Classroom Reflection

The thing that bothers me the most is the level of motivation a great deal of my students possess. I'm an adaptive physical education teacher and when working with special education students I've come to realize that a teacher can do more harm than good with these students if they continue to allow inappropriate behavior because of a students disability. I teach all grade levels throughout the week so I've had the opportunity to watch students grow and progress throughout the educational system. What I see in many cases is that teachers are allowing special needs students more slack than general education students when it comes to behavior and participation. A great deal of my students think it's okay to quit when they find things to difficult and then feel it's okay to just sit there and not participate. What kind of lessons are we teaching by allowing this kind of behavior in school. Most of my students enter a choice program at 18 to work towards finding a job. If they are pron to quit every time they don't feel like doing something or when someone tells them to do it better are we helping them become productive members of society or are we setting them up for failure. In a national survey of American prisons 63% of inmates surveyed said they had received special education services at one time or another. This is really scary considering that the average population of special education students in a school district in Washington is around 12%. We as teachers need to hold all students accountable for their actions and promote that never quit attitude in our students. An individual who is ready to quit when things get tough is an individual who is likely to have a hard time once their out of school.