SPEECH #2 - "Special Education"

My name is Jim Marks. What I am going to talk about is how you should treat a disabled child since you are going to be teachers. What I think is most important for a teacher of disabled children is not to stereotype every child in the room as the same. Take the time to get to know what every person can do themselves. I think a teacher that's teaching disabled students has to work closely with the parents. It doesn't hurt to have a notebook that goes home with every student.You might not write anything in it everyday, but you have an open line of communication. That gives the parents a way to communicate with you. 

Another important thing is, to treat every student with respect. Treat them like you would treat anybody else. You have to be hard at times. Other times you have to be easy. There is a fine line that you have to walk. I think that's the most important thing when parents learn that their baby has a disability; they can't treat their child too much different than they would treat them if they did not have a disability. The families that baby the persons that have a disability only hurt the disabled person, because they won't learn how to do things for themselves. I think you should try to tell the parents that, but you might step on some toes. It might be hard on you. They might turn their back on whatever you try to do for their child. There is a fine line that you have to walk. I am sure that every one of you knows an example of this from your personal experience, someone from your past whose parents did everything for them. The parents would make all of the decisions for them and not let them learn to decide anything for themselves. The parents that meant well were trying to protect their child from bad consequences, but instead never let the child learn from his or her own mistakes. Then when that child becomes an adult, he or she is incapable of making life decisions on their own. Instead, they are dependent on the parents for survival.

A disabled child is, for these intentions and purposes, no different than a quote unquote "normal child." However, this situation is often even more pronounced in the case of the disabled child. The parents are more protective because of the disability, and risk over protecting the child. This can happen despite all of the good intentions of the parents. Consequently, this disabled child, just as the non-disabled child that you might know, can become the overly dependent adult. As it turns out, the parents have not adequately prepared their child to function as an independent adult. All children need to learn decision-making. They need to learn from their successes and failures in order to have full lives. This is your opportunity to help educate the parents in order to help with the development of their child. 

In closing, I hope I have helped you to see being a teacher is not only in the classroom. 

Thank you. 

 Written by James Marks