Monday, November 10, 2008

A Travesty...

That is what the I.E.P. Diploma is.

My fiancee' and I disagree about the New York City school system, because she believes trades either shouldn't be taught in High School, or all things should be taught equally in all schools. I argue this is not financially or socially feasible in the imperfect world, and the fact that NYC allows you to choose which High School you attend, makes up for that. If your school doesn't have a program you want to pursue, you can attend (free of charge) one that does. They even pay for you to get there.

The reason I bring this up, regarding the I.E.P. diploma, is this: Choice. It is perfectly acceptable to limit something, if one has the choice to circumvent that limitation, and has access to all the pertinent information to do so. NYC does this. When in Junior High School / Primary School in NYC, one cannot NOT know of their options and make plans accordingly, unless they are determined to be mis- or uninformed. When I was attending NYC pubic school, which was not long ago, a book with the list of High Schools and their programs, complete with program details was available to every student and parent two years before High School, and was handed out by the instructor, to each student individually, to take home, one year before High School. This was a thick book, and almost any question you had about the schools in question were answered in that book. If not, there were numbers to call any of the schools you had questions for or about, as well as a central information number. Guidance counselors at your current school were also equipped with information to assist students and parents.

If you decided you didn't want to attend Yale or Harvard, and wanted to learn auto repair, that was your (and your parents') decision. If you decided you did want to get into Harvard or Yale, you had the choice of the High Schools that would prepare you for that. If you were unsure, but wanted to cover all your bases, there were many High Schools that had the financial ability to cover that as well (there are well over 300 total High Schools in NYC). I attended one of those - Thomas A. Edison in Queens. If I had done things the way I was supposed to, I likely could have left there for an Ivy League Institution, or a career in a trade field. I had a choice.

When you receive an I.E.P. diploma from any school, and it is not legitimate (meaning, you do not have a thoroughly diagnosed learning disability / incapability), you are being denied the right of choice, and that - in this country - is a travesty. I.E.P. diplomas are not accepted for admission into any college or university, which means you need at least a GED to move forward. I.E.P. diplomas are the standard for "Special Education" students, and is little more than a certificate of attendance, but not recognition that one is prepared for the next step(s) in life. In fact it is recognition that you are not prepared, and it signals this to everyone who hears those three letters.

I currently live in Cleveland, Ohio, working at a community college, and everyday that I work at this school, student upon student with an I.E.P. diploma looking to get his or her GED, darkens my office threshold. Despite whatever cultural shortcomings they may experience, many of them succeed wonderfully. So, why is this? That is, why do so many of them have I.E.P.'s? Well, I would say that fully 98% of the students I encounter are low-income blacks. They have little education, or lack the social acumen to land and keep a job, lacking things such as office etiquette, knowledge of how to dress for an interview, what a resume looks like, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc...

Despite this, of those 98% of prospective GED students who are low-income blacks, 95% of them do NOT have a learning disability, and of the five percent that do, 98% of those acquired it environmentally, and not by birth. This says to me, that when a black student decides he or she wants to hang with the wrong crowd, skip class (or school altogether), not study for their tests and not turn in their homework (all the same things a white child will and does do), their teacher (oftentimes white - but not always), simply chalks it up to an inability to learn, as opposed to an unwillingness to learn - and this is a terribly lazy and wrong decision, that will change the course of these unwitting students' lives for quite a long time, if not forever. This is one of the great failures of the United States' educational system when it comes to dealing with underprivileged black children.

I know teachers get burned out. Same students, different year. Talking in class. Disruptive. Disrespectful. Angry. Truancy. I understand that dealing with these problems is not easy, and is in fact very complicated. But we can't take the easy way out for ourselves, and ruin the student's life. This is why the child is the student and the adult is the teacher. Parents are also a problem. There are students who will fight every child in class and be disruptive in every way possible, and the parent, when called in about this child's discipline, is worse than the child. In many of these situations, you have to address that as well because the parent had the child when they were too young themselves. I'm not saying this is an easy solution that will be fixed by "ten easy steps" in six months or six years. But I am saying, an effort needs to be made. I also know that the problem often doesn't start in High School. However, High School is the last step for most of these students before the real world shows up at their door, so this is where the true last ditch effort has to be made.

When a young, black man or woman comes into my office, and speaks relatively well - that is, he is coherent and cogent - despite some imperfect grammar, and tells me he has an I.E.P. diploma, I want to find out his High School, get up from my desk, and go wring the neck of every one of his teachers and guidance counselors, as well as his parent(s). An I.E.P. based on what? On whose recommendation and on what research?

Troubled or slacker white children are not being issued I.E.P. diplomas at this rate. I've dealt with several low-income white people who want to come to college as well. They have children. They are on welfare. They have records. However, most often, they do not have an I.E.P. diploma. Why us and not them? Because, if a white child is troubled, he just has issues that need to be worked out. If a black child is troubled, he must be unable to learn. He's basically just stupid, and since he's poor and disruptive anyway, he's not worth trying to save. So, is to not have a diploma at all better than an I.E.P.? Yes. Because no diploma says you didn't finish school. That's it. An I.E.P. says not only did you not really finish school, but that you were mentally incapable of going any further. The ratio of I.E.P. diplomas awarded to blacks vs. whites (just based on my daily work experience) is absolutely staggering. Absolutely staggering. I know there must be official statistics on this someplace, and believe you me, I will be researching them.

I was very lucky. I had many people to save me when I started hanging with the wrong crowd and fell into truancy, petty crime, etc. Up until High School, I was always in the tops of my classes, and these were at top schools in the city. I don't have a learning disability. Yet, if not for my parents and others looking out for me, I would likely have an I.E.P. diploma right now. Instead, I have a four-year degree from a well-regarded private institution (despite my personal experience with them), and a chance to attend an Ivy-League graduate school.

It starts at home, but it has to end with the teachers. We can't turn every bad apple, but we can certainly reduce the number of them. When toast is slightly burned, you scrape off the burned area - you don't just throw away the entire slice. Are two food metaphors enough? How about: When your car has a spot of rust on the rear bumper, you don't junk the whole thing.

Black parents:
STOP LETTING THESE SCHOOLS GIVE YOUR CHILDREN I.E.P. DIPLOMAS IF THEY HAVE NOT BEEN MEDICALLY DIAGNOSED WITH A LEARNING DISABILITY!!!! AND WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN, GET A SECOND OPINION AND THEN GET YOUR CHILD ACADEMICALLY EVALUATED AS WELL!!!!

No, it's not easy. My mother and father did it, and it wasn't easy, but they were able to do it and find it at very low, subsidized cost, or for free. It turned out that not only did I not have a learning disability, I, in fact had an I.Q. well above the national average. I wasn't a genius, but I was near it. It turned out I needed a more challenging course of work, and they found that when I received it, my temper and disruptive tendencies declined and my productivity increased.

It is so hard to pay the bills, put food on the table and keep up with the authorities' labeling of your child. But if you value their future, you will stop buying them FUBU and Phat Farm, and 100 dollar sneakers, and instead follow up on what's going on at their school.

Don't let your local government dictate your child's future.

2 comments:

  1. You make a salient point differentiating between the inability to learn and the unwillingness to learn. My brother had the will but had ability hindrances so he benefits from teachers who has specialized in teaching the differently able’d but if her attention had been spilt on disciplinary problems, my brother would not have had the stellar education that he had. Perhaps, just as specializing in learning hindrances became a focus in education degrees so too discipline hindrances should become a focus in education degrees. Teachers could specialize in disciplining the unwilling to learn and schools would have four programs: college prep, vocational, learning disabilities and discipline control.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As usual, that's an excellent point: special education for the learning disabled AND special education for the discipline disabled.

    Education for the discipline disabled would be the same as for mainstream students, but in a much more rigid structure - almost like a boarding school - but not away from home. When they graduate, they get the same degree / diploma a mainstream student would get.

    But then the question: How do we keep our black students from going on in life without getting that "Disciplinary Education" label disproportionately?

    ReplyDelete

Please keep it civil - or face deletion...