Edumacation

This is the start of a brand new semester. It also happens to be my last semester at community college. I really had high hopes for this last hurrah. All of my classes this go around are electives and I picked every single one of them because I wanted to take the class. I am a lousy picker. I am, or was rather, taking two education classes. One of them was The Exceptional Child. In the catalog it was billed as a class about children who deviated from the norm (duh). The description went on to say the class dealt with gifted and special ed children. I don't know yet if I want to teach and I certainly don't want to teach special ed children. I don't have the kind of patience those children need. It takes a very talented person to take on a challenge like that and it just isn't me. I was however looking forward to the gifted children chapters and thought that the class would be an asset for any teacher. They decided this semester to drop all of the material on gifted children in order to focus more on children with disabilities. Great that was the one thing I was truly looking forward to learning. If I teach at all I'd like to teach college and this teacher automatically assumes everyone in the class is going to be teaching elementary students. So what if most of them are I automatically dislike you for assuming what I am going to do. She brought candy to help us "get over the stress of the first day of class". Now I am starting to get pissed. I am not eight years old I don't need a blow-pop to make me feel better. The final straw for me was the following quiz given in class to "raise our awareness" of disabled people.

All of the questions had three answers: Yes, No, and Not Sure. We were to circle the answer "we thought was best".

1. Is a person with a disability usually sick?

2. Can a person who is blind go to the store?

3. If someone can't talk, is he or she retarded?

4. Are people with disabilities born that way?

5. Do you feel sorry for someone who is disabled?

6. Can people who are blind hear the same as other people?

7. If a person is mentally retarded, does it mean that he or she will never grow up?

8. Are all people who are deaf alike?

9. Can a person in a wheelchair be a teacher?

10. Do all people have the right to go to your school?

This was copied verbatim from a handout quiz she gave us to do in the last ten minutes of class. Do we really need to go over this? We did. Are our college kids so dumb and intolerant that they need to be reminded of this stuff? America may or may not be going to Hell in a handbasket but it seems our public schools are going to Idiotsville in a soft warm oblivious blanket.