Dear Desert News Blogger Mary McConnell,

I am writing this in response to your blog post Further reflections on special education,

and your argument that the use accommodations in classrooms should not become a permanent

tool in the classroom. I do agree that there are some things that happen in a classroom that should

not, but I also strongly believe that every student has the right to an education that will help them

excel in life, no matter what their abilities or disabilities may be.

For many people and students to succeed in life, they need help. In a classroom setting

this is especially important because students need accommodations to be able to succeed. I do

agree that students can become reliant on these accommodations, but then again the

accommodations might be just what that student needs in order to gain the confidence in their

abilities, as well as an understanding of what their weaknesses are to better prepare them for

similar situations in the future. Through these accommodations you are preparing the student for

the future so that they know the precautions to take when in a similar situation..

In many cases when students read a question on a test inside their head, they don’t

understand what the question is asking, even if they know the answer. But if a student was to say

the question out loud, even in a whisper, this could help a student understand the question, but

this often gets a student in trouble for talking So, if you were to allow a student to go to another

room and say the question out loud, this accommodation is not only allowing them to understand

what the question is really saying, but also allowing them to show their true potential.

There are a lot of simple accommodations that can be made in order to help a student

excel in a classroom, but often times a teacher doesn’t want to make a student feel picked on, or

the other students ignored. But the reality of the fact is that you are not weakening their abilities

and not preparing them for the future, but you are allowing a student to understand what their

weaknesses are, so that they can prepare themselves for their future, and you are giving them the

proper tools to allow them achieve their greatest potential.

I do believe that there are some accommodations that should not be made, such as all test

are open book, but as a teacher you should always teach with your students strengths and

weaknesses in mind. When you keep student’s strengths and weaknesses in mind as you are

teaching and testing, you can help your students excel in both things that they already excel at

and things that they are not interested in or have not done well with in the past.

Another point that you address in your post is that these accommodations are not carried

through into higher education, and being a current college student, I know that the school offer

many accommodations for students with many different learning styles and disabilities. Because

research has been done on this topic, educators have become more open to the idea of

accommodations in a classroom and in an educational community. If we want students to have

an education where they actually learn what is being taught, there are accommodations that need

to be recognized and accepted in order to properly teach individual students.

Every student is different and has a different way of learning and understanding. In many

situations these learning and understanding differences are ignored because there is a

“blanketed” teaching methods that was taught to teachers to apply to all students, no matter

what.. With current teaching material accommodations should not be a main focus in the

classroom, but it is definitely something that teachers should be observing and discussing with

parents in order to give each and every student the education they deserve to succeed in life.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth J.C. Sauvé