Different Learners.

For my topic this week, I chose to address special education at Hillcrest. This school offers a wide variety of support, from full inclusion classrooms to a separate life skills class for those students with more severe disabilities. On the surface I think this school has a great special education program. The particular class that interested me was life skills. These students come to music twice a week; once a week with the rest of the life skills students and once integrated into a grade level. As a teacher, I often feel that aspects of these students’ music education are limited. In the life skills classroom, the class is run at about the level of a kindergarten class. My issue, however, revolves around the fact that nothing new is ever introduced to these students. I do realize that repetition can be very beneficial with these students, but they have the same five or six songs and same instrument activity they do every week. To me, it leaves a lot to be desired. When these students are integrated into a regular classroom music class, I feel they can become “invisible.” One of the life skills aides agrees with me. She says, “Sometimes teachers will tend to overlook my students and that's a challenge. They will automatically assume the students can't do it. They will not include them in things.” I have noticed this even in music class—life skills students are simply “there,” there is little to no effort to adapt activities to meet their needs. For example, the other day our forth graders were reviewing the string family of the orchestra and were going over answers. One of the life skills students kept calling out right answers (which is something above and beyond what was expected of her). However, she was never acknowledged as having the right answer and was never called upon to provide an answer for the class, even though she clearly had an understanding of what the class was discussing.

With this being said, I have noticed huge support of these life skills students from others at Hillcrest. The same teacher says, “The regular ed. students are usually wonderful and very helpful. Even that has to be monitored because sometimes they want to do everything for our children and of course our main goal is independence.” I think this relationship is important for both students. Life skills students are provided with a safe environment and understanding from peers. The “regular ed.” students are provided with the opportunity to see and appreciate different types of learners.