[lbo-talk] Confessions of a bad teacher

[Chuck Grimes]

> [WS:] Actually, they make a distinction between learning disability
> (e.g. Down syndrome) and emotional disability (e.g. AS or autism.)
>>From what I hear from my wife, the latter are much harder cases to
> work with, especially that behavioral problems are often coded as
> "emotional disabilities."  Public schools, especially those in
> wealthier neighborhoods, often do this to get rid of disruptive
> students whom they cannot legally expel.

I was TA a very long time ago, early 60s before there were any regulations 
(ADA) and the general field was in a quasi-experimental phase of sorting out 
kids.


>My wife works in an ED
> program in a low income school (by choice, since she prefers not to
> deal with rich people who feel entitled) and says that most of her
> students' problems originate in their households and communities
> (usually some kind of abuse or neglect), but a typical school response
> to those problems is "more discipline."  Teachers who try a
> non-confrontational, non-disciplinarian approach with "problem kids"
> are often seen as wimps by their peers and administrators, and often
> can result in negative evaluations.

The wimp approach worked for me. What it really means is non-reactive. Don't 
get embroiled in the anger or nastiness or whatever. There was still 
discipline, but of a passive sort, like sitting in a special 
chair...equivalent to a `time out'. The kids I was dealing with were 9, 10, 
maybe 11. They were approximately 2an and 3rd grade at best.

CG