Special Education

Yesterday I went with my cohorts (Special Ed. program classmates) to a post-high school.  The students here are 18-22.  They learn academics, functional skills, life skills, leisure skills, and trade skills.  They have a job coach and go to different sites working on a volunteer basis to learn skills they can use to find a job later.   This school also has its own greenhouse and woodworking shop that the students work in and can earn money.  They get a paycheck that they need to go cash/deposit and they learn about balancing a check book, budgeting, etc.  It was an awesome school.

My class carpooled.  I drove seven of us up, but six of us back.  On the drive back we were talking about being in the Special Education program.  The others commented that when they are at an activity on campus where you meet people and get asked the typical questions; what's your name, where are you from, what's your major, that they get many different reactions to their response of the last question.

Some people might tease them about being Special Ed.  Some people say, "Aw, you are so sweet for working with those kinds of kids" or they comment on how it takes a special kind of person to work with those kids, or they say how they could never do that job.  Some may even comment that those with disabilities or those who are retarded scare them a bit because they don't know how to work with them or handle them.

One friend commented that she was at an airport recently.  She got talking to a family.  The mother happened to be a high school math teacher.  When my friend stated what her major at BYU is, the woman went off about working with retards.  She would not be able to work in that setting with a bunch of idiots.  She can't see how anyone would be able to work with such students.  Working with idiots just isn't a rewarding job.  The husband, who was really nice, kept apologizing for his wife.  My friend was just left speechless.  She said that she usually has a comeback for when people say that they would never be able to do what she is doing, but this lady left her dumbfounded.  I said, "You should have said that working with those with special needs is a rewarding job, but sitting around talking with people who are ignorant is what I can't stand.  Then get up and leave."

They all had a laugh at that, but we were all shocked that someone who is supposedly educated and working in the school system would have that reaction to special education.