"Should I Take Juanita Pope?"by Isabelle Dworkin
Seeing as this page is a response to this pdf (and the discussion questions at the end of it), nothing here will make sense unless you have downloaded and read it. (5 pages, 674KB) |
(Note to confused LTEC 4100 folks - this reflection is for a different class. Figured that as long as I've got this chunk of internet real estate, I might as well use it.)
1. In what ways does Juanita fit the definition of children “at risk”? Do you think she had a disability (or disabilities)?
Her mother ran off, her father wasn’t even in the picture, and we don’t know how good of a parental figure her grandmother is (If she raised Juanita’s mother to be how she is, that’s not really indicative of being a good parent), so I don’t think Juanita had any sort of learning disability, she was just stressed, depressed, and overwhelmed by her terrible home life and thus apathetic toward her schoolwork. Children without learning or growth opportunities at home just don’t do as well in school. “Several teachers also complained about Juanita's poor coping skills. Her shyness had always been a controlling factor in her academic and social development.” “If they gave her constructive criticism, suggestions, or reprimands, Juanita also ‘shut down’ and cried soundlessly.” Those aren’t signs of a child with a learning disability, they’re signs of a child who is abused, neglected, or otherwise psychologically damaged.
2. To what extent do you see evidence that the requirements of IDEA were being met by Juanita’s school system?
Before Juanita entered sixth grade, she was placed in a special education class where “her aptitude and achievement scores indicated significant improvement.” By the fifth grade, her teacher had “observed that mainstreaming had gone really well. Juanita had made progress in working on her own, interpreting what she read, and asking questions about the teacher's expectations.”
3. Who do you think should have been responsible for teaching Juanita? To what extent were general and special educators collaborating? What do you see as the central issues in role definitions and expectations of the regular classroom teachers and Isabelle?
The general education teachers should have, of course. Unfortunately, in this case, it’s
obvious that the general educators didn’t care enough to bother helping the girl transition from the special ed classrooms where she’d been most of her life to a general ed classroom, so I don’t see any problem with putting Juanita in the special education classes where she’d been able to succeed before. “Many of these teachers and their students had always acted as if I had a scarlet ‘R’on my door (for Retarded Classroom) … Most of the time, regular education teachers never asked
my opinion on anything academic.” These sentences largely sum up the expectations this school district’s general ed teachers held of Isabelle – as a depository for students that are ‘just too much work.’ Going to Isabelle and complaining was about the extent of collaboration on the part of the general educators.
4. Ideally, special and general educators work together to include the student with mild intellectual and developmental disabilities (retardation not requiring intensive support
services) as much as possible in regular classes. What might Isabelle have done to try and work out such a collaborative arrangement to help Juanita make a successful transition into regular classes? What special problems might she have encountered?
I don’t know what else Isabelle could have done. She suggested that teachers modify their assignments to accommodate Juanita’s transition or at the very least to take Juanita’s transitional status into account when grading. She told teachers to stop just putting the problem out of sight and out of mind by letting Juanita spend hours in the bathroom whenever she became ‘difficult.’ She offered to do free tutoring, but got no referrals at all until she went to the guidance counselors and specifically asked to tutor Juanita. In the tutoring sessions,
Isabelle was able to correct Juanita’s inappropriate and avoidant behavior and make her comfortable enough to drive home. Trying to “include the student … as much as possible in regular classes” was just the opposite of what the general ed teachers wanted.
5. What aspects of this case involve multicultural issues?
At first, I just thought that the lazy general ed teachers were just trying to get rid of a “difficult student,” but the comment about how “Juanita was complaining to the seventh grade guidance counselor about having all Caucasian teachers, and they felt that [Isabelle] could provide the African-American influence that Juanita desired” made me wonder if they were also trying to get rid of “the black student,” especially given how teachers managed to form opinions about the girl after only teaching her for three weeks. I wonder if this school district was an affluent one, predominately white in demographics, and the teachers were so used to (white) kids with supportive parents and good home lives that they just plain didn’t know (or cared enough to
learn) how to deal with a black girl from a broken home who cried for attention and refused to do well in school.
6. Whose attitudes and behavior do you find most troubling in this case – Juanita’s, the regular classroom teachers’, or Isabelle’s? Why?
The way the classroom teachers didn’t even bother trying to help Juanita was incredibly disturbing and belies a deeper problem with the state of our educational system. Yes, teachers are put under a large stress load. Yes, teachers are given more and more students each year and have to cram more and more standardized testing instruction into less and less time. The fact that teachers are increasingly held accountable and a poorly-performing student in their classrooms could jeopardize their jobs might have been another incentive to have Juanita removed. Still, teaching is viewed by too many as a “fallback career,” and so many teachers just don’t care about teaching and just want a paycheck. Modifying assignments to help the girl
transition? Giving her credit for hard work and effort? They say that it’s “not fair to the other students” but what they really mean is “that’s too much work.”
Her mother ran off, her father wasn’t even in the picture, and we don’t know how good of a parental figure her grandmother is (If she raised Juanita’s mother to be how she is, that’s not really indicative of being a good parent), so I don’t think Juanita had any sort of learning disability, she was just stressed, depressed, and overwhelmed by her terrible home life and thus apathetic toward her schoolwork. Children without learning or growth opportunities at home just don’t do as well in school. “Several teachers also complained about Juanita's poor coping skills. Her shyness had always been a controlling factor in her academic and social development.” “If they gave her constructive criticism, suggestions, or reprimands, Juanita also ‘shut down’ and cried soundlessly.” Those aren’t signs of a child with a learning disability, they’re signs of a child who is abused, neglected, or otherwise psychologically damaged.
2. To what extent do you see evidence that the requirements of IDEA were being met by Juanita’s school system?
Before Juanita entered sixth grade, she was placed in a special education class where “her aptitude and achievement scores indicated significant improvement.” By the fifth grade, her teacher had “observed that mainstreaming had gone really well. Juanita had made progress in working on her own, interpreting what she read, and asking questions about the teacher's expectations.”
3. Who do you think should have been responsible for teaching Juanita? To what extent were general and special educators collaborating? What do you see as the central issues in role definitions and expectations of the regular classroom teachers and Isabelle?
The general education teachers should have, of course. Unfortunately, in this case, it’s
obvious that the general educators didn’t care enough to bother helping the girl transition from the special ed classrooms where she’d been most of her life to a general ed classroom, so I don’t see any problem with putting Juanita in the special education classes where she’d been able to succeed before. “Many of these teachers and their students had always acted as if I had a scarlet ‘R’on my door (for Retarded Classroom) … Most of the time, regular education teachers never asked
my opinion on anything academic.” These sentences largely sum up the expectations this school district’s general ed teachers held of Isabelle – as a depository for students that are ‘just too much work.’ Going to Isabelle and complaining was about the extent of collaboration on the part of the general educators.
4. Ideally, special and general educators work together to include the student with mild intellectual and developmental disabilities (retardation not requiring intensive support
services) as much as possible in regular classes. What might Isabelle have done to try and work out such a collaborative arrangement to help Juanita make a successful transition into regular classes? What special problems might she have encountered?
I don’t know what else Isabelle could have done. She suggested that teachers modify their assignments to accommodate Juanita’s transition or at the very least to take Juanita’s transitional status into account when grading. She told teachers to stop just putting the problem out of sight and out of mind by letting Juanita spend hours in the bathroom whenever she became ‘difficult.’ She offered to do free tutoring, but got no referrals at all until she went to the guidance counselors and specifically asked to tutor Juanita. In the tutoring sessions,
Isabelle was able to correct Juanita’s inappropriate and avoidant behavior and make her comfortable enough to drive home. Trying to “include the student … as much as possible in regular classes” was just the opposite of what the general ed teachers wanted.
5. What aspects of this case involve multicultural issues?
At first, I just thought that the lazy general ed teachers were just trying to get rid of a “difficult student,” but the comment about how “Juanita was complaining to the seventh grade guidance counselor about having all Caucasian teachers, and they felt that [Isabelle] could provide the African-American influence that Juanita desired” made me wonder if they were also trying to get rid of “the black student,” especially given how teachers managed to form opinions about the girl after only teaching her for three weeks. I wonder if this school district was an affluent one, predominately white in demographics, and the teachers were so used to (white) kids with supportive parents and good home lives that they just plain didn’t know (or cared enough to
learn) how to deal with a black girl from a broken home who cried for attention and refused to do well in school.
6. Whose attitudes and behavior do you find most troubling in this case – Juanita’s, the regular classroom teachers’, or Isabelle’s? Why?
The way the classroom teachers didn’t even bother trying to help Juanita was incredibly disturbing and belies a deeper problem with the state of our educational system. Yes, teachers are put under a large stress load. Yes, teachers are given more and more students each year and have to cram more and more standardized testing instruction into less and less time. The fact that teachers are increasingly held accountable and a poorly-performing student in their classrooms could jeopardize their jobs might have been another incentive to have Juanita removed. Still, teaching is viewed by too many as a “fallback career,” and so many teachers just don’t care about teaching and just want a paycheck. Modifying assignments to help the girl
transition? Giving her credit for hard work and effort? They say that it’s “not fair to the other students” but what they really mean is “that’s too much work.”