Blog Post #4: Cassie Guerrieri

Disproportionate representation in special education is an issue that has been in schools for many years. As educators we need to remember that these are children and we owe them an appropriate education. I feel that sometimes children are lost in the shuffle and are not treated as though they are as important because they are children. We must remember that children at the future. Education for All said it best “no characterization of the history of public schooling in the United States would be complete without considering the dynamics of race and education” (pg 132). Throughout the years it has been shown that minorities have always fought to receive appropriate education, this is shown through the various lawsuits; Brown v Board of Education, Diana v. California Board of Education and etc. I think that we are trying to place a more conscious effort on this but it tends to be overlooked by all the stigmas we put on children.

            I recently did a paper Youngstown community and it showed that almost 98 percent of their children at one school got free or reduced lunches and 61 percent of the population are a minority (city-data.com, 2016). If a child is embarrassed at the fact that they qualify for this then they could be skipping that meal and going hungry. When a child goes hungry they cannot focus on the school work and then can come off as lazy. This is a common misconception that I have seen happen first hand. It takes a teacher who really knows his or her students to find out what is really occurring in that child’s life rather than ruling them out as lazy.

There are also teachers who do not want to advocate for their children because they may have prejudices and they discriminate. When I was in the counseling program at YSU for a brief time they asked the most important questions, they said “what would you do if you had to counsel someone who was the complete opposite of you”. Most of us said we would accept their differences and move on but it really made some think. I feel as though this needs to be addressed in education as well but for teaching. There are so many times instead of trying to form a connection we focus on the differences and allow those to drive our emotions. In order to create a safe, educational environment for the students we have to focus on the positives. It is our job, our duty as educators to help them thrive not to tear them down. I feel that this is often forgotten because we are “too busy” to work on the connections. As educators our children come first, we are the advocates and it is our job to fight. We need to fight to make connections, for appropriate placements, no matter who is discriminating, and fight to teach them the way that they can learn.