The Deplorably Uneducated Educators

WARNING: VERY OPINIONATED COMMENTS TO COME. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!
Hello readers!!! My post last week got 8 views!!! That is so awesome!! Thank you to all who have joined in on this journey with me, and thank you to all who continue to read. It is for you, the learners, that I continue to write this blog, so that maybe you will see the light in education just as I do. :)

This one is written out of pure and utter disgust for the United States Education System. I have always known that the education system was screwed up, and I knew that Special Education took a back seat to funding and all sorts of resources, but I guess I've never really known how deplorable the conditions were for our students, and how at risk their education is...until tonight.
The following paragraph(s) are from yet, another assignment that has opened my eyes to why public school is NOT where I want to teach...

"According to thearc.org, IDEA requires that children be educated to the maximum limit with their peers without disabilities, in a general education setting. But the unfortunate part is that the majority of students with disabilities are still being placed in self -contained classrooms or in alternative learning centers/schools, and are being kept away from their general education setting that they are supposedly required to receive. This is upsetting to me because I was one of those students who had to go to the SPED room to receive help with math, I had to go for resource, and for tutoring. The sad part was that my peers knew it, they knew I wasn’t on the same academic level as them, they knew that even though I sat in the same class with them, that I wasn’t “one of them.” This is the same feeling that thousands of students who receive SPED services feel every day. They feel outcast, like they don’t belong, and the most unfortunate part is that not only do their peers make them feel that way, but the very system that is supposed to support and protect them makes them feel that way by keeping them “quarantined” to a particular part of the school or the hallway. We, as educators, say that we are “supportive” of  Special Education, and the students that we come in contact with, but is that really true? Are we truly supportive, or do we just make this statement to make ourselves and our parents feel better? I think that there is a serious lack of accountability with this particular situation, and that we need to start taking responsibility for not just what we’re teaching these children, but the example that we’re setting."

"The second issue that thearc.org addresses is the fact that there is such a shortage and a high turn over of teachers in SPED, and the teachers that are currently teaching, so many are not certified. In fact, the organization states that they estimate that some 40,000 teachers in the US are CURRENTLY NOT CERTIFIED to teach Special Education. When I read that, I thought “Surely, this can’t be correct! This has to be a typo.” But I know that they’re right, and that we’re putting our children, our students in danger every day because we are literally the uneducated teaching the uneducated. It makes me sick to think that someone would allow their child to walk into a classroom where there is an uncertified teacher teaching them. I would rather home school my child than to send them into an uncertain situation with a teacher. Children who have disabilities require constant supervision and care. Putting someone who is not certified in that position is not only dangerous for them as the educator, but it’s dangerous for the children. On top of the danger factor, children cannot be taught something by someone who doesn’t know how to teach it to them. This is incredibly upsetting for someone like me, who has spent thousands of dollars, and 4 long years getting a degree and a teaching certificate to be a highly qualified educator, to know that I’m in the minority, that the majority of SPED teachers are not qualified or certified. I realize that it takes a special person to teach SPED, but the least we could do as a country, is make sure that our teachers are certified, and that they’re not just some “Joe Blow” off the street. With this kind of news, it’s not surprising that America’s future is in danger."

  "Both of these issues are crippling to the students who receive Special Education students. As a country, we should be ashamed that we have allowed these students to have to suffer such a deplorable learning environment. This is the problem with the general public; they think just because they’re in SPED, that that means that they can’t do anything or that they’ll never be able to learn anything. This is so far from the truth. I’m sorry to say that America has a very long way to go in improvements to their Free Appropriate Public Education system. "

All of this is beyond concerning. We need to take a long, hard look at not only the people that we're sending out into the classroom, but we need to be looking at what tools we're sending them with, and what skills that they might be lacking. 

If you recall my previous blog from last week, you'll remember my statement about us educators teaching America's future...well that correlates to this blog as well. If we continue down this path of the "uneducated teaching the uneducated" we will be facing the consequences very soon I'm afraid.  

If you need the link, to go and read it yourselves, the website is www.thearc.org

Some other websites, that can give you more insight  into what exactly I'm referring to are ark.idea.gov and cec.gov

Some acronyms that you might've seen in this post are as follows:

IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

SPED: Special Education

FAPE: Free Appropriate Public Education

CEC stands for the Council for Exceptional Children