Bakersfield News: here we go again...

Concerning my recent post. With a comment on this post made by me to make right a misunderstanding. Response by Angela Frantz.

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/opinion/2016/04/01/special-ed-kids-they-re-really-more-alike-than-different.html

Reposted from link above

A recent letter to The Bakersfield Californian attempted to show how the Panama Buena Vista Unified School District’s special education program’s shift to inclusion is a bad idea. Thanks to Tracy Elman, it appears that the plight of the PBVUSD has reached Los Angeles. Unfortunately, neither Harold Pierce’s original article nor the subsequent letters to the editor have addressed the other part of the inclusion picture. I don’t recall reading any comments from parents of students attending schools within the PBVUSD.

I wish Ms. Elman knew what it’s like to be a parent of a child in a class where general education students are learning alongside a student with special needs. Her knowledge of inclusion in the classroom is myopic, at best. I am a parent to two children in the Bakersfield City School District. My husband and I sent our young son off to school, knowing he will be exposed to kids who are different.

I’d like to give the letter writer a bit of insight to my child. He is a bright, charming and engaging kindergarten student. He loves reading, sports and music. He is learning math and started writing his letters just this week. He’s the first to comfort an upset classmate and loves to help others. His classmates love him and are better for knowing him. My son isn’t that different than his classmates.

Yes, I’d like for Ms. Elman to walk in my shoes, as a parent raising a child with special needs in this setting. There have been tears, but they have been caused by people who perpetuate archaic assumptions and stereotypes. My husband and I have fought such ignorance so that our son can be allowed to learn alongside his “typical” peers. My son’s general education classmates treat him as their equal – as do his classmates in his special education class. This year he has made friends in both of his classroom settings. Perhaps the letter writer forgets an important tenet of social development among school-aged children: the way students perceive their peers is shaped largely by the adults teaching them. If bullying runs rampant in inclusive classrooms, one need look no further than the teachers and administrators who oversee these programs. Thankfully, research tells us that this is hardly the case.

A quick online search of “benefits of inclusion” will yield evidence to disprove the preposterous scenarios that are believed to happen when special education students are educated with their peers. Students with special needs actually have better behavior in inclusive classrooms, thanks to the positive behavior modeling from their peers.

They have greater successes both socially and academically than they would when segregated. Likewise, students in the general population can benefit greatly from the inclusion of their peers with special needs. Students learn to value the differences in others. They also retain more of what they are learning in school through the process of assisting their classmates.

My son is learning, growing and maturing. He is learning empathy and cooperation, as are his peers. The school staff know him by name and are genuinely happy to greet him each morning. When my son is an adult, chances are he may be employed by one of his peers who sat beside him on the rug in Mrs. B’s class as they learned the alphabet and days of the week. Our goal is not to raise a child who is dependent on others, but rather an adult who will contribute as a taxpaying citizen.

Ms. Elman is correct. The community needs intervention – now. Children with special needs have, by law, the same rights to education afforded to all children. They will not live in a “special” world when they are adults, so they should not be expected to learn in a “special” school.

Get to know my child. Appreciate him for who he is and not for what makes him “different.” You might be surprised to find he really is “more alike than different.”

Angela Frantz is a wife, mom, and advocate who lives in Bakersfield. She is employed by a regional government agency.

Tracy • 2 hours ago

Angela, I am sorry you misunderstood my purpose of my article. It was to make the changes you need and I had. One of my children IS special needs. I am an active parent. He is an adult now and I am still parenting. My child was stuck in mainstream classes for Jr high for 8 months. He was forced to attend Algebra even though he could only do 3rd-grade math. He was bullied by the typical but in addition to them his own biological father and brother. I believe that special ed students should be in special ed and mainstream students should be in their own classes and the above average students where they will do their best. I think it is terrible to mix them all in one class. This was what I wrote. Yes, I do know what I was writing. You may have misinterpreted it. I am sorry.