"Citizens must speak up."
     Lawrence Wilkerson, Former Chief of Staff, Thursday, October 27th, 2005

• Local control (We know what's best for our students in our district -- not the President)
• States can and should say "no" to the underfunded IDEIA
• Protect civil rights through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• Provide reasonable accommodations through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• Emphasize an AVID-like, RWOL, success-based approach for students with academic difficulties
• Disinvent Learning Disabilities Now
• Fight against excessive paperwork (OPN!)
• Minimize meetings (one meeting every four years is reasonable)
• Maximize direct services (the real key to student success)
• Minimize labels (labels are harmful)
• Emphasize services... not testing and placement
• Fight against the myth of the "Magic Pill"
• Say "no" to National Depression Screening Day
• Emphasize respect and dignity in education
• Allow and encourage reasonable choices by students
• Allow and encourage student independence and responsibility
• Deemphasize authoritarian rule in schools
• Psychologists can and must step out of special education and work with all students
• Psychologists cannot effectively deliver services if they just fill out IEP forms
• Utilize educational psychology as science for students -- not to promote political or religious agendas
• Provide a meaningful and active curriculum for all students
• Let educators educate!  Let the lawyers worry about the 800,000 laws.
• Understand special education has become a restriction of trade... let educators educate!

What you can do:

Students:

• First, you must understand, that if an IEP team is trying to diagnose you with a learning disability, they are saying, "Look, it's not our fault!  It's your fault!  You have some kind of a brain disorder... we'll do the, uh, best we can, but don't expect much."
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, say, "No, thank you.  I choose not to be part of special education.  If you feel I have some sort of a 'condition' or 'disability,' my civil rights will need to be protected through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  Please immediately schedule a §504 meeting to determine my eligibility and accommodation plan to insure you do not discriminate against me any further."
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, say, "Look, let's be honest, the real problem here is I hate school and I just never do my homework."
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, say, "Please don't give up on me!  All I want is help with math.  Don't just give up on me and ship me out!  Please!  I beg you!"
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, ask, "Why do you hate me?  Why are you calling me such hurtful names?"
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, say, "I'm willing to consider all options.  But first, I'd like informed consent.  Please explain to me what a learning disability is."  Listen very carefully to the answer.  See if you are pursuaded.
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, and it looks like you're going into special education, sign the "Disagree" box (everyone has a right to disagree).  State your honest views in a brief letter of dissent... but in your letter, be sure to include the following statement:  "All I want is a free and appropriate education -- not "special" education!"
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, say, "What about [John}?  His grades are twice as bad as mine and so is his behavior... why are you targeting me?  Do I look like a victim?  Why don't you pick on him?"  When someone on the IEP team answers, "We're only trying to help," say, "sometimes to help is not to help.  I don't want your help -- all I want is a free and appropriate education!"
• If an IEP team is trying to disable you with a learning disability, say, "Prove it!  Prove to me the problem is in my brain and not in your's!  Go ahead, let's compare CAT scans, right now!"
• If an IEP team is trying to ship you out to the back forty because you "are not progressing in the curriculum," say, "Why don't you provide a meaingful curriculum then?  Do you know I can learn more in four hours on the internet in one night than you teach me in one semester?  Why don't you try to sit through 180 of these classes you offer?"
• If an IEP team is trying to recommend a reading program for you, say, "Let me get this straight... just because I struggle in reading, you want to call me a bad name and provide six more years of reading at the third grade level?  Why don't you provide acceleration for me instead of your, uh, remediation?  I would actually like to improve my reading skills."
• If an IEP team is trying to keep you in special education during your three-year reevaluation, say, "Look, let me outta' this placement... it had some potential to help me, but all the special education teachers and support staff spend all their time doing paperwork, holding meetings, or going off to court... what's the use?"
• If you are in a situation where anyone from the school inquires regarding your medications or mental health services, politely respond, "I think that's none of your business.  What meds are you on, teacher?  How often do you see your therapist?"
• Step up and say, "I don't have a learning disability -- you have a teaching disability!"
• Organize a schoolwide "No more special education" [peaceful] protest day at your school.
• Write your president, congresspersons, senators, principals, board of directors... anyone who will listen.  Ask them to disinvent special education and the concept of learning disabilities.
• Join the KOG Revolution... if you speak up, the system will listen -- I guarantee it.  Would you rather schools keep blaming students (i.e., "you have a learning disability") or have the schools step up and take responsibility for themselves, just once?"

Teachers (both General Education & Special Education):

• Speak up against excessive paperwork, red tape, and beaurocracy.
• Question the existence of learning disabilities.  They are invisible, after all.
• Write consistent letters of dissent for any case involving the identification or placement of any student into special education due to a SLD -- you have a right to agree or disagree with any IEP team decision.
• Start an AVID-like RWOL program in your school or district.
• Realize there are thousands of reasons why a student can get an F... a learning disability (if there is such a thing) is just one... always look at the easiest explanation first... don't automatically assume it's a brain disorder.
• Quit diagnosing students with AD/HD.  First of all, that's malpractice.  Secondly, low attention is probably due to boredom -- not AD/HD (provide a meaningful, hands-on curriculum); and finally, give me a break... there's enough AD/HD students already, don't you think?  Give it up.  The magic pill doesn't work.  Even if the student does have AD/HD, the label won't help that student's education improve.  If the label in any way helped a student, I'd be the first to stand up and say go for it.
• Make education somehow relate to real-life.
• Use success-based strategies for your students... not failure based.
• Remember, we in the schools ask students to sacrifice the first eighteen or more years of their lives.  That is a significant period of time.  We're all in this game of life together.
• Remember that just because a student is not progessing in your invented curriculum as you would like, that is not necessarily a reflection on you -- quit taking it personally and punishing the child by calling them a bad name and shipping them out.
• Write your president, congresspersons, senators, principals, board of directors... anyone who will listen.  Tell them you only want to teach... not fill out forms, attend meetings, and pretend you're some kind of lawyer.
• Join the KOG Revolution.  Enough is enough.  The government isn't going to make things any better.  You're on the front lines... would you rather just teach a student to read -- or keep having 130 meetings a year with 13,000 forms and 118 missed classes due to meetings, all the while worrying you're going to get sued because you're not a lawyer?  Your choice.

Parents:

• Remember, this is about your child -- not you.
• I'm asking you to look at things differently.  In the past, parents have always looked toward special education to provide intensive and individualized services for their student;  at the present, I'm asking you to understand that calling your child "brain disordered" is not something you should be fighting for... it is not in your child's best interest to have a brain disorder unless s/he really does have a brain disorder.  You should be fighting to keep your kid out of special education... not fighting to get your kid into special education.
• Understand that, even though you are hoping for services for your child, placement in special education may not be in your child's best interests.  Does your child really have a "brain disorder?"  Might the probems be due to something else?  Like a need for a better curriculum, for example?  Or maybe s/he needs to improve attendance and motivation?
• Understand that, whenever anyone calls your child AD/HD, what they are really saying is, "we don't know what the problem is, but the parents have great insurance and we can get a great kickback from the pharmaceutical company if we can somehow get this kid on meds; then we'll fool the school district into shipping the kid out, never to be thought of again, and we'll be set for life."
• Understand that, whenever anyone calls your child AD/HD, they are providing your child with an excuse for life whenever anything goes wrong... is that really what you want for your child?  An excuse?  Wouldn't a little self-responsibility be a better option?
• De-emphasize the lawsuits against the evil public schools... do you really think three years of an ongoing lawsuit will make things better for your kid?  You'll win of course, but is that truly what's best for your child?  What's best for your child is independence, respect, dignitiy, choices, motivation, success, responsibility, encouragement, and the chance to learn from the consequences of their choices, just like you and I did, etc.  If you want to sue someone, sue the federal government for not allowing local control of schools.  We're only doing what the President directs us to do... we would much rather be doing what is in the best interests of your child.  If you're going to sue, don't sue Frankenstein, sue the mad scientist who created Frankenstein.
• Understand that, anytime an IEP team gets together and recommends special education due to SLD, they are really saying, "We don't know... we give up... let's ship this kid out.  It's his/her problem -- not us!"
• Just once, I'd like to see a parent sue general education.  If your kid isn't succeeding, maybe general education didn't provide a free and appropriate education?  Ask that question to yourself.  It seems that special education was invented to set a convenient target to sue.  The new IDEIA has streamlined that process to make it easier for you to take your eye off the target.  I'm tired of being a target.
• Ask for 504 instead of special educaiton to provide reasonable accommodations for your child; that's the way it works in the real world.   Think about it -- nowhere else in the world is there special education... only in the public schools.  There will be no special education for your child when s/he is 24.  Why not start preparing for the real world now?
• If an IEP team is sitting down and saying, "your child has a learning disability," say "Hah!  That's the best one I've ever heard!  You're saying my kid has a brain disorder but the truth is you're not providing a meaningful curriculum for my child!"
• If an IEP team is sitting down and saying, "your child has a learning disability," say "Hah!  Prove it!  Prove to me my child has a brain disorder!  Go ahead, give it your best shot!  You got a CAT scan or something?"
• Remember, once your kid is in special education, s/he is in special education for life!  Are you willing to set your kid's future in concrete this way?  If so, remember, a lot of people will be making a lot of money off of your kid during his or her lifetime.  Is that really what you want?  Wouldn't you rather have your kid being the one making the money?
• If you do get fooled into thinking your child has a brain disorder, and you agree to services, say, "Okay, we'll try this for one year... one year from now I expect my child to be performing at grade level... if this special education process is so dang good, then let's see some intensive, individually-designed, interventions to help my kid.  One year from now, I'll expect him to be graduating out of special education at grade level!  If not, I can only assume the school has made a gross misdiagnosis for my child and there will follow the lawsuit of all lawsuits!  Let's see the goals and objectives you've developed to address my child's brain disorder... and they'd better be good."
• Instead of suing because the school failed to diagnose a learning disability, try suing because they district actually diagnosed a learning disability!  No one really knows what a learning disability is!  It would be a sure winner in court!
• If you do get fooled into thinking your child has a brain disorder, and you agree to services, don't think you're going to single-handedly change the system through the courts (thousands have been trying for years)... special education has been specifically designed to effectively deal with lawsuits... special education is lawyered up. 
• Write your president, congresspersons, senators, principals, board of directors... anyone who will listen, about school districts systematically calling students brain disordered.  Ask them to help stop this practice.

Thirty years from now, the masses will look back at public education and say, "They did what?  They called the students bad names and shipped them out?  They actually did that to our precious children?  What a cold, cruel, inhumane system they actually had back then.  It's hard to believe they actually did that back in the dark ages of education."
 

Psychologists:

• Step out of special education.  The arts and sciences of the noble field of psychology and the day-to-day practices of special education no longer go hand-in-hand.  School psychology is all about providing effective services for students and empowerment; psychologists can no longer ethically remain in a system that is geared merely toward the successful completion of forms, ritualistic occurances of meetings, and the systematic sorting and disabling of children.
• Speak out against learning disabilities... you know the research as well as I.
• Speak out against the DSM in the schools... you know a student's medical/psychiatric diagnosis is none of our business... we're in school to educate -- not pass out pills.
• Remember our first ethical principle, "cause no harm."  Does it really cause no harm when we administer a test and, based on one or two subtests, tell a student s/he has a "brain disorder?"
• Quit placing someone according to the appropriate CASEMIS or SELPA code;  if the computer system doesn't have an appropriate code for FAPE, that's a problem with the computer -- not the IEP team.
• Put a disclaimer into all of your SLD reports stating [something like, in your own words of course], "The IEP team will need to determine if this student qualifies for special education under the educational handicapping condition of SLD (it's a team decision --not your's).  And if there's a big subsequent lawsuit, it's best if you're all in this together!
• Put a disclaimer into all of your SLD reports stating [something like, in your own words of course], "There is some research indicating the possible existence of learning disabilities and some research which does not support the concept of learning disabilities.  There exists much debate and controvery related to the accurate assessment and treatment for learning disabilities.  Ultimately, learning disabilities are in the eye of the beholder.  The purpose of this report is to seek interventions, strategies, and services which will hopefully be beneficial for this student based on this student's educational needs."
• Write a letter of dissent anytime any IEP team meets and tries to disable a student with SLD... there are a hundred reasons to do so.
• Write your president, congresspersons, senators, principals, board of directors... anyone who will listen regarding the concept of LD, excessive red tape and paperwork, and anything else related to the principles of the KOG Revolution.  And then ask them to get out of education.
• Join the KOG Revolution.

Administrators and Directors:

• Realize Special Education is a thing of the past.  It was a noble experiment, but start moving into the future.
• Realize that no one is going to give you local control... you have to stand up and take local control.
• Allow and encourage your staff to think and use their professional judgment... that's what you hired them for and what the taxpayers expect.
• Refuse special education funding.  It's underfunded and a big money loser.  Who has less than a year before retirement and will have the courage to take this fight all the way to the Supreme Court?
• Replace special education with AVID-like interventions. 
• Utilize 504 instead of special education.
• Question anyone who ever utters the words, "learning disability."  Make them explain themselves.  Ask them to cite research.  Ask them to cite the legal definition (I bet 9 out of 10 service providers cannot even cite the legal definition).  Ask them if they really believe the child has a brain disorder.  Ask them if they really believe a student has a memory disorder just because the student scored at the 9th percentile on a subtest.  Ask them if they really have tried everyghing possible.  Ask them if they really are ready to give up on the kid.
• At every IEP meeting, ask all involved, "What's the real problem?  No psychobabble, educationaleze, or legaleze allowed!  What is the real reason Johnny is failing math?"
• Join the KOG Revolution.

• Understand and realize the real power you hold since [special] education is a legal -- not an educational -- process.  Decide you are going to do what's ethically and morally right... not just what's "legal."
• Realize your power.  If this was a football game, you are the referee and the team owner and the rules committee and the head coach.  You control the game.  It's not the players.  It's you.  What will you do, what will you do?
• [If this applies to you] Quit bending over backwards to sue the schools at the drop of a hat just because a goal was delivered one day late -- give me a break!  If you want to make the world a better place, sue the federal government for restriction of trade... none of us can do our jobs because we're too busy being lawyers.  You can sue me, but that's like taking candy from a baby... don't sue Frankenstein -- sue the mad scientist who created Frankenstein.
• Speaking of suing someone, why don't you sue general education a few times?  They're supposed to be providing a free and appropriate education too!  They just don't have to document everything.
• Please contact me... I will no doubt be needing your services soon.

State Departments of Education:

• Stand up and say "No" to IDEIA!  Say it today!  The whole thing just doesn't work anymore.  It's not because we're not trying.  It won't mean anyone's jobs.  You won't catch any heat because everyone recognizes how harmful the whole shabang is... special education is a money-loser and is disabling your state and country... you have plenty of the best legal representatives available (I don't)... the State Department of Education can, for once, step up and be a leader here.  A free and appropriate education while still protecting every student's rights can be provided through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  Which will be the first state to step up and do what's right for your student-citizens?  New Mexico tried to say no way back when and failed -- I guess a few other states did too.  But this is a new time and a new place.  Kentucky recently stepped up and challenged NCLB.  Join the KOG Revolution now. 

Other Stakeholders:

• Are you a stakeholder who has more input?  You've enjoyed all you can stand?  If so, please forward your views now.  We need your voice... the government won't make things any better on it's own -- the government will just keep adding new layers of laws and regulatons.
• Are you a stakeholder who has recognized what is being stated here?  If so, Join the KOG Revolution now.

"Government is force."
     George Washington

Join the KOG Revolution NOW!

Here's how to join:

1) Diligently perform one or more of the goals, principles, or actions identified;
2) Share this page with at least ten others -- ask each to share it with ten others;
3) Send your success stories -- or failures -- to the KOG Editor;  all entries, pro or con, will be published in the KOG.
4) Discuss any aspect of the KOG Revolution, pro or con, in the KASP Discussion Group;
5) Emphasize local control, disinvention of SLD, and legitimate paperwork reduction.

Good luck to us all,
Don Asbridge, KOG Editor
shrink@igalaxy.net
 
 

LCD TV Reviews