November 29, 2011

Today I completed my UT essays because the deadline is on the 1st when I thought it was in January. I worked on my thesis over the break, and I was able to come up with an actual plan, which involves the replacement of Special Education with Educational Supplements. This way, wide ranging edUcational needs can be met for all students in an integrated setting in a more cost effective way. This means that my former outline is going away though I will still use what I have currently written. I spoke with several students about my plan because explaining it to someone else helps me order my ideas, and I was surprised at the attitudes they exhibited, indicating that impaired students should suffer a limited education because they take a lot of effort to educate and would slow down the other students, and that they would feel less isolated at special schools if they were impaired. I hope that these views aren't pervasive throughout TAG, and part of me doesn't want to find out, but another part does want to know, and conversing with people who oppose my plan . prepare me for the opposition it may face during the promotion process. My research has uncovered various studies that indicate however, that many learning adaptations made for students with impairments actually benefit the class as a whole. Additionally, these studies show that the motivation to belong to a group helps students with severe impairments excel and retain information obtained from an included class much better than they would in a Special Education class.