Snowing on Your Parade

It's been a couple of days since last I was here. It's been pretty busy with work, jury duty, and Saturday errands. It has been a pretty nasty day in Streeterville out there, 30 degrees and snowy at the Mini. Still no word on the wind chill factor. No soft snow, silent snow this one. We're talking about a hard snow, a loud snow. A howling, pelting, in your face kind of snow. We're talking about a reminder that it's January in Chicago, right on the lakefront, kind of snow. We're talking about a "Maybe I should have stayed indoors and read," kind of snow. We're talking about a "Maybe I should have taken that job in Miami for a lot less money," kind of snow. We're talking about a snow that evokes W.C. Fields movies in which he advises us, "Not a fit night out for man nor beast." That's the kind of snow we're talking about today.

I sat in on an IEP conference the other day. For those of you who don't know, IEP stands for Individual Education Plan. They are for special needs students who need accommodations in the classroom. They have some learning disability. These conferences are attended by regular education teachers, special education teachers, counselors, administrators, psychologists, social workers, students, parents, and case managers. At this particular one there was a case manager, a special education teacher, an Assistant Principal, the student, and myself, no parent in sight.

The student in question reads at a grade level several years below the grade she is currently in. She has difficulty in English and Social Science classes because they are reading intensive. Yet, when reading the details from past IEP's it was brought to light that the student plans on going to college and eventually law school. Who has allowed this poor deluded child to continue into high school thinking that this is possible for her? The law profession is one that requires excellent reading and writing skills and a diligence I have never seen from her.

I had a conversation with a member of the Special Education Department about this and received a shrug and this statement, "We have to be politically correct and allow this if that is what she says she wants to do. There are repercussions otherwise." I am the last person alive who wishes to step on a child's dream. I also realize that there are some students who blossom later, but there are students who have the ability to make their dreams happen and there are those who should be counseled honestly and steered in another direction. Otherwise they are in for a big shock.

I have seen a number of students who graduated from Chicago Public Schools and went on to enroll in one of the city colleges. The students took placement exams and when it became apparent that they could not read or write at level, they were enrolled in remedial, non-credit classes. On many occasions, these students did poorly or failed these remedial classes, still had to pay tuition, never got any credit toward graduation, eventually got frustrated and angry, and dropped out. Each and every one of these students would have been better served by being counseled toward some vocational education. They would have been better served by helping them try to achieve realistic goals.

I know that this goes against the grain of American thought. The mantra in schools of education today and in public schools across the country is "All children can learn." People want to believe that every child can, with the right approach and methodology be successful and attend college. This is a big lie. Anyone who teaches in a classroom knows better. Every child is different. Every child has individual abilities and learns at their own rate. Some children learn faster than others. Some children have greater innate ability and can learn more than others. That is to say that some children cannot learn as much as others and when the educational system recognizes this, they should not continue to play out the charade that these children can be successful academically and go to college.

The only way that some students can be successful on the college level is if we water down the curriculum so that it actually means nothing. If no one tells students of limited ability that they should think about some profession that will not need academic skills, the student continues to believe they can be successful and eventually have their egos crushed when they fail. They, then, find themselves in the position of having dropped out of college and still not having any saleable skills in the job market. If they had been steered correctly in the first place they would have come out of high school with some saleable skills and perhaps a direction to go for higher training in their chosen vocation. They would then be more successful and productive in the current economy than they would be as a college dropuout.

This brings us to the crux of the matter. Who decides who has academic ability and who doesn't? How do we redesign the public school system? Who has the job of telling some child with limited ability, "I'm sorry but you should really think about vocational training."? No one really wants to be the bad guy, but as adults, as adults whose profession is preparing the youth of America for the future, we have to take on these hard tasks. Otherwise, unemployment and poverty persist, and our prisons continue to fill beyond capacity. There are far too many children being "left behind" because we refuse to admit the individual differences in ability.