Confessions Of A 'Bad' Teacher

I AM a special education teacher. My students have learning disabilities ranging from autism and attention-deficit disorder to cerebral palsy and emotional disturbances. I love these kids, but they can be a handful. Almost without exception, they struggle on standardized tests, frustrate their teachers and find it hard to connect with their peers. What's more, these are high school students, so their disabilities are compounded by raging hormones and social pressure.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[LindaRetiredTeacher]

09:50 PM on 03/05/2012

Mr. Johnson,

You are young, you have a special ed certificate and you are an excellent writer. Get out now while you can and take all your talented friends with you. Good luck!

This unethical action will backfire badly on those responsible. Just wait and see.

[Allthosewhowander]

12:10 PM on 03/06/2012

Those of us, in similar situations to Mr. Johnson can only hope the pendulum will swing back to reason at some point, and put the needs of the students first, instead of the needs of the bureaucracy and business model.

[GlennWatson]

09:07 PM on 03/05/2012

God love you. I wish I could help you.

[FunctionOfTheCrisp]

06:40 PM on 03/05/2012

Thank you, Mr. Johnson, for the effort and the dedication.

[Ashok Hegde]

06:28 PM on 03/05/2012

We over-burden our education system with special needs requirements. Many of these kids cannot be effectively treated/raised/educated in a school environment. We spend too much money trying, and it's destroying the quality of education for the other kids. Special Ed should be between a parent, and their physician. We can't outsource this to teachers.

[RobinVZB]

01:33 AM on 03/07/2012

I am glad you are not in charge of the world.

[Ashok Hegde]

06:17 AM on 03/07/2012

IF I were, I would hold parents more accountable for their decisions. I would require more parent involvement, and investment (literally) in their child's education.

With special Ed, perhaps we should require parents to volunteer time in classes. 10 hours per week, per child. We offer localized training, which any parent of a special ed child probably already knows. We ask parents to provide that extra layer of supervision, which schools are burdened with.

Some will complain that parents have to "work". Well, the work they do, and the taxes based on that work, don't come close to paying for the services required by their child. It's just not enough. So, 10 hours per week per child is reasonable. If you have 2, half your work week must be in voluntary labor. We are spending too much on special education. All the legislation has become too burdensome, at the detriment of other students. We could have more art and physical education...

[jal6641]

06:04 PM on 03/05/2012

You sound like an amazing teacher! Your administrators need to get their butts in your room and teach themselves. Come to Los Angeles Unified. We need good Special Ed teachers. We still have a good union.

[eceresa]

05:02 PM on 03/05/2012

Actually, he sounds like a pretty good teacher.

I think that's the point.