Why Special Education??

Special education in public schools is a fairly new thing. Sounds strange huh? However, it is both a very true and scary facts.  It wasn't that long ago that special education students were turned away from public schools and sent away to "special schools that could better serve their needs". Many people forget that the horror stories of Danvers State Hospital were not that far in the past of our states history. 

So why special education now? Why is special education become part of the general educators life? It is a true and unavoidable fact that even if you are not studying to become a special education teacher, you need to have some background knowledge about how to work with these students. No matter where you teach or what grade you end up in, public school teacher's realities are that they will find students in their classrooms that will be on IEPs and 504s.  These teachers will be required to modify for these student and make accommodations for them.  It is important that as country, state, city, and school community we can support and guide these students to success. Better supporting ours students helps not only the individual students but our society as a whole move forward. 

As important as special education is, it is also a challenge. It is an ever changing and ever difficult challenge to meet the needs of all of our learners and future learners. To be frank it is a scary idea standing in front of new teachers in the field. How does one teacher challenger his or her gifted and talented students and met all the needs of all the special needs students from across the spectrum of learning abilities? Hopefully with continued education, training, understanding, and flexibility this a challenge all teachers will be able to meet!