Reply to What happens in college? I'm constantly worried about DS' future

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]It was this exact attitude that caused her to unsuccessful - that her success was entirely dependent on other people doing the right thing. She had a multiple of services and supports accessible to her and she was well connected to the department that provides support to students with disabilities. Her problem was that she externalized all responsibility for her success - just as you have - if only others had gotten her different/ better help then she  would have been successful. The reality is that if only she had utilized the help and resources she had and looked at what she needed to do - she would have been successful. There will always be people who externalize all responsibility for their success on others and others who have a sense of agency and who work with those around them and the services they have to be successful. Given I was being accused of discrimination weekly by her whenever I didn't make her successful. By partway through the course  I was not in a position to do anything to assist her other than , I wasn't even allowed to speak to her without a witness present.

the attitude you have that it was my responsibility and not hers to make her successful is not a good one for you to pass along to your son. Teach him to self-advocate and to have a sense of agency that he can be successful by his actions (and accessing what he needs) and that it isn't other people's responsibility to make sure he does well.[/quote]

Your vision of kids with disabilities has obviously have been sullied by this one experience.

I understand teaching is not your main "responsibility" nor are you trained to teach it is publishing papers.[/quote]

I am one of the other college professors who answered on this thread. I am the PP who has had an overwhelmingly positive experience with students with learning differences and disabilities. But I want to say that I agree with what this other prof has written. A student's success--any student's success--will depend largely on the student's [b]attitude, approach, determination, persistence[/b], etc. I completely agree that students need to assume responsibility. Most colleges have good support systems and official readily help available, and it is entirely appropriate to use them. However, students also need need to be independent, organized and, especially, take charge of their own lives. In my experience, a great many do and that is why they are able to be so successful.

I now have a young child with severe ADHD so I know that imparting organizational skills or teaching kids to take responsibility or making kids independent are all tasks easier said than done. But, in the end, these will be the huge difference makers.[/quote]

So if you saw a student struggling, that was not given a benefit of learning how to properly advocate (but had made it this far) you would just give up on the student instead of pointing them in the right direction (because that is not your job and well you have had a bunch of other students that can advocate for themselves, then this student should). We have the benefit of being able to give our kids the resources needed to succeed but not everybody has had that opportunity.

There are resources at college to help these kids, why not point them in the right direction?

Don't you also agree that a successful teacher... any successful teacher will largely depend on attitude, approach, determination, persistence. How is your attitude toward this student, your approach, your determination, your persistence. Actually I don't see teachers having that very often but when you do itmakes a world of difference. I actually think this is why so many parents opt to homeschool, because it removes a huge barrier in learning, the teacher's attitude toward a student that look down on them and treats them as a problem.

Just because a teacher can actually be the problem does not mean that I am externalizing the problem. It is a factor and it is a factor that kids deal with every school year, LD or not. Some teachers are good and some just are not good and worse ssome are terrible.

LD kids are not any more a problem than a non-LD kid.

I always think of that quote teachers say, "If I have touched the life of 1 student I have helped change the world" (or something like that). I always thing "wow, 29 other kids ... wonder what they did today". [/quote]

I think you are conflating two different answers and maybe assuming that some of the other answers are coming from one of us. I am sorry if by quoting the first PP I made the thread more confusing. Again, in my experience what you say is true: LD kids are not more of a problem. I am not going to make this thread about me but I will say that I absolutely love teaching and want to see all of my students succeed. Often the most gratifying successes are the most hard-fought.

In any case, of course the vast majority of professors and administrators would point students in the right direction. That is a pretty minimum standard. The point is that in order to succeed all students need something more than just to be aware of the resources available to help them, and that something needs to come from them.[/quote]

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