Saturday, October 17, 2009
A Question on Education
Today I would like to blog about something that I heard yesterday that I wasn’t sure was true or not. Beware that this may have a few different subjects and might just turn into a personal rant about my beliefs in education. It is also more or less a story about a conversation that I had yesterday. A girl about the same age as me that I work with was taking education at the U of L, but became scared about rumors that she was going to be forced to teach in a high school class. I found this crazy that she has now dropped out and has started to take another type of program at the college. It actually turned out that she is now regretting this choice. Besides this fact, another girl and I were discussing this girl and how she is not satisfied with the program that she is in now. This other girl started to say that she also did not know what she wanted to do or go to school for and that at one point in her life, she did want to become a teacher. She grew away from the dream of becoming a teacher because of the way that the school systems work. She then started to talk about how students are colour coded by the way that they behave. I don’t know the actual colours, but for example: If a child has attention problems, behavioral issues, a learning disability, etc, they are given a colour that all the teachers are aware of. First of all, this is something that I have never heard of before. I do, however, realize that teachers do know of these difficulties/issues, but do they make a point of colour coding these children? If this is something that teachers are doing, won’t these “codes” follow these students with them throughout their education career and in turn place barriers on their learning? Does anyone else know anything about this, or what the truth actually is? If so, that would be great!
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Students aren't coded with colours, but they are coded with numbers for their particular disability whether it be behaviour, learning, physical, or a cognitive disability. These codes do stick with the students as some students need specific modications in the classroom or perhaps with test writing if they have a writing disability or things like that. It don't believe having a code places a barrier on their learning, but rather helps to remove barriers. Some students need extra help, extra time, different methods of instruction or different assignments in order to achieve. Given a code a teacher must do an IPP or use the already created one in order to meet the needs of the student. I think students get used to whatever their code is and aren't necessarily embarassed by it. We all have difficulties and these just happen to be the difficulties that some children face in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it is unfortunate that your friend decided to to pursue a career in education because she didn't want to teach high school. We are very well prepared for such a scenario and it really isn't that scary!! For me it was the other way around, I didn't want to teach elementary. However I really enjoyed it and it was a great experience and I am now gong to do my PSIII in elementary. So tell your friend she should come back to the U of L education program!!
Thanks for writing. It really helped me to understand what these "codes" are actually trying to do. And looking at it from your point of view, I can totally understand what they can do for students. Also, I completely agree that she should come back to the education program!
ReplyDeleteThe point of coding kids is not to label kids, but to get them additional resources. Once a kid is coded as having this or that special need, the funding attached to that code follows them from grade to grade, school to school, so if they show up in a new class, the school gets an Aid or extra funding or etc to ensure that student can get the help they need to achieve to the best of their ability.
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