Introduction

       In life there are always challenges that we have to face especially at a very young age. It could be anything such as a learning disability or something simple such as tying your shoe laces. However in my case I had a learning disability such as well as a speech disorder and it took me awhile to get to the point where I’m at today. You are going to hear about my journey and how I got through each step in order to improve myself. We are always going to have to face some hardships but its how we decide to deal with the problem that may come my way.

                                                         My Diagnostic

      When I was a toddler I had a speech problem which the doctor did not realize right away. The symptoms that I had which was part of the reason why they knew something was wrong with me was my behavior. My mother actually knew that something was wrong before she even confronted the doctors about my situation. My mother knew I was experiencing something because I use to throw temper tantrum, at home, in public places such as the subway, museum, restaurants etc. When the doctor’s had examined my ears they had found fluid built up in my ear which was considered to be the main problem. From that point on I had a long road of recovery to long forward to. In order to have the fluids removed from my ears the doctors had to perform surgery. The way the operation is preformed is that the doctors been under anesthesia in order to keep you sadated and then they put the tubes inside of your ears in order to drain the fluids. Then The tubes are suppose to come out on its own while your everyday routines such as playing around going to school or work etc. You not suppose to see it come out because the tubes are very tiny. Not even someone else could see them come out. That’s how small they are. There was one quote that in Paulo Freire story “Pedagogy of the oppressed” that made me think about the situation I was in “ Students as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge”.

                                               My learning experience

      When it was time for me to start going to school that was the biggest challenge of all. Due to the fact that I didn’t start to speak until I was two or three years old I had to receive special services such as being placed into a small setting, getting speech services, as well as extra time on the exams. The reason why I had to take speech services was to help me speak well since I was delay very late. In speech therapy the things that I was taught to do was to pronounce words and sounds, and read sentences which help a lot during the twelve years I spent in grade school before coming to college. Due to the face that I had a hard time speaking they couldn’t just put me in a general education setting. So they had no other choices but to be place in a setting where the classroom ratio is 10:1 or 15:1 which by the way was very helpful to me. Some colleges today have a classroom ration of 15:1. Had I been place in a larger setting with over 30 children I would’ve been totally lost. I was always in a small setting until I was in the middle of the seventh grade. That’s when I was placed into a CCT setting which is a larger setting with two teachers in a classroom and I’ve been there ever since. Back in the third grade they had decided to place me in general education class and my mother knew I wasn’t ready for that at the time but she decided that because they were in that field and they knew more than her that it was best to just try it out because they kept on assisting that I should going into a larger class. However my mother was right all along because I started to fall behind and that’s when the people who believe that I was ready for a big setting realize I wasn’t ready at all. I unfortunately had to repeat the entire third grade but it at the end of the day it pay off because I’m doing much better today. The movie that we had saw in class “Los Dos Mundos de Angelita” reminded me of my life experience with school but in a different way. In the film the little girl had a hard time speaking in English because she didn’t know language at all. She only knew how to speak Spanish. When it came time for her to go start going to school in New York City they didn’t have enough Ell classes so she had no choice but to be place in a regular education class with a teacher who didn’t really care at all. In the past I did at times felt like giving up but at the same time I knew that I couldn’t do that otherwise I be lost plus I had to trust myself at times and believe that I will make out in the world. Rita Tenorio from “Race and Respect Among Young Children” ask this question “ How much must a child trust himself, others, and the world on order to learn?”.

                                  My view of Special Education

    I was pretty much in special education from grades K-12 and I’ve seen a lot during that time. I had been challenge so many times in so many ways no one would understand unless they were in my shoes. I never had anyone say this directly towards me but before I was transfer into the CTT setting I overheard another student saying that “students in special ed are stupid and the only thing they do all day is just watch movies”. I didn’t get mad at all but someone else would have. But beside the negative views from others I knew that there are a lot of positive advantages of being in the special education program. You get extra services that a student in general education it like for example getting addition time on exams or projects, getting one on one help, having an IEP etc. From my point of view I believe that whether you’re in special education or in General Education we are all learning the same material regardless of the type of education you get. My goal is to become a special education instructor because I was a special education student myself and I would relate very well to my future students. If the children sees me, hear my student and what I went through chances are they would motivate themselves to do exceptional well in order to become something good. I would certainly make it clear to them not to let others say or do anything to make themselves feel a certain way. My main goal is to teach a CTT class as well as a small setting because I want to show kids that no matter what type of class you’re in we can always make a difference and make something good out of ourselves. Here is a section from John U. Ogbu story “Immigrant and Involuntary Minorities in Perspective” which somewhat relates to students in Special education being looked in a negative way “Both immigrant and involuntary minorities experience prejudice and discrimination at the hands of members of the dominant group. Both may be relegated to menial jobs, for example. They may also be confronted with social and political barriers, given inferior education and derogated intellectually and cultural, and they may be excluded from true assimilation into the mainstream society”.

                                                  Conclusion

   In conclusion I hope that you learn a lot from reading about my life experience in school and what I had to go through to get where I’m at today. It wasn’t an easy road especially since I had ear problems and as a result could’ve speak until I was a toddler. Then I had to be placed into the special education program into to get the help that I needed. I am totally happy that my mother made me get the services that I needed because without it I probably wouldn’t be in college today. In life there is a reason why things happen.