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[Guest jlgoff]

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The Monstrous Failure of the Special Education Schooling System



Have you ever seen someone discriminated against because they’re developmentally disabled? I was one of those ignorant children in my early days, but I’ve grown to have a bigger heart than that of a bully by trying to help the developmentally disabled, find any way possible to communicate with them, and get them the services they need because they deserve every chance to find success that they can find out there is this cold, harsh, and sometimes even obscene world.

One thing common among the developmentally disabled is either deafness or the inability to speak, or both, at-least from what I’ve seen. It’s true, my best friend, Sean, couldn’t even hear or speak.

Children deprived of verbal stimulation during the first few years of life are severely impaired in their capacity to learn language and have great difficulty acquiring normal language later on. In addition, while young infants are able to distinguish among the variety of phonemes present in all human languages, after about six months of age the infant’s knowledge becomes more focused, and they are only able to discriminate between the various phonemes in their own native language. Consequently, infants can learn any language that they are exposed to, yet it is more difficult for an older child or adult to completely master a non-native or secondary language. (Kessenich, 614)

Sean may not have been able to speak for this exact reason, and it only makes sense because he was so far behind that learning a language would be too complicated for him, but I didn’t stop trying to teach him reading skills or arithmetic, and he eventually got it because he had a moment of truth, which allowed it to engrave in his mind and allow him to surpass the stereotypical person with these kind of disabilities.I’ve attended classes to learn various communication skills and strategies, including American Sign Language when I was matched up with Sean for the first time.

Who is taking the rightful responsibility of the developmentally disabled? One day, I had this gumption when I finally realized that nobody was holding Robert [redacted] Academy, accountable for all the kids that aren’t getting the education that those kids deserve.

In most cases, the services and goals outlined in an IEP can be provided in a standard school environment. This can be done in the regular classroom (for example, a reading teacher helping a small group of children who need extra assistance while the other kids in the class work on reading with the regular teacher) or in a special resource room in the regular school. The resource room can serve a group of kids with similar needs who are brought together for help.

However, kids who need intense intervention may be taught in a special school environment. These classes have fewer students per teacher, allowing for more individualized attention.

In addition, the teacher usually has specific training in helping kids with special educational needs. The children spend most of their day in a special classroom and join the regular classes for nonacademic activities (like music and gym) or in academic activities in which they don’t need extra help.

Because the goal of IDEA is to ensure that each child is educated in the least restrictive environment possible, effort is made to help kids stay in a regular classroom. However, when needs are best met in a special class, then kids might be placed in one. (Judd, 565)

[REDACTED] took away our rights, they made sure we weren’t educated on them. My school was for kids with mental-emotional disabilities. Anyone over the age of 18, including my friend, Glen signed something, and they denied us any recognition of the document. My friend, Glen, signed a release to [Redacted], Logan’s mother, and she was denied access to his file because they didn’t want to accept his document. I saw them literally shred any file that my friends or I had signed while we attended over the age of eighteen. Our rights as students in Fragglesrock, and a part of the federal law states: if I wanted to dismiss myself: I had the right to do so, but they continued to contact my mom, which was immoral of [REDACTED].

My god, who wants to attend these schools if they’re control freaks, and do nothing but play games?

Works Cited:

“Education of Children with Special Needs.” Genetic Disorders Sourcebook. Ed. Judd, Sandra J. 5th

ed. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2014. 613-624. Health Reference Series. Web. 7 May 2015.

KESSENICH, MAUREEN, et al. “Developmental Theory.” Encyclopedia of Education. Ed. James

W. Guthrie. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. 561-577. Web. 7 May 2015

Lock and Key



I once loved the idea of marriage. I now remember turning my back on it. Is marriage really equality? We’ll just live our life, and we’ll die yearning. We tried to arise from the graveyard’s ashes; only to find our serenity isn’t permanent.

We materialize our emotion, signing a license to forever bind our souls together to, “unite”, but we’re all our soul-mate’s a lock and key. Our rights diminish through the rites of marriage. Are we uptight or can love exist without marriage?

That’s what drives the bond more than a ring or a paper. Just from a single question, we choose celebration for our devotion. I’ve already said it, but I’ll repeat it because I deal with it anyway, but I’m trying to captivate his time.

Will he be my sweetheart; I just want his passion, and to be at attention’s center. Be my beloved and prove that our warmth wasn’t false. I won’t die alone because hate doesn’t exist in love. We tried to arise from the graveyard’s ashes; only to find our serenity isn’t forever.

Our serenity isn’t permanent. We materialize our obsession, signing a paper to bind ourselves together to, “unite”, but we’re all our soul-mate’s lock and pick. Our rights fade through the rites of marriage. I once loved marriage’s ideology, but trust has betrayed me.

Are we uptight or can love exist without marriage? What drives the bond more than a ring or a paper? We materialize our emotion, but we’re all a lock and key, and we choose to celebrate as we try to arise from the graveyard’s ashes



Sheriff’s Note: Please do not continue to post enough personal details to appear as identifying information about yourself or others. While you may have changed names, there is no way for me to tell so I’m having to remove them since this is a public forum that is highly easy to access. Your posts may have to be removed if they continue to have so much personal detail.

[Guest jlgoff]

Sorry it’s so short, I tried to put in all 10 of my most prized written-works, but I put in my top two…

[emmaki]

Please, do go on. Or rather, don’t. You seem to have a rather poor grasp of people with developmental issues and their needs. If this is one of your top 10 written pieces… and believe me, I know a lot more about the issue than you do. Also what him above said. Did you write this for a high school essay? Because there’s no exposition and it’s rambling and anecdotal at best.

By the way: deaf people are not “often” developmentally challenged. Linguistically for sure, since ASL/BSL/other SLs utilize a different grammatical structure and typically have a smaller vocabulary–throw in a bit of mainstream indifference due to cuts and baby, you’ve got a stew goin’. It’s no different that someone learning ESL having issues with, say, prepositions and so on. It takes time to learn, which takes resources. Granted, some people are deaf due to disease (meningitis, lack of oxygen at birth, unfortunate genetic inheritance like Ushers etc). I could go on. I’m (genetically) deaf, and that’s my goddamn resource. Learn to format and ramble less.

[Guest jlgoff]

You know what?! This was a college essay, and the kid died from his developmental issues because of a heart attack. I can speak ASL, so if you want to attack me, at-least know that I was talking about my best friend and the struggles I’ve had becoming friends with him. He couldn’t even could to 3, but I taught him to read. There are no grammatical errors, I’ve had 10 people read through this and tell me it’s fine. I’m developmentally disabled – how dare you attack me by accusing me of saying bad things about them. This was talking about forming a bond with another human being when I had challenges accepting people. If you’re going to challenge someone, actually get to know them first…

[Guest jlgoff]

I happened to get an A+ after interviewing his mom in front of my teacher in English 101, so actually know where I’m coming from before attacking me. This particular event happened to be over 6 or 7 years ago, and my friend Sean died on 5/28/2014, and I published this because I’m still not over him, so please, if you have any kindness in your heart just don’t judge my words – you have no clue what it has actually been through in the process. I think it’s decent, and I chose this essay as my lesser half of my writing.

[fonthaunt]

Hello Mr. Goff. Please don’t take commentary here with too much emotional commitment. No one is attacking you. They may attack your point of view, your technique, your story, whatever, but not you. First, you have to realize you are posting on a forum full of freelancers from all over the world, selling every kind of product you can imagine. Second, this is primarily a platform to use whatever skills you have to make money, flat out. If sellers are hard on you here, buyers will often be 10X worse. Buyers here tend to want fantastic written content in 24-48 hours or less and they also want you to modify it to their personal needs, preferably for free. (What they want doesn’t always matter, but you have to tell them what you can offer.)

Buyers here also want to buy writing they can make money from in turn, so they want website content, short blog pieces or articles for a few bucks and they want keyword-rich information. They don’t care if you are Hemingway, King, or Steele. Some want longer pieces - e-books - and then they want non-fiction with information that is research-rich and they’d like to buy an entire book for $10-20. If you can format that content for a particular e-reader they might pay a couple of bucks extra. Fiction is rarely requested but some sellers do well with it. If you aren’t very, very clear with buyers they will also expect the book to come with an e-cover image, a TOC and index.

This may not be the type of writing market you were expecting. It’s rarely for the literary conscious. Degrees and awards count only if it’s extra proof that you can write in high quality native English. The forum is a great place to post ideas, questions and add comments. What you see here, though, will reflect the type of freelance site this is.

[Guest jlgoff]

Thank you.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @jlgoff: 🙂

[thecreativeguys]

Reply to @jlgoff: Why why? Simply post the rest as a comment, I will check back later…

[thecreativeguys]

Reply to @jlgoff: Very meaningful to me.

[thecreativeguys]

Reply to @jlgoff: Please don’t fuss or fret, there are times when one has struggles. I’ve encountered many times I had troubles, we all have a hard point in life we must get through. My greatest teacher died in front of me (not-literally) and I was very upset. I wasn’t able to get back to my daily routine. His sweet voice which I cherished still echoes in my mind every single day. I never thought that someone at a young age (45-55) was able to simply DIE. He died without warning, he was fully well until his very last moment on earth.

Whenever I hear of a tragic story just like yours, I remember the hardships I’ve endured throughout my life. There are those who don’t understand certain situations to the fullest since they haven’t went through similar incidents.

One should never be mad at another for not understanding him as you may have wanted him to. I have never had troubling thoughts against another man on the spoon of my anger.

I am writing this to you, since I see the pain you still encounter, the pain which is still there and hasn’t gone away.

Congratulations on your success and I understand that you may be a little anguished.
There is a world out there for you to enjoy and for you to explore. Go for it. In the middle grasp the fresh colorful flowers and smell beautiful smells that exist and through this, may you get back to yourself just as you were in the beginning.

My guidance is just the start to your quest of a complete happy ending.

May you finish reading this with a huge continuous smile on your glowing face, thinking about the fresh blue skies that are above us during the day and the endless dark blue sky with endless galaxies at night.

Then you can return.

And be happy.

Always.

Personally,

J.T.C.G