The "Mainstreaming" Experience: "Isolated cases"?

Miss-Delectable

Miss-Delectable

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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuSTda_AeLg&sns=fb]YouTube - The "Mainstreaming" Experience: "Isolated cases"?[/ame]

I agree with what he had to say, although I only were mainstreamed partly at the end of my high school education and then mainstreamed fully at university. All I knew is that I didn't like mainstreaming and wouldn't have fared well if I had been mainstreamed all my life.
 
Excellent video. I wish all of the hearing parents would watch this.
 
I did. And I understood a good portion of what he was signing...(props for me XD) I feel that the next generation is going to be even more 'vocal' about their experiences than past generations. Not only will the technologies make it easier for them, but they are IMO have stronger personalities to make sure they are heard. It's a shame that it's going to be like this, unless we can change it
 
Wonderful video. Daughter watched with me and agrees with what he said.
 
An interesting perspective from a man with a Doctorate, who was educated mainstream all his life.
 
Bottesini said:
An interesting perspective from a man with a Doctorate, who was educated mainstream all his life.
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Yes. He has, however, first hand knowledge of the struggles he had to overcome in order to achieve what he was, obviously, innately capable of achieving. That is why I advocate for a strengths based approach.
 
wow! this video is great! I too, grew up mainstream and have always been one year behind. I'm pretty smart but once I got into high school I noticed how far behind I was and how much information I was missing out on. Going to the deaf school really open my eyes both in social and education. And now I am mainstreaming again but with interpreters and now experiencing that third person three's a crowd feeling so even if I went mainstreaming in high school with interpreters it'd probably be just as difficult. With an interpreter you can't chit chat with another student because they are whispering. A lot of social happens before the interpreter arrives like sitting in a classroom before the class starts or during a break. It's a lot of barriers to deal with. Deaf schools provide a direct social learning and you are treated as equal not as a special ed student.
 
^^ I totally get what you are saying. But the idea of "mainstreaming" is about making sure that students who have dhh or any disability (don't smack me for using that word!) AREN'T treated as a separate class. There's also an argument for making classrooms representatives of the real population as it there's a benefit for 'perfectly abled' students.

Mainstreaming is supposed to address the fact that able-bodied people have a history of treating those that deviate from the norm as "less intelligent", "less human", "second class", etc.

Unfortunately, people who "deviate from the norm" sometimes end up with a crappy education. :/

dhh is such a unique group because we deal with

1) Language and English as a second language
2) A disability (legal terms, people, don't flip) that may be a barrier to success (or rather, barrier to some roads)

and the question is, "how do we make sure people have equal opportunities?"

My professors would kill me, but I'm not an advocate for mainstreaming in all cases because it sometimes fails to address the social needs of a child.
 
Explain what is disability.

What is the real population? Are you saying we're not "real"?

What is perfectly-abled?

What I'm seeing is the implication that those deviate from the norm, in other words, we are "less intelligent", "less human", "second class", etc.? ...You like tossing rubber tires and fuel into the fire, don't you?

Whether it is a legal term or not, its about the framing. And what I'm seeing here is you think we are lesser. Why or how is this?

Finally, what roads is it that we do not have access to?

Now keep this in mind.

I am human. We all are. There is no greater or lesser. We just approach things differently. I suggest you think more carefully and profoundly about what you said and how you will answer.
 
Mister Potts said:
Explain what is disability.

What is the real population? Are you saying we're not "real"?

What is perfectly-abled?

What I'm seeing is the implication that those deviate from the norm, in other words, we are "less intelligent", "less human", "second class", etc.? ...You like tossing rubber tires and fuel into the fire, don't you?

Whether it is a legal term or not, its about the framing. And what I'm seeing here is you think we are lesser. Why or how is this?

Finally, what roads is it that we do not have access to?

Now keep this in mind.

I am human. We all are. There is no greater or lesser. We just approach things differently. I suggest you think more carefully and profoundly about what you said and how you will answer.
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I'm not going to be bullied by you. You need to take what I said in context. A disability is a legal term. If it wasn't, then dhh wouldn't be covered under a whole lot 'o law ! (The workplace, anyone?)

The purpose of mainstreaming in education has been to largely address 1) the shortcomings in special education 2) help ERADICATE the notion that people who have a disability are somehow less intelligent, second class, etc., and all those other things I put IN QUOTES. Separate is not always equal. Since dhh falls under IDEA, that means you have, by legal definition, a disability.

A norm is what is used to define abnormal. Norm simply means most people fall within that population. (Or sociologically speaking, what society largely considers acceptable is a "norm".)

"Standard deviation from the norm" is a statistical term. You know that. Don't twist my words. Having a disability and being disabled are two different things. The second is of the mind.

Finally, the real population is just what I said. The population of the US. If you exclude people with disabilities (of any kind...again...look @ the law) then your classrooms aren't really representative of the population, are they?
 
TheOracle said:
I'm not going to be bullied by you. You need to take what I said in context. A disability is a legal term. If it wasn't, then dhh wouldn't be covered under a whole lot 'o law ! (The workplace, anyone?)

The purpose of mainstreaming in education has been to largely address 1) the shortcomings in special education 2) help ERADICATE the notion that people who have a disability are somehow less intelligent, second class, etc., and all those other things I put IN QUOTES. Separate is not always equal. Since dhh falls under IDEA, that means you have, by legal definition, a disability.

A norm is what is used to define abnormal. Norm simply means most people fall within that population. (Or sociologically speaking, what society largely considers acceptable is a "norm".)

"Standard deviation from the norm" is a statistical term. You know that. Don't twist my words. Having a disability and being disabled are two different things. The second is of the mind.

Finally, the real population is just what I said. The population of the US. If you exclude people with disabilities (of any kind...again...look @ the law) then your classrooms aren't really representative of the population, are they?
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I was mainstreamed so I can be around normal children. It made me feel much more abnormal. When I finally discovered the Deaf community, I felt like a normal human being for the first time. It took 25 years. That is one of the reasons I dont really support mainstreaming for deaf children unless there is a strong deaf/hoh BiBi program at the school and hearing kids are educated about ASL and deaf people.
 
Right. I totally get what you are saying and I wouldn't want my child mainstreamed (if I could help it) if he were dhh. That was my point about dhh being included in Special Ed/IDEA. If you think about it, dhh are the only group that has a legal disability and speaks English as a Second language (traditionally) and (traditionally) has their own culture. So their needs aren't always met.

On the one hand, protecting those who are dhh is a must.

On the other, sometimes those very laws can hurt (like with what we're talking about here).
 
In many cases - the idea of how to mainstream a deaf child was really a legalized form of child abuse and neglect.
 
TheOracle said:
Right. I totally get what you are saying and I wouldn't want my child mainstreamed (if I could help it) if he were dhh. That was my point about dhh being included in Special Ed/IDEA. If you think about it, dhh are the only group that has a legal disability and speaks English as a Second language (traditionally) and (traditionally) has their own culture. So their needs aren't always met.

On the one hand, protecting those who are dhh is a must.

On the other, sometimes those very laws can hurt (like with what we're talking about here).
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My hearing son will be in special ed in kindergarten for Fall cuz of his language processing issues. I am going to watch the school like a hawk to ensure that his needs are met but at the same time, i will listen to the professionals trained in children with language delays because I am not trained in that area of special ed. They said he will be mainstreamed with special ed services 2 times a week. I am nervous.
 
shel90 said:
My hearing son will be in special ed in kindergarten for Fall cuz of his language processing issues. I am going to watch the school like a hawk to ensure that his needs are met but at the same time, i will listen to the professionals trained in children with language delays because I am not trained in that area of special ed. They said he will be mainstreamed with special ed services 2 times a week. I am nervous.
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How old is he? My son seemed to get it all backwards and inside out until the summer of this year. He started kindergarten and turned 6 in December. I was kind of concerned, but not at heightened concern. I talked to a friend of mine, who was speech path, and she pretty much agreed that he's in the range of normal. (ON A SCALE!)

If I had taken him to Child Find for a repeat testing, he may have qualified for free preschool or have been place in special ed kindergarten this year. I held off because I know my son's personality and yup, six years old and he won't shut up...

:)

But since he was speaking late and developed at a slower rate, he seems to have not picked up on reading until this school year. (Makes sense.) Now he's rapidly growing, but at the beginning of the school year he only had pre reading skills.

Teachers make the best helicopter parents IMO. :laugh2:
 
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