Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!wtm
From: ijjt500@INDYCMS.bitnet (Mike Wheeler)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: In my case . . .
Message-ID: <18475@bunker.isc-br.com>
Date: 3 Apr 91 04:42:51 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.isc-br.com
Reply-To: ijjt500@INDYCMS.bitnet (Mike Wheeler)
Lines: 41
Approved: wtm@hcap.fidonet.org
Fidonet: Silent Talk Conference

Index Number: 14602

JAMES,
firstly, in my case, the teachers had very little exposure to the Deaf
not even textbook's that mentioned it.
secondly, I failed because I was held back in first grade, "showed anti-
social tendencies" including getting into fights, and failed to pay attention
to anything going on in the classroom.
     What schools need if they are going to mainstream students that are
indeed ready to be mainstreamed is 1) teachers who realize what is involved
` and will due what is neccessary 2) programs to deal with the speach therepy
reading and writing needs of the students at the school, not relying on outside
programs.  etc.
     What made my mainstreaming such a horible experience is that the teachers
made little or no effort to understand my speach wich was shaky at best at the
time, and assumed I was stupid when I couldn't understand or articulate
as required.  The students also made things difficult.  In my case, from day
one I was an outsider.
     The history of my mainstreaming goes as follows:
     Kindergarten attempted mainstreaming after 2 years of specialized
     preschool, failed after I blackened the eye of a teacher when the only
     thing I understood from an incident was an insult.
     First Grade attempted mainstreaming.  Held back a grade because I failed
     to participate in classroom activities and showed antisocial behavior.
     REST OF MY SCHOOLING THROUGH HIGHSCHOOL read the book, aced the test
     turned in the homework perfectly.  Graduated with a 3.94 out of 4.0
     but ignored everything my teacher said in lecture to the point of occasion
     ocasionally falling asleep.  That includes my Advanced Placement College p
     prep classes of which were most of my classes in high school.
OUTSIDE of school:
     Most of my friends were Deaf going to the state residential school which
I saw on weekends or other Deaf kids being mainstreamed.  We hung out etc. and
basically led normal lives outside of class.  I know I did.
     Until I graduated in 1986 the school system had no truly qualified to
mainstream in any of the school systems.  They never followed suggested class
size recomendations or many others made by the experts.
     Basically in my case mainstreaming did not in any way follow the idelic
picture or the guidlines painted and proposed by the "experts".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Wheeler              | "Don't confuse your schooling with your
Bitnet: INDYCMS           |  Education" - Albert Einstein