Do u like laws called "No Child Left Behind"?

Liza is correct.

"I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet".

It is all up to YOU. If you want to learn, you will find a way.

I went to public high school back in the days when no one ever heard of such a thing as an Interpreter. I had close friends who helped me understand and I often stayed after class to speak with the teachers. I was the only deaf student in the whole school. The ONLY class I had a problem with was Drivers Ed, and the teacher thought that I needed more experience before he passed me. And of course he was right.

For Keyboarding, the teacher taught typing to MUSIC. She was a little perplexed when I showed up -- but not for long. She stood in front of the class with a stick and kept time on her palm with this stick, just for me. I will never forget that kindness, as I use my excellent typing skills on my computer today.
 
It is all up to YOU. If you want to learn, you will find a way.


I went to public high school back in the days when no one ever heard of such a thing as an Interpreter. I had close friends who helped me understand and I often stayed after class to speak with the teachers. I was the only deaf student in the whole school
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Lantana, I love you and I love the perspectives you bring to this forum....
BUT, I don't think very many of the older folks understand HOW HARD it is to get appropreate accomondations in a mainstream educational setting. You practically have to be a disabilty rights lawyer in order to get good accomondations. I'm a geek and love to learn BUT it seems like mainstream teachers aren't interested in providing accomondations.....they just want the fedral money that kids with disabilties provide.......Yes, there are kids who do well with very minimal accomondations.....but there have ALWAYS ALWAYS been kids who thrive under the no/minmal accomondations approach. That doesn't mean that EVERYONE will thrive under such a approach.
It's sort of like the kid who spoke seven languages using the auditory-verbal approach....not everyone will acheive such heights.
 
Wow RJ :)

I thought I was the only one who learned SEE at such a young age, I went to Atlanta Area School for the Deaf and the teachers gave me tests to see where I stood. They told my mother that I had taught myself to read, and I was reading V.C. Andrews when I was 6 years old. I learned really well with SEE, but then again there are only a very few deaf people who actually had benefits from learning SEE. In 3rd grade my reading level was above college level, and when I sit down to think about it... Mom had those SEE books, I don't remember for the life of me what they're called now, but they had stories such as Humpty Dumpty etc with signs and words below them. I sat with Mom begging her to read me the stories, and I suppose in my case thats how I learned so fast.

I need to bear in mind the majority of deaf people are very very visual and ASL benefits them a whole deal more. Now that I am 24 and in Alabama, it's so different for me here because alot more people I meet here use ASL and I'm trying to convert myself to ASL and let me tell you boy, it's hard. I used CASE from 12-23 and now I'm trying to change to ASL but when I try to paint a picture in my brain and convert it to ASL I get Hemingway's writer block :(

As for the No Child Left Behind law I think it's outright idiotic because there are some deaf children who need one on one individual education (which is why there's deaf classes in mainstream school? :-P) and to tell them to go to the hearing classes just loses them even more. I remember when I was 7 and Mom put me in a public school, I hated the school, I hated the deaf programs, I just hated all of it because I couldn't communicate with the person next to me in the hearing classes. Eventually I got transferred to Gwinnett Public School System and graduated from that system. I'll never forget when I entered the new school in Gwinnett and the teacher gave us clifford books in the 3rd grade and I was mortified. I pulled out my VC Andrews book and the teacher called Mom saying I was bringing lewd material into school. Mom told the teacher I was way beyond Clifford. The teacher told mom that she didnt want me to hurt the other deaf children's feelings. The next day I was in a 5th grade english hearing class. I was happy that I finally read challenging books, but I just wish there was a deaf school that could've fit my education needs back then :(

The more deaf kids that are mainstreamed, the lower the quality of education in the deaf schools are. Will it ever improve?

Wow... I've typed enough ....
 
mainstreamed schools are better than any state schools for the deaf, and mom went to ASD and she said that I don't fit there, because they only teach ASL and they still don't teach English. i am not trying to say that ASL is bad but most of colleges including NTID require English in order to prepare for employment. My deaf friend said that Gally's average English skills are very low and she did not fit there...
 
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From one of TV news(I forget which since I got it via my friend while I was in Sweden)

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 
I learned SEE when I was 3. My Mom started teaching to it as soon as she could.

SEE did help me read, but then again, there are a lot of kids that SEE never helped at all. It's an individual thing, and I was one of those kids who managed to slide by on a mininum of services (interpreter, etc:). But good for my mom, she got me everything I needed, and more, so I did very well.

Idid not learn ASL until I was 16, in deaf school. I hated mainstreamed school because I could not make friends with anyone. I couldn't lipread or speak well enough, so it was really lonely and boring. But my parents couldn't put me in the local deaf school because I was way too advanced. I was even ahead most of the kids in my hearing school!!

It i s really difficult for deafie kids those days. If you are not very smar tand very slow, then there are places for you. But if you are smart or even just average, you ahve to give up a lot of things to get other things. It's not any better today!

It's all very sad!
 
BUT, I don't think very many of the older folks understand HOW HARD it is to get appropreate accomondations in a mainstream educational setting.
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I can’t believe you actually said that, much less BELIEVE it. The “older folks” you refer to were the pioneers who helped establish better accommodations for OUR generation! You should be thanking people like Lantana, rather than sitting here bitching and moaning and not doing a damn thing to improve the educational setting for the next generation. You are damn lucky that we are even ALLOWED in the “mainstream educational setting”, because once upon a time that wasn’t the case.
 
Eve, I DO appreciate it.....However some of the pioneers seem to think that everything is perfect in the mainstream.....Sorry, but the schools are only legally requiered to give you an appropreate education...not nessarly the BEST education. The courts have already ruled that special ed law does not nessarly translate into strict equality for kids with disabilties. And trust me.....most public education is very cookie cutter. All they want is money...
I hated mainstreamed school because I could not make friends with anyone. I couldn't lipread or speak well enough, so it was really lonely and boring.
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Yet another thing that adults seem to have forgotten.....even many of the high achiever types have major social issues in school....and social acceptance can really effect academic achievement......
 
However some of the pioneers seem to think that everything is perfect in the mainstream.....
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Maybe that is because everything IS perfect compared to what they went through.
 
Maybe so........but it's still incredibily tough....No laws can legislate against ingrained attitudes....a lot of kids get lumped into the "LD/dumb slacker" kids camp....and trust me.....that's almost as bad as having to attend a really bad school for the deaf....
 
I wanna update everyone on how my job is going due to NCLB. I had to change about 15 IEPs to put all of my Learning Disabiled kids back in regular classes. Now the only ones who are on my roll are 5 mentally retarded students.
The ones I changed their IEP for still come to my room daily for help because they can't read or dont know how to do work on the 5th and 6th grade level. So I spend most of the morning doing 5 different subjects at the same time with 15 different kids. It is very stressful in the morning and again at last class. We can't put them all together in the same subject at the same time, which would help tremendously if we did! But the state dept of education said not to cuz.. Well, I am not 100% sure of the reason behind it but its stupid. Cuz now all of them are getting behind, including my MR kids cuz I am so busy trying to help the ones in regular classes that I feel like I am not able to teach my own classes.
So now we are gonna try to get peer helpers involved to see if they can work with each other to make better grades without depending on me. I hope that works out.
As for my deaf student, its same thing with her. This NCLB is not good for some deaf kids. She is getting further behind because she cant read on her grade level. My other deaf student is doing well and doesnt need my help. But he's been in all regular classes the previous year anyways. He hasnt been in deaf ed since 2003 or early 2004.
Anyways, I hope this gives some perspective on how this NCLB law affects students and teachers.
 
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