So I haven’t joined in the Madhouse in a long while…life happens. Today’s topic was on High School Rank’s and such but I figured I am pretty steamed and even disillusioned by the public school system when it comes to Derek and it really did fit.
Derek is smart, there is absolutely no question about it. He could not hear but learned to speak by reading lips and his vocabulary exceeded his age, he just had a lisp. When we found out he needed hearing aids I was devastated for a million reasons but I thought that the school system would see how intelligent he was and work hard to get him up to speed and meet his educational potential…HA! how wrong I was!
Over the weekend I attended an meeting on IEPs (Individual Education Plan.) I brought all of my paperwork with me in hopes that I would be able to pat myself on the back seeing I advocated well. We got about an hour into the seminar and I was in tears and felt like a complete failure to Derrek. His special accommodation “Provide written instruction,” he is in Kindergarten and can’t even read! I asked repeatedly for an FM system and let myself be talked out of it, then I heard what an FM system can do and lost it. Here is a link to show you what it sounds like with hearing aids in a classroom then using old Fm Technology and the new Dynamic technology (which Derek’s school had purchased.) http://www.phonak.com/com_professional_fm_shools_phonak_english.swf
I can see this benefiting Derek in his education even at a Kindergarten Level. I know he could hear his speech pathologist better with this type of technology and yet I have to prove how it will help him!?! How can I prove a darn thing if they won’t let him use it. If I had several thousands of dollars I would buy a system myself to use at home as well.
Had Derek never lost his hearing I am sure that he would be reaching his full potential and reading already. I also learned that children with hearing impairment are typically lower level readers due to their lower vocabulary but their texts in school continue to expand and teach new words and hearing impaired children often get left behind. Once any child reaches an 8th Grade level in reading they are no longer assisted because they can perform “normally” in society with a reading level that low. Arizona already has the lowest testing schools in the country, we have the lowest funded schools in the country as well and then we have the throw the kids under the bus attitude to top it off. No wonder we can’t Rank even in the middle of the road in this country. As the economy continues to decline, sorry economists I will disagree with you on this, education budgets in our state are the first to be sacrificed as well many of the “special programs” for children and the disabled. I am beyond frustrated with all of this and I will have to really dig my heels in and fight for him some more against people and a system that is supposed help him and all children.
Madhouse again, and hopefully some of the other posters have happier, or at least less bitter, high school stories…
* JMLC
* Baino
* Heather
* Be This Way
* Alli
* Aitara
* Fraught
* Heather
* LeeAnne
* Kate
* Patty
