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Special Ed in Ontario is in a bad place. The funding has been severely cut. The gov’t decided that getting twice what other depts got was “unfair” & they just cut it back. No questions about WHY that budget was needed. Now the students come to classes with no support resources.
But Spec Ed was in a bad place before the cuts. There were and still are severe misunderstandings about children’s learning. The system still wants to maintain the myth that if the child doesn’t understand, there is something wrong with the child, not with the style of teaching.
We have developed better methods of teaching, ones we know reach far more children yet many do not use them in the classroom. A few refuse, but many just do not have the resources or didn’t get full training because no one wants to spend that money either.
We tend to switch to the “next great thing” too often. Just as educators are getting the students used to a system and getting results, someone sells the Board or Ministry on another reinvented wheel and we must drop everything to change over. Is it any wonder students get lost?
Now, be an LD or other Spec Ed student in the midst of that. Where will you end up? Your learning style will be blamed, not the constant switching, not the lack of resources. And other children confused by the switches will be wrongly labelled.
Another issue is the lack of understanding of LD and other common issues like a ASD, etc. I know this was not taught teacher training. It should be intensely taught, by a qualified psychologist (personal preference, not white). Every teacher should know special needs cold.
As well, the Ministry, since they control the funding, should be developing all the basics teachers need for assisting LD students and others. Students are given computers but the teachers are expected to come up with live work the student can use with R/W. There isn’t time!
The textbooks are all in AERO, let the Ministry hire (PAY) spec Ed teachers to develop live work that students can do with those texts so the teacher just has to upload them. R/W is a blessing to LD students, it’s a miracle to watch them blossom with it. Let’s use it right.
Reading: I do have my reading specialist. Phonetics is the most successful way to get the AVERAGE student reading in a short period of time. But it isn’t the only way. I have had students who know their phonemes but cannot put them together. Others who just cannot learn them.
There is NOTHING wrong with these children, they just aren’t that AVERAGE child. Teach them using whole word reading, it’s an acceptable format and used most often with ASD and Down Syndrome- very successfully! Both methods should be taught in teacher training.
IEPs. Hard and fast rule MUST be. No IEP unless the child has been brought to the school team with testing evidence that there actually is a problem. Bring their classroom work too because in so many cases, kids are being given sheets of math questions, no manipulatives.
Finally, it is NOT CHEATING to give children support who need it. We all learn differently and need different supports. LD kids NEED R/W, to withhold it is cruel and unusual punishment for having a disability. And this is just for cerebral needs, the physical need an overhaul too
For that go to @JHallinPeel whose tweet yesterday got me started on this one today.
