Some time back, at least months if not a year ago, I was reading about a school district where they went back to special needs schools and a great write up on one of these schools. Some of these kids have severe behavioral and emotional disorders. Staff appeared to handle these very disturbed kids very ably, humanely, firmly, to good effect. Parents involved and helped to manage kids’ problems at home better and the kids improving. Consistency is key. This is what these kids need.
It was great back when I was a kid and “mainstreaming” meant letting in kids with physical disabilities. Here came Phil in his wheelchair. We all really liked Phil — he was a great kid. He just had paralysed legs. He fit right in and it seemed good for him and good for us. He was fun, intelligent, great sense of humor and totally trustworthy. Looking back, he was mature for his age but still just a Kid Like Us (same as some others in our class who were mature for their age but still just regular kids). He caused no problems whatsoever. All he needed was a table for a desk, not an all-in-one type desk like the rest of us. His Mom made great cupcakes, too.
The kids with severe behavioral and emotional problems need their own special schools. It’s cruel to mainstream them — it does them no favors, and is harmful and and dangerous to the other kids. And staff, of course.
“The kids with severe behavioral and emotional problems need their own special schools.”
Didn’t we use to this decades ago?
Back when we had insane asylums.