sort of alternative educational placement.  I know it sounds very harsh, but when a person sees the amount of tax money wasted on these things, it makes one want to stand up and scream "STOP."  The liberal educational system needs to be reformed in order to force every student to achieve their own level of excellence.  While I admire attempts to bring all students up, No Child Left Behind has actually done more to damage the long-term educational milieu than not having it.  When a school system throws SPED kids into the classroom with non-SPED kids, the non-SPED kids suffer.  All the teacher's time and energies are spent managing behaviors and working one on one, instead of working with the class as a whole.  If a child is so intellectually disadvantaged as to need a SPED aide or teacher in the "regular" classroom with them, then maybe they need to be in a small-group setting and pulled out of the regular classroom.  By continuing the liberal educational policy of "mainstreaming," we are only shortchanging the SPED kids and the non-SPED kids in the long run.

Just something to think about.