IDEA birthday
By jmittler on Jan. 16, 2006.
On 29 November 2005 we marked the 30th anniversary of IDEA. Most of us are probably too young to recall life before IDEA (or perhaps too old to remember). With all its flaws and problems, perhaps we should take a moment and in our own way remind out colleagues, students, and others of what it means to have a law that guarantees an education to all children, no matter what their disability. I like to note that we had compulsory education laws in this country in the 1850s but it took another 100+ years to include children with disabilities.
While we special educators continue to fight among ourselves as well as with those in power, it’s also not a bad time to thank those that made it all possible. I’ll start with Fred Weintraub and Ed Martin. Thanks, guys.
Who else deserves a good hug?
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3 Responses to “IDEA birthday”
I nominate Joe Ballard for his contributions to getting PL 94-142 written and passed.
At a ceremony for Fred Weintraub that was held in Salt Lake City in the 90s when Fred left CEC, I took a whole roll of photos of those three guys standing together, but I had the mis-inserted the film in the camera. They are photos that I wish I had.
By JohnL on Jan 16, 2006
Who else deserves a hug? People like my mother, who started teaching kids with all types of disabilities back in the 60s in Pittsylvania County, VA as a “visiting teacher” - she went into kids’ homes and taught them there. No one told her how, or what, and since she was trained as a primary grades teacher, she taught them how to read and write and do math - or at least the skills that would lead to that. Later, even before the passage of PL 94-142 she was teaching special education in Indianapolis Public Schools in a separate school, where she stayed through the passage of the law, learning to develop ieps along with those of us coming out of college in those early years… I don’t know that she saw her job any differently before or after the passage of the law, or even if she saw it any differently whether she was teaching teenagers with significant cognitive disabilities in a vocational setting or “typical” first and second-graders in a classroom…
or probably teaching me any of the things she taught me (how to do laundry, cook, drive, etc.). She just understands the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, and relationships.
Fortunately, I was able to give her a hug this past weekend.
Nancy Mamlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Special Education
Department of Language, Reading, & Exceptionalities PO Box 32085 Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608
By NMamlin on Jan 16, 2006
I have wanted to post to this celebration but needed time in my mind to put it all together. So I will start by thanking all of you spedpros for your dedication to children with special needs. I also want to celebrate the human spirit of people with disabilities and how their lives have touched so many and the amazing spirit of parents who have ensured we always move forward in our field.
With that said my perspective I think is unique growing up in the middle with numerous “life” examples of the impact of PL 94-142. I am only about 10 years older than the law (nicer than saying over 40). But have lived 94-142 throughout my lifetime. From birth I watched my uncle in a small town of only 150 people be discounted by the education system at age 6 when my grandmother was told he was “too dumb to learn” and he was forced to stay home with her. Amazingly he learned to drive and his life consisted of getting everyone to wait on him and driving around in the country hunting all day. I applaud my grandmother who made life for him meaningful and probably more fun than the rat race most of us life in today.
At the age of 8 my brother contracted a rare and supposedly fatal brain disease (a rare form of encephalitis) that caused him to go from being a straight A student in 1973 to being so violent and disabled that he was no longer allowed to attend public school. In 1973 in my community if he could not stay home with my parents the only other option was an institution. I watched my perfectly normal brother go from a public school to a place that today still haunts me when I think of the conditions and how low or at times there were no expectations of him in the institution. Nine months into a supposedly 12 month fatal illness he contracted the flu with a very high fever and I witnessed him slowly return to a level of being able to function and live. I witnessed my parents fight a system (that did not exist in 1974 in my small community) to allow my brother to come back into school with hopes of him someday having enough social skills (academics were not even considered an option by all the experts) that he could be at least a member of our community and perhaps have more skills than my uncle. To the power of parents and teachers working together (without a law) my brother today is married, has 3 beautiful children and is the associate director of finance in the city of Phoenix.
To 22 years ago when I met my husband and met his oldest sister who is now 50 whose disability would probably be classified in the moderate range who benefited from the beginning of our field by being educated in a special education setting where she met her husband in special education. Today her and her husband have been married for over 25 years, both are fully employed, live independently and are probably the happiest married couple I have ever met. Simply because of the power of teachers and parents working together.
To my most recent and wonderful blessing (and struggle) in that our son 3 years ago was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. He is an amazing child who was the 10th best gymnast in the State of Florida yet who was told he was not worthy to go on to the next grade level because of a state test in Florida (we mandate retention in 3rd grade). To a child who has written a book (which if he does not make regionals he will be presenting at CEC this year) called “I have Tourette’s so What’s Your Problem” to a world that still says if you cannot read print like everyone else you must be viewed as failing in a place called school. To the marriage of 2 laws NCLB and IDEA that my husband and I both celebrate and fear, as to how they will shape or hurt the future of children with special needs. We celebrate that a continuum of services exists to help our child and that schools care that he is educated to the maximum extent possible like his peers (that we are not told he “cannot learn and to take him home”). To fearing a law that still looks at times at a label meaning placement and that all children must learn the same thing in the same way as everyone else.
We hope and dream for the next 30 years that IDEA represents a world where parents are always considered the expert in a child’s life. Where children who have neurological issues are celebrated for what they can do and no longer punished for having eyes or ears that appear to work but brains that cannot get the message across. To an era where children with reading issues are treated and given the same access and accommodations as would be expected for a child who needs a wheelchair who has a spinal cord injury. Where a medical profession and educators start to realize that if learning or teaching is boring that giving a child medication to help them pay attention does not change that the classroom is still boring. To a world where we truly focus on the strengths of the child and celebrate their strengths instead of creating a world that looks at what is broken and expects the child/family to fix it instead of teaching to a child’s strength.
Thank you to all of you who have helped to found this field and to ensure there are a range of services for children and their families. I have witnessed the important work many of you have created over your lifetime and from so many perspectives I appreciate it. I also am privileged to get to hopefully spend the next 30 or more years of my life continuing to build, shape and most importantly always focusing on the child to continue this important work our field has started.
Lisa Dieker –University of Central Florida - Orlando
By ldieker on Jan 17, 2006