Top 10 Worst Things About Special Ed

Special education is often a challenging experience for many students. Here are some of the worst aspects of it for those who have been part of the system.
The Top Ten
You are not prepared for life

We don't learn anything at all! Special ed limits our course options, makes us fall behind in our classes, and ruins our grades! Special ed should be banned! Special ed is so annoying!

It's supposedly made to help you with executive functioning and other skills, but it initially doesn't help with anything and unnecessarily wastes your time.

Exactly! I have to get pulled out of class to learn things about emotions and do things that are for kindergarteners. It's just pointless!

You don't learn anything useful

I've been in the special ed program. Based on my experience, they don't really help people like me learn important skills or take on challenging tasks.

It is not useful to learn kindergarten stuff in a special school.

Not one damn thing taught in special ed is useful in the slightest.

Your teachers overreact a lot

YES! My former special ed homeroom teacher absolutely hates bullying. Once, my friends were joking around and having fun in the cafeteria. Then my teacher summoned the entire class back to her classroom and proceeded to yell and scream at all of us, making us all late to our last classes.

Her yelling was so scary (it was louder than all the screamer videos on YouTube combined) that it made me cry. She obviously didn't care because when I started crying, she yelled at me even more, saying, "DON'T YOU DARE START CRYING!" After arriving at my last class, I told my teacher and classmates what happened. They all felt sympathetic for me and agreed that my homeroom teacher was being very harsh.

You are forced to participate in something pointless

We should be able to have an opinion about whether we want to be in a small setting or not. The school is ridiculous.

Beyond pointless and moronic.

You get treated like you're dumb

My special ed teacher from middle school assumed he was always right, which he was not.

Even if you're intelligent, they'll treat you like you're 5 or something.

I was forced to do kindergarten worksheets in high school. I want to do algebra. I already learned how to tell time and count money years ago!

You feel like you are locked in a cage

My elementary classroom locked the doors and had an empty closet for solitary confinement, I mean time out. They would put you in there using illegal restraints (because it's never enforced) whenever you were slightly aggressive (loud voice, angry face, etc.). I once got put in there for 30 minutes for "throwing things" when I dropped a pencil when I was mad (and not doing anything bad, by the way).

We only go in one building in our school, nowhere else, and that's the "F block." It is the only block we had to be in, and it was downstairs. When we have our electives, we get out, and most of the time it feels like a camp, and it's very bad.

I feel bad for those who are in year 7 and 8 because they can't go out unless they're in year 9, 10, 11, or 12.

You are stalked by adults in classes

So true. My homeroom teacher in high school stalks us everywhere, not just in classes.

At least she doesn't stalk students while they're in the bathroom.

Yeah, it doesn't matter what class, but if they can stalk you, they will.

Always. It's like they're guards from a camp, and it is so uncomfortable. I know you're here to supervise, but it's so creepy.

You cannot opt out

Exactly, and it's stupid. We should be able to share our thoughts on what we think of the small setting stuff, and the school should also respect that.

Not only do they put you in on a dime, but it's almost impossible to leave. After all, they get paid per special ed kid, so they have to keep them in way longer than is healthy for them.

I was intentionally placed in this by my parents and the school district. I did not want to be there, but I didn't have a choice. I was forced into it.

Your teachers are unlikable

Some of them are actually tolerable, but most of them talk to me like I am 5 even though I am high functioning.

Not a single one of them is decent.

Only one teacher is, but she's probably going to get fired. They hope she doesn't.

You feel like you are back in kindergarten

For field trips, the class is forced to go to boring places that only kindergarten kids go to, like the fire station, zoo, and police station. We wanted to go to cool places, like Six Flags and NYC.

Also, if you're a non-believer in Santa, you have to pretend to believe in him because the other special ed kids are constantly convinced that he's real when in reality he is fake! In high school, a guy dressed as Santa came to the cafeteria to visit the special ed kids. I am a non-believer, but when he approached my table where all the other special ed kids were sitting, I played along to be polite. I just gave him a high five and shook his hand. I only did it because the special ed teachers were watching me, and if I didn't believe in him, the special ed kids would cry. I was afraid that the teachers would get mad at me for upsetting them.

The Newcomers

? Your teachers are patronizing

I don't even want to start about them. It's like one day you go to an anime movie in Japanese with subtitles with your pals, and afterward, you eat pizza together while talking about it. Then, the next day, your teacher acts like you're five years old and scolds you in front of the entire class for going out alone without any adult - even though I'm 21, stuck there by law, and basically an adult.

If that's not enough, they talk to us like babies and teach us such basic things over and over again that we're practically better than they are at it. But they still won't let us share our opinions about it.

? Your classmates constantly get you in trouble

Once, a kid put random stuff in my backpack, and I ended up getting a suspension for no reason. So stupid!

The Contenders
Your teachers are always nosy

Please stop demanding (not asking) details about my personal life, talking to my parents about my life, eavesdropping, and stalking me throughout the school. Not even my parents demand this much information from me, and it's none of your business, Ms. Special Ed Teacher.

They're nosy about just anything you can think of.

You can't get off the bus alone

When I was in high school, the kids on the special ed bus had to have a teacher present whenever they got off the bus. No exceptions. School starts at 7:30 AM. Sometimes it was 7:20 AM and the teachers hadn't come yet. The kids were still not allowed off the bus. The teachers did eventually come. I ended up being late to my homeroom several times because of this dumb and pointless rule.

The special ed teachers all say that this rule is for the kids' safety, but I believe that being on time for my classes is much more important.

You are taught things you already learned in PreK to 3rd grade

Seriously I know how to share, I know yelling is bad, I'm in freaking 9th grade, maybe you're the ones that need to go to kindergarten but only the bad part ( aka sped ) then you can learn respect.

My special ed teacher from middle school literally gives us work that we already know from K-5. That proves he doesn't know how to teach us properly.

My high school special ed teacher made me learn kindergarten math. It made me feel stupid.

Even if you know what to do, they intentionally remind you anyway

If I know what I'm doing, then why do you need to repeat it?

You have to watch baby shows

For a class holiday party in my special ed class once, I had to watch Rudolph and Frosty. I preferred "Christmas in Rockefeller Center" and the Macy's parade.

I watched Frosty and Rudolph often as a kid, but I find them kind of babyish now that I'm older.

High school. Jesus, we just want to watch Ryan Reynolds or something. Shaking my head.

You have limited course offerings

Special ed thinks it's helping you for the real world, but it isn't. It's limiting your courses and wasting your time. It ruins grades.

I want to take AP Psychology, but I can't because there is no AP in special ed.

I want to be an animator, but NO! Special ed only leads you to so much.

Your teachers babysit you

Damn, sometimes when my mom sends me to school in the morning, I say, "You know, there are a few 12-year-old girls in this neighborhood who want to work as babysitters. You can ask them to babysit your 17-year-old daughter instead of sending her to a school that treats her like a baby, even though she finished 2 levels of graphic design and game development, and 3 units of math, science, and English (I'm from a non-English-speaking country). It will be more useful!"

I was still sent to school because my mom admitted she knows I don't learn, but she wants a few hours of silence from me. By the way, I'm 21, and since the law in my country allows special ed until a student is 21, I'm still in this hellhole.

You must be accompanied to the restroom at all times

Remember that? We had those things called "aides" (like the disease, ironic, isn't it) that had to lead us to the bathroom. Isn't a hall pass more traditional?

Your teachers know your personal information
Your teachers forbid you to say certain words, even if they are not swear words

@Stazemar000 - This only applied to my special ed teacher. The other special ed classes in my high school allowed students to say these words. My special ed teacher banned us from saying those words in her classroom because she thought that "those words are not appropriate to say in high school."

You must use baby websites like PBS Kids

Yeah, all kiddy shows suck! We want Breaking Bad or South Park, not baby shows. All baby websites are boring. We want Wikipedia or WWC.

You ride to school on a bus full of special ed kids
You are forced to act your age at all times

They treat you like preschoolers, but you have to act like an adult. Heaven forbid the literal children act like kids and have a childhood.

(Students are telling jokes and laughing during lunch)
Teacher: Class, that's not appropriate behavior in school.
Students: We were just telling jokes!
Teacher: That's not allowed. You're in high school.
Students: >:(

You are not allowed to express your own interests

My friends and I sometimes sit at lunchtime and play mobile games and Pokémon cards. Sometimes we bring small fidget toys and use them in our free time. Once, a teacher watched us and said, "Guys, why are you playing with your phones, Pokémon cards, and toys? Why act like babies? You're in high school!"

Not to mention the fact that said teacher gave us kindergarten worksheets and activities. Math? What is the price of something? What time is it? Science? Watching baby shows with some science content. Art? Get your crayons, safety scissors, and non-toxic (or barely working) glue sticks. We're making finger puppets that you can use to put on a show for Mommy and Daddy! So fun.

Your teachers share your personal information with the whole class

I'm sorry, but that's too far. You shouldn't do that.

Don't trust teachers or the school counselor.

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