Sunday, February 12, 2006

Trying Times

What day is this?  I feel like I’ve neglected this blog for several days now but it was a difficult week.  A close family friend went to heaven and her service was last Saturday.  It was my honor and privilege to play the piano for the service but a little stressful.  There were more than 200 people crammed in our little church sanctuary.  

Besides doing the work of a practicum student, I’m trying to clear up two incompletes, or else I won’t graduate in May.  Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants…I am making progress on reports I owe but it feels like a whole mountain of work is ahead of me yet.  I have a test for licensing coming up on March 4 and haven’t begun to prepare for it.  But what’s happening to me isn’t unusual - it’s just life.  Everybody has stuff to take care, to deal with, to worry about.

I observed students of varying degrees of disability last Friday in a special education classroom.  There was a student with Downs Syndrome, other students with MR diagnoses, and one student with severe multiple disabilities.  I came to the swift conclusion that we do not pay our special ed teachers enough, and, we certainly do not pay the paraprofessionals commensurate with the responsibilities we give them.

I think every politician that talks about education reform should visit schools, and not only visit general education classrooms, but look in on classrooms where students with special needs are being served.  I think they’d be amazed at the work that goes on in our schools.    

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