Writing papers

Perhaps the hardest thing in collage is writing papers. My first few years in collage was at the community collage level in Northern VA, where I would flunk remedial writing two times. Their are many reason why I flunked two times my LD, and my Eng secondary teachers did not prepare me for the collage level. I still have problems with my writing to this day, I bet you could find several mistakes common with LD students in this very post. The 3rd time around I was very lucky to have a remedial teacher that knew how to work with students with LD, I learned more in that one semester than four years in secondary Eang classes. Perhaps if I never had this teacher I would never have completed collage. After my transfer to community collage to a four year university, Marymount University of VA, I would be in the biggest fight of my life. Many of the students at this school came from very normal backgrounds with strong academics. A majority of the students where white, upper middle class, snobs and on several occasions I experienced bias by staff and students alike. In my classes for the most part many teachers worked with me giving me extra time on my exams and papers. Some of the teachers clearly did not understand LD, and at times I went head to head with them. One time one of my teachers made fun of mistakes on students papers, but some of the mistakes where mine that where due to LD. The school did have a very good learning resource center (LRC) where I could take my exams and get tutoring in all subjects. One aspect that makes this school ideal for a student with an LD, is the student to teacher to ratio. The cost of the school was a bit over the top and if I did not have an LD, I would never have gone. Some how I am still at this school working on my masters in education and it seems I will be transferring to a state school because they are killing me with the cost. Going to collage is hard without a learning problem, so with a LD to add to the mix I can truly understand why LD students dropout in large numbers. I have to say one thing going to collage in the West with an LD, is allot easier because of the laws and more understanding of the matter. I went to collage overseas in the Mid East, and they do not care or want to teach LD, students. I hope soon to write about my year in a suadi university.

I want to go to collage

About two years ago I was substitute teaching in Fairfax public schools. The job I took that day was a special education class that was mostly LD. I had about ten high school students in the 10th and 11th grade. The teacher that was absent that day did not leave a lesson plan, so I decided to just talk to the students. I assumed because the students where in one of the top school systems in the U.S. they would not be confronting the same obstacles that I faced in the South Bronx, ten years before. Unfortanly it was the same s*&$ that I had to endure, many of the students in this class had the aspersions to go to collage, but some of the teachers where telling the students that they would only get an IEP diploma. The major reason was because of the SOL exams, in the state of VA, one most pass all SOL's to get a "Regular Diploma" and if you have an LD, you could be an A student in every subject and pass your SOL's, but if you can't pass that one SOL in math regardless if you got A's on other SOL and all your classes one will not get a diploma. This was the same system in NY, where I went to school with the regents. As LD students our whole life depends on test like this, they make us or brake us, and the sad story is most of the times they break us.

If I was passing the laws, I would not hold LD students to the same standards as students with out an LD. If a students passes every class, and a majority of standard test they should get a diploma. For the most part special education teachers are doing their jobs, but from experience a good number of them need to find a new line of work, because of their negative words . That day I was subing, I went to the break room where the special Ed teachers had lunch and the jokes about their students where endless moreover since I had a hearing aide one of the teachers told me to leave because she was thinking I was a student. This is Fairfax public schools not the South Bronx. I want to make clear a few bad apples could mess it up for the hard working special education teacher, so we need to get rid of the bad apples.

When I was in High school I had very positive and very negative teachers, for me I had to prove myself to the negative teachers. When I felt like dropping out of collage, I would remember the teachers that told me I could never go to collage. For my positive teacher who told me I could do anything I put my mind to, I love them and wish I could say thank you a million times over Mrs. Judy Rock, and Mrs Goldsmith of Walton H.S. of the Bronx, NY the best teacher ever.

Hinshelwood

From the research, Hinshelwood makes some points that are still valid today in the field of Special Education, “[T]he individual was often blame, bullied, laughed at, for a defect which was not his fault but his misfortune.” One of the most famous Hip-Hop artists of the 1990s,“Special ED” would rap/sing about his experiences in special education in Brooklyn schools. His lyrics have been etched into popular culture educating the masses on the misconception of students with learning disabilities. In an interview he said “I hope my lyrics would stop the hurt and bullying of students with LD.” If you ask a random person on the street what they think of special education, you will get responses like “mental retardation.” Some famous comedians make a living making fun of students in special education and LD. For example Jim Florentine, a member of Comedy Central, a popular television channel has an endless array of jokes on the subject of social education. In 1895 LD students would be the joke of the town, but in 2009 with mass media LD students is the joke of the world. Unfortunately much of what is misunderstood has not changed much since the age of Hinshelwood.

“It is a matter of highest importance to recognize as early as possible the true nature of this defect, when it is met with in a child. It may prevent much waste of valuable time and may save the child from suffering and cruel treatment.” This statement was made in 1902, but if you read this today you would assume it comes from the latest research. A new and very effective way to help identify students at risk for LD and students who are lagging behind to help ensure their educational success, RTI has been very successful. Hinshelwood perhaps had the concept of RTI over a hundred years ago. Look at Cattie, our case study that shows how her reading recovery helped her by recognizing the problems early and addressing them, that will prevent other social problems.

Hinshelwood specifically uses the words “stupidity and laziness;” perhaps no other words come up more in the misconception of LD from the 1800s to modern times. This misconception is timeless for one major reason; it is innate in humans to understand others from our own life experiences and worldviews. I myself in high school, by special education teachers, have been called lazy. As an undergraduate student I procrastinated on papers several times, the work was easy but something was blocking me like a bottleneck. To this day I have not come up with a hypothesis. In my case I could not write what the professors required, but I can sit down for hours doing my own personal writing on complex subjects that have nothing to do with my school work. I have been reading a book by Dr. Levine who carries on in the tradition of Hinshelwood, Levine writes, “identifies seven other neurodevelopment areas where output failure can occur: weak production control, social distractibility, low mental energy, disorganization, language delays, impoverished ideation, and insufficient memory.” This simplistic view that students with LD are lazy is from the same ignorant historical view that African American men are lazy.

“The sooner the true nature of the defect is recognized, the better are chances of the child’s improvement…” Hinshelwood published this over a hundred years ago, and it seems like schools systems all across America, are finding this information out now. Schools want to know the true nature of students learning problems, so they are using the RTI method which is related to Hinshelwood’s writings over a century ago.

On the first day of my grad class my definition of LD, was simple: (LD is several different disorders that is a hardship for a learner and affects a person acquisition to hold information, organization skills, oral skills, reading, writing, and understanding information. These disorders impair brain/ psychological processes related to learning and everyday life.)

My definition was composed in ten minutes with a partner and was based on prior knowledge and a brief introduction by the professor. The Federal and NJCLD, definitions are calculated word by word and perhaps cost the government millions of dollars in man hours to come up with. The Federal definition hits on major points like “psychological processes” that affects language, spoken or written communication, which may manifest in the ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or math and calculations. Also the Federal definition and NJCLD definition includes handicaps such as brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. My definition doses not touch on or include any handicaps at all.

My definition needs to be revised buy expanding aspects I left out such as, severity of LD, social perceptions, when LD becomes evident, cultural, socio-economic, co-existing disabilities, and most importantly keys for success. My expanded definition: (LD is several different disorders that is a hardship for a learner and affects a person acquisition to hold information, organization skills, oral skills, reading, writing, and understanding information. These disorders impair brain/ psychological processes related to learning and everyday life. LD has different levels of severity and people from all walks of life are affected, but in every case LD interferes with the acquisition and use of one of the following skills comprehension/understanding, mathematics, reading, spelling, social interactions, and organization skills. LD and it’s impairments have no known cure and are generally life-long. Everyone is effective different over time, this depends allot on the demand of the environment and the individual’s as well. LD impairments may be apparent in the early years in pre-school because lack of language, motor skills, cognition, attention, and social behavior. Others slip under the cracks and make it to secondary school before being noticed. LD can come from genetic, other congenital or acquired by neuro-biological factors. LD is not caused by cultural, language differences, inappropriate instruction, socio-economic standing, or lack of motivation. Although any one of those elements will play a major role and impact a person with an LD. Frequently LD is a comorbid condition, including ADHD, behavioral and emotional disorders. Persons with LD could achieve success, but they require specialized interventions in school and at work appropriate to their individual strengths and need and are protected under the National Rehabilitation Act of 1973.)

Identify a question that you now have about the concept of learning disabilities. Why is this question important to you? Can learning disabilities ever be overcome? The study of LD is young, and over the last several decades we have seen major improvements in research and the very definition. We also saw many American become very successful with LD, and some one could say for example Thomas Edison, overcame his LD, because he invented the light bulb among other things. This question is important for me because I have an LD and benefit personal from any new research or development.

My Fundamental Beliefs

I had a long childhood in the South Bronx, with a missing Puerto Rican father who suffered from the horrors of the Vietnam War, and my single mother who raised two kids including myself in an atmosphere of drugs, guns, gangs, criminal activities and poverty in the richest nation on earth. Many of my friends and close family had lost their lives to the harrowing streets of the Bronx. From my early childhood to my late teens my fundamental belief was that there is no God and that anarchy should rule. I was a special education student in the poorest urban area in the U.S. My high school had a 29% graduation rate, and a one percent special education graduation rate; no one expected anything from me, except to get a job and try to stay out of prison. One day Ms. Goldsmith, my high school English teacher, told me one sentence that changed my life forever, “You are smarter than you think, and you could do anything you want in life” and she ended that with a pat on the back. Everything was negative in my life until the moment where I felt the lights were turned on and I was out of the darkness. My gutter language would come to an end and I would be free, self accepting, have faith in God, and have inner confidence; that would be most important to me and my fundamental belief.

Frist post

I have decided to start this blog to tell the world the hardships of havening a LD. I am 30 years of age an have been struggling with LD, my whole life. I am now a grad student majoring in LD at Marymount University in VA, I hope to use this blog to vent with problems I have in school and life over all. I have several more weeks for this semester to end, so I am sure I will have some venting to do. I hope you readers out in the internet world are in for some blunt words at time because my Bronxness tends to just pop up.
I also will be posting some of my class work, and ideas.