I have decided I don't want to be a special education teacher anymore. I can't handle all the enabling that goes on.
The attitudes of students, parents and other SPED teachers that don't let the student become independent. Are we really going to hold the student's hand until they graduate?
NO THANK YOU!
It is so frustrating when you know the student has been coddled the whole time they were in school and rely on their teachers to give them answers and extended time (as in until the end of the year) to get assignments done and turned in.
I'm sorry but that will not fly in the real world. I don't get to hand in my reports late. I have deadlines to meet and if I don't, I could go to court. Um..where's the accountability for these kids? Where's the whole "meeting standards" thing?
Granted it's not EVERY single SPED student but some of the ones that I have had the "pleasure" of working with do show this kind of behavior.
They don't know how to take responsibility for what they have or have not done and we, the SPED teacher, have to excuse their behavior? I don't think so.
There has to be limits on what extended time is given. I can only help you out so much in class without giving you the actual D@&% answer. I guarantee it's because their past (study skills) teachers (and EA's) don't let them think for themselves and just give them the answer that they now think that if they say "I don't know" or "think" for 1o minutes that eventually, the teacher will give them the answer.
Uh, can you tell I'm frustrated? Maybe I wouldn't be so frustrated if I was actually a "certified, this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life", special education teacher and "went to school to get more education on how to help special education kids". Maybe my attitude would be different. I don't know. All I know is that I'm so sick and tired of other teachers telling me how I should basically "coddle" these kids. It makes me so irritated.
ARGH!
I could go on and on but I have to get ready for bed for another fun day of dealing with these "special" students.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I can't do it anymore!
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5 comments:
girl, i feel ya. except i'm not actually "teaching" students...but i kind of am. lol! and i probably shouldn't be telling you this because you might get even more frustrated: the hand-holding will NEVER end! even when they get to college they'll still be begging for your help. yup, sad hard cold truth.
Just be glad that you are not a SPED person, imagine how sad your life would be...
ugh! stuff like that frustrates me. I think there is a fine line between helping and coddling. Brek deals with the same thing with his hs kids (and they aren't sped). I could go on and on, but I won't :)good luck.
I understand your frustration; I've had to consider at one point how the teachers have to cope with SPED students where parents don't think about Independent Living.
I feel for those that don't understand. Just know Carol you are doing a good job. And, always ask for help from the Lord. I'm sure it's not what you want to do, but I'm sure you can get good counsel and good ideas of how to move along the work with teaching good values and dealing with these difficult behaviors.
You're totally allowed to feel that way! I thought that as a regular ed teacher, we were kind of forced to coddle the students since the principal would get on your case if you had too many failures, but I can't even imagine what it's like to teach your subject. I had a friend from France who said in her school system, they do NOT bend over backwards for the students, even special needs kids. Which way is better, I wonder? It definitely makes you think when you imagine these SPED kids trying to get by in the real world. I kind of feel like we're trying to teach fish to fly and birds to swim sometimes. Can't we find out what these kids are good at and help them excel in that area rather than spoon-feed them answers so they can pass the required courses that they will never ever use again in their lives? (Sorry about the long comment. When it comes to education, I, like you, could go on and on and on!)
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