Education

I was responsible for one student going to an alternative ed school after he set fire to the lab table in science class with alcohol, then started to jump on all the tables and counters. This, however, was not the first incident he was involved in, just the most dangerous. I know that this kid needed to be in a classroom where he could have more personal attention, and the regular classrooms don't work for all students. This is a lie that we are trying to tell ourselves, that segregating some special needs students is a bad thing.

But I will defend the public schools here too. They have been required to integrate all students, no matter the ability or learning disabilities, into regular classrooms, and this just doesn't work for the teacher, that student, or all the other students in the class. I know that this is a sensitive issue, and I was a victim of that segregation in school (way back in the old times when we walked to school, uphill, both ways, with holes in our shoes) because of lack of confidence and lack of ambition. I used to think this was a good strategy to stop the tracking, and in many cases, that is true. But I, for one, was grateful for myself and this child that there was a place for him to learn.