For years the government has worked to come up with a balanced way of accommodating students with special needs. Unfortunately, not all teachers are experienced enough with students that have disabilities. Although they have the training and understanding from their college days, they still seem to lack the knowledge that is needed to become teachers. When they experience students with different learning styles, they automatically assume they are hopeless or unable to learn at all. I understand the government does their best to accommodate all students, but unfortunately the policy of “No Child Left Behind”, passed in 2002, has only helped a handful. This was to help all students receive the same teaching style, in hopes that all students succeed.   

The government has promised to fund schools with 34 million each year, but only 24 million have been put toward proper education. Many schools with special education students would pass the students on to the next grade even though they aren’t prepared for the big jump.  A New York Times report shows that only 20 percent of students drop out, and 67 percent graduate with a regular high school diploma. Do the students become successful, or do they live under the support of the government’s funds? In this generation you can’t graduate with only a high school diploma and be financially stable. In order to raise a family it involves graduating from college to find a stable career. The government can send funds to the students, but instead of just funding the programs, they should spend their money on educating students and providing enough specialist that could help those that learn differently.   

Texas school districts have done their best to not conform to the Common Core school system, which forces a specific way of teaching and learning. The Common Core is based on the average learning that students are able to understand and comprehend. Previously, the Texas elementary schools have enforced this new style of learning in the districts. The Common Core restricts certain students from their own natural way of learning. Teachers go to school to learn how to teach the majority of students, as well as students with disabilities. However, in many cases, teachers seem to have only one way of teaching, which focuses on the majority of the students, but not on those who might have a different understanding than others.

I came from a high school in New York where the Common Core was the system of learning, a way they thought to be the easiest to teach students. What I experienced in my geometry class my sophomore year was that a problem must not only be correct, but solved the way the district wants you to solve it. Not only on quizzes, but on homework as well; if the problem wasn’t solved the way it was taught than the problem was automatically incorrect. This system does not help students understand and learn but basically provides them with a source that is unreasonable to the students. In order to help students’ education, we need to have a system that will allow the students to have the correct learning resources needed to succeed.

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-upside-of-dyslexia.html?_r=0