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As I look at a possible change in career, I still have to be thankful for the people that I have met over the past four years while working in special education. I think that all of education has suffered from the philosophy that education is a process that yields a product. That may work in business with machines, but I think it is much less effective with people.

It looks like the special education coop here is about to be dissolved. The question I hear over and over as I go from school to school is, "What about the children?" Who will take care of Stephanie if she is stuck in a mild program because that is the only alternative? How discouraged will the moderate kids be when they are mainstreamed? How can the rural districts cope by themselves? I heard similar questions when I was in gen ed, but the fact is that gen ed kids WILL cope in some way because they have the innate ability to do so. Special ed kids, for the most part, do not.

I know you have to look at money. I know you have to look at standards. But what about the children?

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