Klarinet Archive - Posting 001176.txt from 2004/03

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] not just the music department
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 23:24:32 -0500

At 09:47 PM 3/18/2004 -0600, Christy Erickson wrote:
>Bill, Unfortunately, those were the days when learning disabled kids, ED
>kids and those with cognitive disabilities, etc... were all lumped into the
>same classroom. Everyone forgot about them and assumed they were happy all
>being stuck in a corner where no one could see or hear them. They were
>destined to bagging groceries at the corner supermarket or painting ceramic
>figures at the local sheltered workshop. Many of these kids had fairly high
>IQ's and were capable of SO much more and many of them went on to become
>very successful despite their rotten education.

The system at my high school may not have been PERFECT, but it addressed
the need of more students more effectively than the current method of
"inclusion" which lumps not only the 140 and 90 IQs, but the 140 and *70*
IQs together and expects to get worthwhile results!

> It's time we even the score
>and yes, they do need a larger percentage of the funding at the moment to
>bring the programs that were so neglected for them all those years up to
>speed. It's just my opinion but it seems that the "accelerated" students
>have historically gotten far more of the resources and attention than the
>disabled.

That is just SO wrong! In the public schools the gifted have been, for the
most part, almost SYSTEMATICALLY neglected, under the theory that "they'll
do all right anyway." The programs for the learning disabled and
physically disabled students have been eating up huge chunks of school
budgets. Sometimes the physically disabled require full time aids to
assist them. The money comes out of the school budget; that is to say,
right out of the money that COULD be spend on the education of ALL the
other students. I do not begrudge them the assistance, but perhaps the
funding could come from somewhere else?

>Just as it took the civil rights movement to end racial
>discrimination, it will take another small revolution of sorts for the
>rights of the disabled to be recognized. Things are not as "unbalanced" as
>they seem to those of you who think the disabled are getting the majority of
>the resources. There is still an incredible amount of discrimination and
>bias out there as evidenced by the tone of your note here.

Discrimination and bias? No, I don't think so. But ask the teacher who
got laid off because the school district had to fund a full time aid for a
single wheelchair-bound, severely retarded student instead whether she
thinks the priorities are quite straight. Of course, what I am REALLY
arguing about here is not assistance for the disabled (which is of course
necessary), but inadequate funding for the schools, especially when what
little IS available is sucked up by expenses that should be met in other ways.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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