What is the goal of integrating mentally retarded people in normal schools?

intestlol said:
I don't really believe that mentally retarded people even need an education because mentally retarded people are probably just going to grow up mopping the floors in a a restraunt and nothing more. So why even waste money on giving them an education? If the parents want to pay for the retarded kid to go to some private school for special needs kids then sure that's fine. But they should not be let into public schools. All they do is cause distractions.
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Yeah? My cousin was in an accident as a child. He was diagnosed with mental retardation. He went to school anyways, struggled. But he caught up, could speak properly again, worked hard in school. He graduated. Ended up working his butt off. Bought a sports car. And now? He is a police officer, graduated at the top of his class, has a beautiful fiance, has traveled and meet many famous people. I wonder how his life would have turned out if everyone would have thought like you.

Tell that to Chris Burke, Stevie Wonder, Stephen Hawkin, Dwight Mackinto, Jim Eisenreich, even Bruce Willis. Anyone with any form of a disability should be allowed to have the right to an education.
 
Yellow Jacket said:
Yeah? My cousin was in an accident as a child. He was diagnosed with mental retardation. He went to school anyways, struggled. But he caught up, could speak properly again, worked hard in school. He graduated. Ended up working his butt off. Bought a sports car. And now? He is a police officer, graduated at the top of his class, has a beautiful fiance, has traveled and meet many famous people. I wonder how his life would have turned out if everyone would have thought like you.

Tell that to Chris Burke, Stevie Wonder, Stephen Hawkin, Dwight Mackinto, Jim Eisenreich, even Bruce Willis. Anyone with any form of a disability should be allowed to have the right to an education.
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Ya that's good. Many people who are mentally retarded aren't smart in some subjects, but way smarted in other subjects that other people wouldn't be very good at. Some mentally retarded people are very smart but just can't be well socially. But I'm talking about mentally retarded people who just have no hope, and that have the worst case of mental retardation, and that have been tested to not be able to ever recover or catch up to people. I think that the ones that are completely hopeless and have the most severe cases shouldn't have to go to school because all in all, they might not even learn there. Some mentally retarded people are so severe they can't even think. But mentally retarded people who have hope and that could recover should be more then welcome. I know people who were once retarded who recovered from it and are successful today. I have ADD and my goal for after finishing school is to become either a cop or part of the US Marshals.
 
I recently decided to do some research of my own and with my mom's help we came upon this old yet still thought provoking post from Saven regarding integrating mentally retarded children into 'normal' schools. At the risk of reopening an old argument, I have to side with Saven and am interested in discussing this issue further. I have been employed in an elementary school for several months and work one on one with severely emotionally disturbed and delayed children. Many (okay, most if truth be told) of them have what we refer to as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personalities. Although they are not 'mentally retarded' or severely disfigured, they are still frightening to the other students, classmates, and personnel. They are extremely unpredictable, manipulative, and increasingly strong with a surge of adrenaline. Although I love my job and the children I work with, my co-workers and I lament that they really do not belong in a mainstream setting. They are a danger to themselves and others, have caused serious damage and bodily harm to adults, and will continue to do so in such a setting. They are not learning properly regardless of the fact that they are in a special education classroom because their disabilities far outweigh their abilities to concentrate, comprehend, and apply what they have been taught. Some lessons must be repeated over and over again and may still never sink in. Some of the worst offenders are very smart and could even function in a regular ed. setting if not for their psychopathic and sociopathic personalities. As a new educator I find myself interested in becoming an advocate for these children, as well as those affected by their behaviors and personalities. The 'No Child Left Behind Act' is beyond ridiculous and is not beneficial to anyone in this instance. Many of our students are on an endless path of destruction and will probably spend their lives behind bars if something is not done immediately. They need structure, guidance, discipline, and affection and there is only so much we as educators can do in the six short hours we spend with these children daily. They are then returned to their dysfunctional home lives where they are ignored, abused, and neglected. Our school is nothing but a drop off point between home and prison or a mental institution. We are located in a very impoverished community and these kids come from nothing and return to nothing every afternoon. Many of them look forward to coming to school because they receive two meals a day and more affection and attention than they may have received in a very long time. However, there has to be somewhere else we can send them that will be more beneficial to them as well as the other students that they are bullying and frightening every day. They hate going home at the end of the day but still fly into emotional outrages when they return the following day. Because there is nowhere else for them to go they spend the majority of their time isolated from others or being restrained so as not to harm themselves or others. We as educators are not trained wardens or prison guards but practice what little we have been taught through brief training sessions almost daily. Something drastic must be done to rectify this situation and it must be done immediately!
 
Mrs.Lucysnow said:
Well first of all you assume that the family thinks this will fix the disability and I doubt that, the child may be there because there is no other place for them to go. I mean the child must still be able to learn for it to be in a normal classroom setting right? Children who are deemed slow or are unable to keep up are usually placed in a classroom with less students who also have problems learning so they can have more individual tutoring as opposed to keeping the whole classroom back. What exactly is the disability do you know? I don't think one child should be a distraction for an entire class. Kids who constantly disturb an entire class are often removed and put into classrooms that deal with the behaviour problems in little thugs. If the child can learn but has a physical problems and some slight behavioural problems then these issues can be dealt with without taking them out of the class. If the child cannot keep up and is simply a disruption then the child should be removed and placed with kids with special needs.

I know a woman who adopted a Cambodian child who turned out to have a lot of problems, learning disability in terms of memory, reading and writing, in addition to severe ADD. It was concluded that the mother had probably used drugs and alcohol and damaged the fetus. These signs didn't show up of course until the child was a little older (she's now 4 or 5). She was unable to attend school until they had dealt with the behaviour problems so they put her on medication, it worked and she is calm now and displays normal behaviour for her age but she still wasn't ready for school. They kept her home and have a private tutor who uses less than traditional means of teaching her to read and write etc, it worked. Now surprisingly she is ready for school.
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The voice of reason. Good comments since it mentions why everybody is going to school. Everybody getting the help they need to be successful. It's called teaching.
 
Enmos said:
:bawl:
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@Enmos; No, that function (mods at SciForums) is apparently going to be taken over mostly by AI. Don't balk; the ones here already are pretty good at it.

Here's the real problem with excluding or segregating challenged children from normal or high achieving ones:

Children who are blind at birth have no idea that they are blind. Furthermore, a child raised in a community segregated from those less fortunate or gifted are more apt to be callous about the needs of the rest of society. For the most part, this would be a bad thing.

And by the same token, the rest of us have as little idea about exactly what "normal" is supposed to be. A society that bases ideas about intelligence on intelligence tests will eventually have a population where most people can pass an intelligence test. If you really think that's what society needs, you need to read the late Stephen Jay Gould's 'Mismeasure of Man'.

As a member of American mensa (passed their test and joined at age 49), I can tell you that these people (including myself) have some of the worst social adjustment problems anyone could be afflicted with. Depression, particularly after completing projects, is also debilitating for them. I would not want a society where everyone was like this, or even on in which 99% of the people are alike in the way they think, act, or deal with problems. Diversity is there for a good reason.
 
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