The past few days I read the children's book Al Capone Does My Shirts for me TE 448 class, the second level of a children's literature class. This book was very interesting as it dealt with the main character, Moose, and his sister Natalie, who in today's world would be diagnosed with autism. However, the book was set in the 1930's, so there was no diagnosis for her at the time. Her mother treated her as if she could be "cured," and did not accept her for who she really was as an individual. She had some remarkable talents, mainly in math as she could do multiplication problems in her head very easily, counted extremely fast, and had a great memory when it came to numbers. However, her mom wanted her to be a normal part of society and would stop at nothing until she got her into a school that could help her. Only in the end does Moose help her realize that she needs to do what is best for Natalie as her own individual, and to stop trying to make her into something that she is not.
I bring this up because special education is something that I feel very strongly about, especially in the school systems. In my second grade classroom at Bingham Elementary, over half of the students are below level, some needing special services. However, I wonder if the faculty is fully taking advantage of their strengths. They are always trying to teach these children things such as reading, math, etc, which is of course understandable as it is essential for the development. I wonder, though, if there is a better way to reach out to these kids in order to peak their interest in the material, maybe somehow relate the information to their backgrounds, or just in any way that could help them become more motivated in what they are learning. It could be as simple as finding the right children's book for some of the students. The teacher in the classroom has too many kids to really make an effort at this, and does an excellent job teaching his students in the first place. But his objective is to get them up to level by the time the year is over, which just makes me wonder if there is an easier way to get this done...
I bring this up because special education is something that I feel very strongly about, especially in the school systems. In my second grade classroom at Bingham Elementary, over half of the students are below level, some needing special services. However, I wonder if the faculty is fully taking advantage of their strengths. They are always trying to teach these children things such as reading, math, etc, which is of course understandable as it is essential for the development. I wonder, though, if there is a better way to reach out to these kids in order to peak their interest in the material, maybe somehow relate the information to their backgrounds, or just in any way that could help them become more motivated in what they are learning. It could be as simple as finding the right children's book for some of the students. The teacher in the classroom has too many kids to really make an effort at this, and does an excellent job teaching his students in the first place. But his objective is to get them up to level by the time the year is over, which just makes me wonder if there is an easier way to get this done...
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