1986 - Two Kids and a Masters Degree Later!

Within 10 years of teaching, so many things changed! Yes, I had two little girls now and a Masters Degree in Learning Disabilities but also the field of special education changed dramatically!

In the beginning, students just arrived in my classroom based on an IQ test given by the school psychologist. In the beginning, students labeled Mentally Retarded were not particularly welcome in the school. Classroom teachers didn't want them in their classrooms. Infact, when I started, special education programs were operated by counties not by the school districts. There was a belief that students with IQ's below 70 were unable to learn and took time away from students who could learn. Many children were sent to group live-in facilities. In Madison, there was Central Colony (now Central Wisconsin Center), in Jefferson there was St. Coletta's. There were others around the state. When the higher functioning children from these facilities started to be placed in public schools, people were afraid!

In the beginning, these children and their teacher stayed quietly in a classroom and cautiously started entering "regular" classrooms like Art class. With the passage of PI 94-142, all children with handicapping conditions were guaranteed a free and appropriate education. Special education teachers needed to learn how to administer formal testing and then had to write an IEP (Individual Education Plans) for each student. This job and the paperwork that it entailed was and has been an enormous burden for special education teachers. This group of teachers has been held accountable for student progress since that time. The passage of this bill really was the beginning of Individual Learning Plans that are just now becoming part of the "regular" classroom teacher's duty.

"Mainstreaming" students into regular classrooms was an exercise in letting go! I didn't trust that my kids would be safe out there in the rest of the school. Some teachers opened their arms to these kids but most felt that they had little or no skills to work with children who struggled to learn. So mainstreaming was still limited to classes like Art, Music, and Physical Education and sometimes Social Studies. Often, still, children with special needs were ostracized from the group learning often made to sit at separate tables.

With my Master's Degree, I added a certification to work with students with learning disabilities. At one point, I went with another teacher to talk with the superintendent to ask if we could merge my students (labeled Mentally Retarded) with students with Learning Disabilities. The superintendent was hesitant. "What will parents say?" The label was a deterent for many parents. They didn't want anyone to think that their child was "retarded"! We made it work with personality and humor and became one of the first Cross-categorical programs in our district and apparently around the state. The two of us were asked to speak to other district administrators and school board members about how it worked.

So in 10 years, my kids and I went from being self contained to included at least in part in classrooms. Over time, again with personality and humor, we became an important part of the culture of the school and the community.