Reply to What do Grads do AFTER all the accommodations?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So there's this cohort we've discussed at length that have had testing, homework, classwork, and so many other accommodations. Clearly we've discussed whether they are legitimate or not, and it sounds like certainly the case for many, but the volume at top universities beggars belief.

Are the accommodated somehow able to hack it in working worlds? Do they up their game? Do they take what look like serious credentials down the working ladder to somewhere less prestigious/rat-race-like? Did they never really need accommodations and were just trying to maximize results, to "play the game" and beat their peers who don't seek extra time, etc.?

I just get curious about the endgame, after graduation.[/quote]

As the parent of a kid who needs and gets accommodations, I can say that a) parents do worry about how our disabled kids will fare in life; but b) workplaces are required to accommodate.

But you sound like you think we're just making it up. Based on IDK, since you haven't met my kid or others. Let me ask you - why do you think this is any of YOUR business since none of this affects your kid? [/quote]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/40-stanford-undergrads-receive-disability-154137833.html

When 40% of stanford students receive academic accommodations, you can see why people might feel this way.

It is a form of cheating and cheating affects everyone, not just the cheaters.[/quote]

I don’t know if it’s cheating but it certainly makes me think of elite schools in a different light. How does one of the best colleges in the country have a 38% disability rate (which I know is not just academic accommodations)? At some point it will be the majority of students. How can the supposedly smartest and most driven kids in the country need special accommodations to succeed? Meanwhile at UMBC, a diverse local school with far lower average test scores, the percentage is 11%. [/quote]

I mean, for one thing, UMBC has a lot more commuter students. Try to compare a school with similar on-campus residency rates.

But also, why is this a problem? What is the problem with a student needing a single room or adaptive software or wheelchair access or food that is safe for them to eat?

How about, yay, Stanford is probably doing a really good job of supporting a wide range of students who in the past might have struggled unnecessarily or encountered prohibitively high barriers to entry?  Think of all the brilliant students who are being supported. Why is it a problem?

And if it is a problem, why do you assume the problem is with the students and not with the design of our educational institutions? Maybe they should be designed to work better for a widest possible range of bodies, nervous systems, communication styles, modes of vision, hearing, immune response, sensory sensitivity, optimal information processing mode and output capability?

Maybe part of the issue is that we're trying to use a system of education whose core structure has remained substantially unchanged in the past *hundred years* despite massive social, economic, and technological upheavals -- if not revolutions -- in the same time period?

But no. Instead of investing resources in educating each and every student using identified best practices, respecting student strength and agency, and making the system better -- we &lt;gestures wildly at billionaires and corrupt politicians siphoning wealth off of the citizenry and funneling it into dragon lairs worldwide.&gt;

tl;dr There might not be a problem at all -- but if there is one, it's not what you think it is. [/quote]

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