Sloan Semester

It is a rare breed that goes into special education teaching. Most teachers, in fact, do not go anywhere near it. You see, special education programs are difficult to teach and administer, mired in excessive red tape and regulations, and fraught with confrontations with angry parents. There are enough comparatively easy jobs in teaching that it doesn’t seem worth the bother to most education professionals. Unless something very personal has happened in your life to move you to be a special educator, you will probably stay clear of it. In my case, it was growing up with a learning disability. Although I was extremely intelligent, few people understood this. You see, I was in special education classes myself.

Special education programs have changed a great deal since I was a kid, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have long to go. Back when I was taking those courses, they were nothing more than babysitting. Problem children, children with developmental disabilities, and kids with learning disabilities (which were not well understood at the time) were all lumped together and put in the same room in the same program. The teachers did not want to be there, and often they were harsh and cruel to the special ed kids. But that doesn’t even compare to how the other children were.

Before the term developmental disability was in vogue, we were all simply called