Early Childhood Special Education Roots Essay Example for Free

Early Childhood Special Education Roots Essay Early childhood special education that is practiced today has a varied and sometimes hard won history. Its roots are entangled in cultural, economic, and idealistic influences; each facet tinged by the colored lens of the times and adding a little glint to modern day practices. The conglomeration of historical theories and practices, political actions and enacted laws has paved the way to modern early childhood special education practices and programming. Just like a child learns and builds on his knowledge and understanding of his environment, so too does the practice of early childhood special education. In its infancy ECSE was not labeled as such, and in fact was simply teaching. Throughout history, many educators have had differing perspectives and opinions on how best to educate children. Many of those ideas and practices have popularly endured, and some have become very small portions of our current systems, or faded into obscurity altogether. One of the earliest models on early childhood education was the Montessori model. The Montessori methods and tools are prevalent in classrooms today, from individualized and sensory programming to didactic learning materials. Other early educators realized that even very young children benefit from instruction. Jean Piaget identified stages of development from birth to adolescence that still assist educators in identifying appropriate modes of teaching. Others like Robert Owen, John Locke and Lev Semenovich Vygotsky theorized that a child’s environment had a profound influence on his/her development and education, giving a foundation for current early intervention strategies in impoverished, urban areas. Vygotsky also gifted to forward generations the theories of the Zone of Proximal Development, scaffolding and ideas about special needs students working in least restrictive environments. All the way from these LRE’s, are the ideas of institutions. The residential school model however is still useful in some ways today. Samuel Gridley Howe and Dorothea Dix implemented supportive, residential schools for children with disabilities, but when the First World War had its grips on the country, the schools deteriorated into holding cells that pervaded until throughout the depression era. Politics and societal situations have always been instigators of change for education. Post World War II, many war veterans returned home with disabilities changing the attitudes and urgency in servicing individuals with special needs, spurring a profusion of financial and program support. Moving into the mid-20th Century, civil rights opened a consciousness about not only race, but also a socioeconomic dichotomy. Project Head Start was federally funded compensatory program, with a focus on aiding the impoverished; it would later evolve into a more comprehensive program for seeking and aiding special needs children and families. Many other programs and studies aimed at supporting young children with disabilities and their families began to appear, including Early Head Start, the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Perry Preschool Project, among others. These programs and research studies aimed at aiding and reinforcing the importance of early intervention for at risk children. Supporting and preemptively averting the struggles brought on by environmental disadvantages made the transition to special education support logical. With the social climate changing and an awareness of human rights, legislation regarding special needs populations was ripe. Perhaps the greatest catalyst to change was the enactment of PL 94-142 the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975. The foundations of this public law and the following amendments are the backbone of all special education as we know it today. This law has 6 main areas of concern. First, the right to a free and appropriate public education is bestowed. Throughout the coming decades, interpretation of FAPE comes up in many court cases, each ruling setting precedence for the future. Second, children with disabilities are given the right to learn in the least restrictive environment (LRE) a practice from centuries prior, but with legal backing, changed the model of public schools in this country. An Individualized Education Plan was written into the body of the IDEA, giving specific protocol for supporting the learning of each individual student. This item is the true workhorse of special education classrooms, bringing the student’s goals, objectives and educational plan, the educators, parents and the other support staff together in one document. The fourth premise of the IDEA is the guarantee to guardians of procedural due process, retaining the guardian’s rights regarding notices, evaluations, placements and other educational plans. Unbiased and multiple assessment criteria is the 5th area addressed in the IDEA. Lastly, part of the legislation includes the parents of special needs students, by affording them access to related services that would benefit the student. Related services was and is an area for interpretation, and again, many court cases have been tried and decided creating standards for what qualifies as a related service. Aside from these six main points, the IDEA has outlined much more. IDEA has given us a universal structure for classifying disabilities, and in a 1991 amendment, ruled that an umbrella classification for preschool aged children was acceptable and malleable state to state. This meant that children would not have to be prematurely labeled or stigmatized, when proper assessment was yet to be exacted. This law gave rise to the term â€Å"developmentally delayed†. A preschooler and his/her family could receive services under the classification of developmentally delayed. IDEA has also given individual states the leeway to define and exact methods of determining what developmentally delayed means. While culturally and regionally more specific, this leaves a large range of differences in qualifications across the country. Since its inception, individuals with special needs have reaped many benefits from the laws and boundaries set by the IDEA, but it wasn’t until October 1986 that very young special needs children and their families could be guaranteed services. While grants and incentives for states to serve the preschool population were available, participation in those programs were completely voluntary. The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments, or PL 99-457, passed in October 1986, mandated that all special needs preschoolers between the ages of three and five be provided with a FAPE . This law was enacted with the purpose of enabling early intervention and a cost effective preventative strategy to serving special populations. Part C of this law also makes services for infants, birth to age two voluntary. Adding preschoolers to the population of compulsory service made the use of IFSP or Individualized Family Service Plans prevalent. These plans are similar to IEP’s except that they comprehensively include the family and give leeway to assigning the role of the service provider, enabling professionals who are most capable of assisting each family to act. Unlike and IEP, the IFSP must be reviewed at least every 6 months, ensuring relevancy with a quickly growing and changing child. Related services including counseling and classes are now extended to family members. By sharing the process and improvement with the preschoolers’ guardians, we are able to see much greater progress with cooperative engagement. Along with the IFSP, PL 99-457 saw the requirement of an Individualized Transition Plan, aiding young adults in making the change into adulthood. Fast forward to 1997, and PL 105-17 made some important amendments to the IDEA. Related services are expanded, developmentally delayed category can be applied up until age nine, parameters and process around discipline is set. Functional Behavior Assessments or Behavior Intervention Plans must be enacted when providing discipline to special education children. Also, assessments for qualifying for special education are expanded, and Child Find reaches into private schools to deliver services to more children. Along with these changes also came a change in funding based on census data versus enrollment data. The percentages served translated to a fixed amount of funding, averting a glut of over qualifying students. Lack of English Language proficiency is excluded as an area of qualification for services. This is important with the rising populations of English language learners. With the number of children from non-english speaking families on the rise, achievement gaps were widening. The No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 was drawn to support impoverished, special needs and English language learners. This act is directly responsible for the Amendments to IDEA that came in 2004. One of the most important changes made was that of aligning the standards of highly qualified special education teachers to the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act. Inclusion of ECE teachers is yet to be enacted, however. The field and study of Early Childhood Special Education is a deeply diverse and ever evolving practice. Past experience has dictated that social climates, politics, events and laws all contribute to the programming of ECSE. The gains have been great, with dramatic increases in the numbers of children and families found and served, but as a nation, we certainly have some more distance to travel. With current legislation and social issues ranging from secure schools to better serving working families, subsidized healthcare, immigration policies or revamping teacher evaluations, the future of Early Childhood Education is unwritten and open to influence.

A Comparison of Perfection in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knig

Perfection in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The heroes of both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are fighters. However, the traits they have in common are far less numerous than those that set them apart. As each of the two is dubbed perfect by his contemporaries, it should be possible to draw the picture of both the model warrior and the paragon knight by comparing Beowulf and Gawain. The first question to arise is that of leadership. In Beowulf, the hero is referred to as "prince"*, the "helmet-of-Weders"**, or "master-friend"***. This is not without reason: in the times of the epic, might did literally make right. Therefore, he who was to be an accomplished warrior had to display a leader s qualities as well as combat prowess. As for the knights, they had their appointed ruler, king Arthur, and none thought of challenging him. Neither did any of the knights distinguish himself as a general; all their exploits were done single-handedly. Now, let us focus on combat. Beowulf fights a great many battles during his life, and while some of these are only briefly mentioned (the famous sea-monsters, for instance), the really titanic ones are described fully and with abundance of detail. The clash between the Geats and Grendel may serve as an example here: " Now many an earl of Beowulf brandished blade ancestral, ( ) The outlaw dire Took mortal hurt "* And so it continues for fifty-one verses. And this is but one of the heroe s armed encounters! Clearly, one has to fight much to be a great warrior The matter is quite different when it comes to knights. While Gawain's skill with sword and lance is highly praised throughout the poem, his battles are only hinted at as... ...e himself notices, "nothing is said of Beowulf's wife in the poem, but Bugge surmises that Beowulf finally accepted Hygd's offer of kingdom and hoard, and, as was usual, took her into the bargain"*** - which reflects the lack of concern a true warrior should show when dealing with women. There is, however, a trait common to the warrior and the knight: the two have a set of rules they should obey. And though the regulations that force Beowulf to come to Hrothgar's help are not nearly as neatly organised as Gawain's chivalric code embodied in the "pentangle"****, the idea of being compelled to act in a way dictated by generally accepted rules appears in both poems. We have thereby drawn the pictures of the ideal men of two different ages, and proved in the process how much the notion of perfection has changed from Beowulf to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Face the Music

File Sharing By Ehtisham Malik The company Napsterâ„ ¢ made headlines in the music file sharing revolution by letting people share music for free. ) Napsterâ„ ¢ and other services like it soon attracted the attention of the record companies. Lawsuits were filed to stop illegal music file sharing, and Napster was forced to stop. After these lawsuits, the Apple iPod  ® music player changed the way people listened to music. The iPod player was small and portable. It allowed people to carry their music with them wherever they went. Apple then introduced ITunes ® on the Internet.Their reasoning was that many people who were downloading music illegally would be willing to pay a small fee to get the music legally. Apple ® saw people were interested, and was the first to market a new music player and a legal music download service. About 70 percent of music downloaders use ITunes ®. Competitors have been slow to catch up, but there are new sites popping up everyday. Companies s uch as Wal-Mart ®, Musicmatch ®, Real Networks’ Rhapsodyâ„ ¢, and BuyMusic all have music-sharing Web sites. Napsterâ„ ¢ reemerged as a pay-for-music site. This well-known music site hopes that their brand name will lead to instant market sales and success.If you download music from the Internet, make sure to use a legal download site, such as those from the companies above. Always follow copyright guidelines to make sure that you are downloading music properly. Copyright Guidelines Can you legally download music for free? Yes, but only you can play or burn the music to a CD. Can you legally download music and then sell it? No, because you are unauthorized to distribute that music. Can you copy a store-bought CD from a friend? No, due to the copyright on the CD, you need to pay for it to burn a copy, or else you are stealing. All products names are trademarks of their respective companies.

Quantum And Physics Infinite Divisibility - 1522 Words

Infinite divisibility has been a historically relevant theme in mathematics and philosophy. Before we had the tools to physically show the mathematical nature of the infinite, philosophers speculated on what happens when a space was divided into infinite parts. Parmenides and Zeno created theories, and paradoxes to prove that infinite divisibility was so significant that the universe is in a constant, unchanging state, and using that to show that motion cannot exist. Aristotle and other philosophers critiqued these ideas by defining various grammatical forms of the term infinity, in order to clarify what the paradoxes really mean and how it is best to talk about infinity. However, all three of them were proven wrong with the development†¦show more content†¦Achilles will then have to reach this new location. By the time Achilles reaches that location, the tortoise will have moved on to yet another location, and so on forever†¦ if we do believe that Achilles succeeds and that motion is possible, then we are victims of illusion, as Parmenides says we are.† (Dowden) This paradox assumes that space is infinitely divisible. Therefore, the premise of this argument is that between two distinct points, there an infinite number of points separating them. If that is the case, then one can never travel from one distinct point to the other because that would require an infinite number of tasks. This idea is seen again in the Dichotomy paradox: â€Å"Zeno argues that a runner will never reach a fixed goal along the racetrack. The reason is that the runner must first reach half the distance to the goal. But once he gets there, he must then cross half the remaining distance, then half of new remainder, and so on. If the goal is one meter away, the runner must cover a distance of 1/2 meter, then 1/4 meter, then 1/8 meter, and so on ad infinitum.† (Dowden). A regressive version of this paradox also exists: â€Å"the runner cannot even take a first st ep. For, any step may be divided conceptually into a first half and a second half. Before taking a full step, the runner must take a 1/2 step, but before that he must take a 1/4 step, but before that a 1/8 step, and so forth ad infinitum, so AchillesShow MoreRelated Does The Void Exist Essay836 Words   |  4 PagesLeucippus agrees with fact that the universe is one plenum. However, he believes that the universe is made up of an infinite amount of plena. These plena are invisible and when they come in contact with each other they react upon each other. This creates quot;Phenomenaquot; or one might say movement. This theory is parallel do modern quantum physics. The universe is made up of an infinite amount of atoms and compounds. We have chemical reactions when they come in contact. Therefore, matter is constantlyRead More The Limits of Science Essays3754 Words   |  16 Pagesreducible to notions that are commensurable to that body. This phenomenologically clarifies some of the m ost important discoveries in contemporary science. The Special Theory of Relativity shows the dependence of space and time on the accounting system. Quantum mechanics displays the limits of observation (Heisenberg) and logical indefiniteness by compelling the creation of a macropresentation of micro-objects and gets around logic (Feyerabend) through the principle of additionality. Experimental science