Special Education?

I will warn you ahead of time that I am not against persons with disabilities, but rather look at society as a whole and determine the use of resources on those who will produce more efficiently as a better use of resources.

There are many debilitating diseases and disorders that affect many people around the world. Some just shorten the life span, some deform the looks, and some affect the mental development of humans. Every case is tragic, and I would like cures and preventions for all of them.

One thing about these cases that affect the mental development of a person that concern me as a future educator is how effective teaching them really is.

I know everyone is entitled to an education in the US, and I believe that should be true for everyone no matter what. But, depending on the severity of the mental disability, is there a point where it becomes more expensive to try to educate them and try to let them lead a life as close to normal as they possibly can? Or should we always strive to reach out to the full extent and spend freely trying to educate everyone to the best of our abilities?

Is it fair to the other students in the school if the school spends more money to teach a student requiring a constant aide, special transportation, free meals, and special classes, tutors, and other professional help than it does spending the same amount of money teaching five students who are not mentally disabled? (I picked an arbitrary number, just for the sake of argument)

Now again, I do believe that everyone is entitled to an education, but it does seem strange that we could be spending more money on one person who finds it more difficult to learn than on the five others when they could be provided with even more opportunities like extra-curricula activities, music, art, and after-school classes that they would be interested in if the money was spent on the other students.

Special education students need this money spent on them though. I would not like to deprive them of the education they are entitled to. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn, and who am I to take it away? In my opinion it would be interesting to see what could be done if the money spent on special education was spent towards the schools in general. The possible extra class choices could benefit the students and lead them on to things they wouldn't normally have chosen. But the same could be said about educating special education students as well. Still, if the money was put towards extra classes and extra-curricular activities, students might also be more interested in school because of it.

Another issue with special education is how much will a special education student be able to give back to the community? I know several who do, but I also know some who do not. Again it depends on the severity of the mental disability, but are we spending the money in a way that benefits every special education student, ways that benefit special education students that will be able to give back to the community, or ways that just benefit the majority? They are difficult to determine because I don't believe in sacrificing one person's education for someone else's belief, and would not be fair to the special education students.

So, special education is necessary, but what could be the possibilities if the extra money was spent elsewhere? It could be good, or it might not make a difference, but it would be interesting to know.