[Dion]

Originally Posted by flip

So I have a coworker who has a daughter aged 10 or so. So she's in about grade 4. She goes to a Catholic elementary school.

Here's the issue:

There is a retarted kid in her class (sorry but I'm not PC enough to use mentally challenged all the time) and he is quite disruptive and requires a lot of time from the teacher which should be spent on the other kids. My coworker's daughter has been complaining to her mom that it is very difficult to be in this class because the retarted kid is a constant disruption who requires attn.

My coworker went to the school and complained to the principal of the school on the grounds that a) this child needs more care than the teacher can offer and b) since she is giving him all this care the "normal" kids are losing out on an education.

The principal replied by saying that they do not offer retarted kids special education because the retarted kid needs to be accepted and the "normal" kids need to learn to accept him.

The principal is wrong in this situation and shows great ignorance. The student in question clearly has a learning disability that requires extra attention. Through no fault of his own he is being a drain the teachers time and resources thus impacting in a negitive way the education of the rest of the kids. Clearly the kid needs an aide that will work with him/her during class time.

This is great and all that they want to teach tolerance but at the expense of the children's education? I for one remember seeing the "special" kids at school but they were all in their own class and had caregivers with them all the time. Sort of like that Simpsons episode where they move and Bart gets put in the special education class with the Canadian kid Gordie. ("I'm from Canada and they think I'm slow, eh.")

Give them aide and in most cases they can survive in a class of normal students. The teacher will be able to focus on the needs of the rest of the students.

How does everyone feel about this? Personally, while I like tolerance this case is BS, this kid clearly isn't just a little bit slow, and needs to be in an environment with other challenged children where he can receive proper care.

Is this common nowadays? Do you think the Catholic School Board is just too cheap/poor to provide proper care for this kid? Or is the principal serious that we are in such a PC society that retarted kids can't even get special care because it would be offensive to not let them have the same education as everyone else?

I clearly think this is a funding issue where the CSB can't afford to give this kid the aide he/she really needs. Trying to integrate kids with learning disabilities with normal kids will doom this kid to poor grades without an aide. I know a family in the Hat that had to deal with similar garbage like this. There was no aide available for thier child iin ES and the mother ended up quitting a good paying job so she could work with her son in an effort to help him pass his classes. The son got an aide in JH and ended up on the honor role. Lost the aide in HS and his grades floundered.