Some teachers suck.
Yup. I said the unpopular thing. Today is another day where I’ve been rubbed the wrong way by someone I don’t want anywhere near a child with a disability after twenty years of advocacy. I know that not all teachers are bad, but my experience shows me the worst of the worst. I know that one rotten apple can ruin the bunch. I wish we’d stop putting all teachers on a pedestal because we think they’ve all gotten into the profession. After all, they are the equivalent to Glinda the Good Witch or some angelic figure floating about the classroom sprinkling fairy dust. It isn’t realistic. Every other profession has people who suck at their jobs; they get fired, demoted, ostracized. But for some reason, we can’t imagine teachers aren’t all saints.
Anyway, I recently read about a teacher who wanted help with a goal in a student’s Individual Education Plan or IEP for short. If you don’t know, an IEP is a plan developed by a team of educators, paraprofessionals, therapists, e.g., speech, occupational therapy, and the parents for a child with a disability. It is written to help them meet their unique needs and prepare them for adult life, including a job or further education. The goal in question was proficiency in basic math facts “with 90% accuracy without using a calculator.” It is important to know, the student is in tenth grade. Since these goals are mastered in elementary and middle school, the teacher looked for ways to eliminate them.
First, a goal is appropriate at any age if a student has not mastered those skills. The teacher commented, “WTF…this is not appropriate whatsoever”.
Schools often discourage parents from requesting proficiency in grades beyond middle school. Instead, they encourage adding copious and often useless accommodations like extra time, use of a calculator. They try to make parents believe this is in the child’s best interest, but in reality, they make these suggestions because they are FREE. Schools aren’t looking to do the right thing; they look to do the least expensive options. I mean, imagine that a school district has forwarded a student to tenth grade who can proficiently add, subtract, multiple, or divide numbers. This parent should be consulting an attorney.
· If you have a child who is years behind their peers, it is time to consult an attorney.
Second, the teacher then decides to consult with the previous year’s special education teacher.
The previous teacher, another rotten apple, says it’s the parent’s fault. They again tried to convince the parent that it was not appropriate for a high school student to be still trying to master these facts. But it is appropriate because the student cannot perform basic math. The school should be embarrassed to have a student in a regular education classroom who can’t perform basic math skills at fifteen or sixteen years old.
Finally, the teacher makes one last-ditch effort and consults the special education director. The director states they agree that the goal is highly inappropriate and placates the parents and adds the goal. The director nor the teacher ask, “how can we teach this student?”. Instead, they add the goal, again for going into the third year, and we will continue to not teach them in a way that meets their unique needs, ya know what the law says we should do.
· Per the Individuals with Disabilities Act, parents are considered part of the team that makes decisions about the Individual Education Plan. They aren’t a footnote, and they, by law, are required to be included in the decision-making process.
Third, the teacher states research shows that a student who hasn’t master basic facts by tenth grade will likely never. (I’d love to see that research)
Schools often cite research they can never produce. I once had a director of guidance tell a high school student, maybe the best they would ever be able to read as a third-grade level. Sometimes the things I hear are so stupid, I can’t imagine how the speaker doesn’t hear the idiocy spewing from their mouths.
Anyway, back to this issue, Now the original rotten apple teacher feels justified and attempts a coup d’état with the parent. Still, the parent insists on keeping the goal in the plan. Here is why that is a good idea, when this case lands in the hands of a hearing officer or judge, they will see that the parent insists the school teach their child. I hope the parent follows up these baseless and harassing conversations with emails to document the school’s failure further.
· Ask, demand, and don’t let up when a teacher, administrator, etc., lament they have research. It is highly likely they can’t produce it because it generally doesn’t exist.
Fourth, another fun tactic that rotten apples use is to blame the parent.
The teacher states that drills are incredibly ineffective if the parent isn’t also drilling at home. Again, a complete fallacy. The teacher is just looking to shift the blame to the parent. I saw a commonly used gross and despicable tactic twenty years ago when I started an exceptional education and still see it today. Additionally, the teacher doesn’t understand the Least Restrictive Environment and thinks it means every child with a disability needs to be in the regular education classroom. Special education is not a place; it is specialized instruction. They want the child in the regular education classroom because they have to write individual lesson plans. It is not about the student but about the inconvenience the student and their disability causes. Instead of examining ways for the student to do drills and then move on to what their peers are working on, they are complaining ten ways from Sunday about all the hard work they have to do. The last time I checked, drills could be done in under ten minutes. Not to mention all the programs the teacher could implement. However, when you are looking to place blame anywhere but where I belong, you can’t see other possibilities.
· Stop letting school try to blame you for not working harder at home.
They have your child in the building (or on zoom) for six hours a day. If the “educator” can’t figure it, why would they think you can do something at home to meet the IEP goals magically? When they call you to discuss your perceived failures or point them out in a meeting, send a polite but factual email outlining what they said.
Fifth, when all else fails, provide de minimis.
The teacher proudly shares to have written an education plan with 30 minutes per month. That’s right, folks, this teacher is going to practice drills with your child, who can’t do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division a solid 1.5 minutes per day. They are very proud to have pulled the wool over your eyes, or better yet, they’ve successfully hidden their rotten spots and cut the time in half from last year. Yes, last year, they got a whopping 3 minutes per school day. Gee, why hasn’t your child master these skills when the school is dedicating 3 (now less) minutes per day.
Why did she write it this way? Because she says, it covers the school district in the event of a hearing, “Our school district is covered.” Gross. Gross. Gross.
· Did you know a supreme court case discusses de minimis, meaning the school must provide more than a minute and a half per day toward a goal? Even typing that makes my blood boil.
Bonus points: The piece de resistance is when the teacher shares that this student is enrolled in a college program for other subjects.
The student is earning a high-grade point average. Thank heavens, the student is having success elsewhere, likely because of their obviously smart, talented, and hard-working child. The teacher also stupes down to call the parent a “weirdo, helicopter parent.” I guess asking parents insane for wanting their high schooler to have the skills to complete BASIC MATH! How dare those parents to ask for their child with a disability to receive services.
Obviously, this is a highly motivated and intelligent student whose parent is trying to help them fulfill their desire to go to college and be successful. As opposed to a teacher unwilling to do their job and searching, it is hard for ways to eliminate their job description to provide specialized instruction to a student with a disability. This story highlights that not all teachers are motivated to do the right thing. They are more focused on doing what they think is easiest for them and making the wrong decision about what is best for a student with a disability. It isn’t a teacher’s right to rob a child of their future because it is easier or cheaper or doesn’t like a parent.
But like I said, one rotten apple can ruin the bunch.
