The Problem with Placement

This week I started working in a high school life skills class. When I think of life skills I imagine students in wheelchairs or that they have low-functioning autism or have intellectual disabilities to the point of having limited verbal communication. I was surprised when half my class had intellectual disabilities and could carry on a conversation with me.
So then the question on my mind is why is a young man who has a first grade reading level and can function with minimal assistance in the same class as student who has cerebral palsy? Blame it on the system. When determining placement the IEP team has to look at every option. The problem is that in between being placed in a life skills class or pulled out in a resource room, there are few options for these students.
I can't even imagine how those higher functioning students feel being placed in a class with kids that are so much more academically and socially below their level. It would be like placing a sophomore in high school in the same class as a kindergartener. They have such very different needs.
The students with intellectual disabilities put up with the students who have autism or down syndrome. They treat them with the same patience an adult might with a small child. One young man was very happy when I came into his class. He has an intellectual disability and was grateful to play catch with someone who could throw the ball.
So it is in this strange world where we assume that all people with the same disability need the same levels of support. Therefore we put them in classes with their disabled "peers" and assume they can benefit from the same level of academic and functional supports. I will try not to complain. It is just that the bottom line is that special educators need to understand that these students are on INDIVIDUALIZED Education Plans because they are individuals.

Foreigner in a Strange Land

Week 3 of student teaching. I miss my behavior kids. No restraints. No yelling. No cursing. No runners. What is this horrible place? What is a girl who is used to dodging punches and being called every name in the book supposed to do? It just doesn’t feel right. These kids listen. I don’t even have to count to three. I am a foreigner in a strange land.
Alright some parts of a life skills class are nice. I don’t come home exhausted from having to do a seated restraint on a kid because the safe room that was supposed to be built in the summer was never built and now it is November. Definitely don’t miss those days where you hate yourself for having to put your hands on a kid. Or coming home with bite marks and bruises.
But being in a life skills classroom is different. I feel like I moved to a different country. I like the culture. The staff is awesome. The kids are amazing. I just don’t speak the language or completely understand their culture.
I feel like a tourist who has studied up on a country and then when you arrive at the country you feel completely unprepared. Granted, most of my training in low-incidence disabilities has been beneficial. But I am working with individuals, not statistics. Each individual person is different and deserves to be treated like an individual and not a list of characteristics from a textbook on disabilities.
I always felt the best way to learn the language was to immerse yourself in the culture. When I took Spanish in high school and college I became increasingly frustrated. The Spanish I learned wasn’t what was going to help me out on the streets in Mexico. I needed to be in a position where I had to be completely immersed in the culture and could only speak the language.
The problem with life skills is that I feel like I am in a U.N. meeting with no translators! I am trying to communicate with various individuals who all speak different languages. Some are non-verbal. Some use itouches to tell you their basic needs. Some speak ASL. Some show you pictures. All of them don’t understand body language at some level. Do they make an English to disability dictionary to help me translate? Of course, if I could understand those students they are probably feeling the same way.