Chandra I agree, I agree, I agree! But I want to add another prlebom if your scenario were to become reality we'd have to completely redesign K-12 education to make use of these cosmopolitan teachers. I can't imagine someone with the characteristics, experience, and knowledge set you describe teaching in the classrooms I taught in as a secondary school English teacher (and staying there).That's my challenge to you in response. If we were to have teacher education that looked like what you describe in the post, what would that mean K-12 schools and classrooms would need to look like?Amy

Weiche Nichole Dobo, Thank you for the clarification to the effcet this insidiously privacy-invasive FACEBOOK monopoly is a corporate fiat forced upon the local editors and writers by the big bosses in the headquarters of the huge Gannett media conglomerate. How much is the multi-billiionaire sociopath, Marc Zuckerberg, paying them? We only wished THE NEWS JOURNAL editors had disclosed this straightforwardly to readers at the onset, but perhaps they feared retaliation from Gannett. funfun..

Nolver Our district didn't spend miloilns but did spend a ton of money to fight us and then eventually settled. As you so accurately pointed out, in my twins cases there were two very specific incidences where, if the sped director had not been so pig-headed, had not already predetermined all she would provide, had not dug in her heels and drawn lines in the sand (and in these two specific incidences this sped director was NOT following either federal or state laws), had not been so WRONG but so power crazed she couldn't see it, we would not have retained counsel and would not have filed for a DP hearing Actually, if the sped director/district had made ANY attempt to do right by my girls, we also would not have finally fought to outplace them. So, in the end, the district fought for awhile then settled not a very economical way to run a business if you ask me

Meysha Having once represented a sntuedt and his parent who were being villified by a school board, I do not envy what you do and what you face to right a tremendous wrong.While power is an issue, become a special education educator is also considered a good career choice' for those who want to go into education. But does that mean those who are making this good career choice' have the compassion, the patience, the fortitude and the moral fiber to handle both the children and the administrators as they need to be handled. Sometimes it's not power. Sometimes it's ignorance of what is involved that renders these teachers ineffective and harmful. Now put them under the guidance of a power-mongering administrator who manipulates the system?It's not pretty.

Ciencias Thank you so much for this article. We've been havnig problems getting our school to accept that my son has been diagnoised with Asperger's, a form of Autism. I presented with the doctor's notes and diagnoises thinking that everything would be better. I couldn't even get an ARD meeting. I've had to take care of all of my sons therapy and get my own training to be able to help him, myself and his teachers and I'm a single mom. No one was willing to tell me what was even available to my son to meet his needs. Thank you so much.Penny Webb

Sanju In the interest of saivng space (and not misplacing those important documents), I either scan and save, or copy paste (emails) all to disk. It can be time consuming at first if you're a few years into receiving services, but well worth it in the long run (and much easier once you're caught up and do it consistently). I've managed to consolidate ten years worth of educational documents and emails down to two DVD's worth of data, and one 8gb flash drive for back up rather than the three file boxes worth that were competing with my shoes in the closet. Just my tip for parents out there in this situation!

Sumit One of the first things I lenraed in my quest to be a better advocate for my children was advice from Pete Wright's website to start a 3 ring binder and save everything. Seriously. This was one of the first things I did, way back when my oldest daughter (now a freshman) was in first grade, was to begin a binder. None of my kids had yet been identified but I knew it was just a matter of time Last year, my documentation was a critical piece to prompt the LEA to settle after we'd filed for a due process hearing. The district's position began to crumble when their attorney insisted that the school staff claimed I'd revoked consent for the school to have any contact with my child's mental health professional. In fact, I'd sent written communication to the school (which I saved) and written communication to the doctor that they could communicate by phone ONLY if I was included in the call and could communicate in writing ONLY if I was cc'd on all communication. I had not revoked consent at all. After that, it was downhill for the district when everything they insisted was true was promptly verified, in THEIR documentation, as being untrue.So, you're right on the money and your advice is critical to all parents of students with disabilities. Save everything, it might be important one day. P.S. Question for you, Jen: I've begun to scan and keep all my documentation in electronic format (hoping to reduce the glut of papers in my house). Is it worth doing this or is the original hard copy all that counts?

Kliwon @ 11:00 pmDavid . . .You know my background, and how in my poitosin I was obviously (and in more than one way) involved in teaching both children and adults.The old saw reading and writing and (a)rithmetic, is necessary. Those are highly structured and necessary for any measure of success in life. There is nothing liberal in those disciplines learn them or lose.The other discipline necessary and needed as much would be logic (I would, in biased fashion, include the theo version), something sorely lacking and often substituted for with emotions, which may carry one for a certain distance in life, but can never ring completely true.Having just read and I look at education and wish that someone had had introduced me to the Abolition of Man in high school, so that by the time I got to college and Sem, my thinking process might have been more able to absorb knowledge and less fluff and stuff.My two cents worth.