All American children deserve an education. It's not that "little guy's" fault that he was born with an IQ of 40. He's a human being. If special ed teachers were able to teach these students adequately, then parents would not have pushed for mainstreaming them. At least when they are mainstreamed they are visible and people have to pay attention to them - they are not just "baby sat" for 6 hours until they go home. Unfortunately, this is disruptive for the other kids in the class. And if you want to carry the argument further, "normal" IQ kids slow down and are disruptive to high IQ kids who are forced to share a class with them. In addition to piling more homework on high IQ kids teachers commonly use them as unpaid laborers tutoring the normal IQ kids in math or science right there in the classroom, instead of devising lesson plans that meet the needs of all the kids in the class.
We agree on the right for an education. It's just that the education for someone with an IQ of 40 will look different from that of someone with an IQ of 140.
Sounds good on paper but try formulating lesson plans every day that target kids from 3rd to 9th+ grade level math (it is a 6th grade class).
Top it off with the fact that no special ed inclusion teacher ever visits the classroom and most classes have 26+ students. Oh, the classes are 50 minutes and the support from the administration is not there..that is no support with behavior issues at all.
Now, unfortunately, my district is moving to full inclusion which means that all of the students that are served in resource classes (small groups with a trained sp. ed teacher) will be in the regular classroom. So, going from a small group situation with a trained sp ed teacher to a large group with all students higher level and less personal attention. Smaller chance of building their confidence and having them experience success. Not only that, the time that I will get to spend with these students will be minimal since most classes have another 20+ kids that don't have a clue what is going on as well.
Teachers get a lot of crap here on free republic but honestly, most teachers that I know are busting their butt trying to do their job and do it well. The expectations in many cases are unreasonable (teaching 6 different levels successfully in a 50 minute math class, for example) and the level of support that teachers get from administration is sometimes lacking.
At my school another problem is that many of the parents are not well educated and are passing their educational values onto their children - which where I teach translates to unmotivated and uncaring kids...don't care about grades, failing, doing any homework...it is video games and TV, including many R rated movies.
I take responsibility for the things that I can fix and change in my classroom..however, lots of the problems in public education are out of the teachers control.
Not only are the normal students being cheated, so are the special ed and the gifted students. And, I might add, so are the teachers because most times, no matter what they do they can't win.