Special Education

Consider this: You are driving in traffic, it starts raining, and you can barely see in front of you. You turn the music down to focus on driving. Your brain can only process so much sensory input at a time. This is what is it like for someone with autism.

Dear teacher, You’ve been teaching us about types of writing: the difference between fiction and non-fiction; procedural writing; business letters and personal letters—like thank-you letters. I thought I’d practise and write a letter to you about teaching me. And “me” is a student who has a disability.

Each year, groups of students in British Columbia begin classes after their peers because schools aren’t sure where to place them. Administrators and teachers often spend the first weeks of school finalizing classroom placements. It can take nearly a month, and often happens while students with disabilities stay at home.

As the assistant head of special education at Vaughan Secondary School in the Toronto area, Tim Wesson describes his professional learning journey as one driven by the desire to improve the standard of living for autistic students and to seek ways to build partnerships in the school community.

Is there a formula that can be used to create a genius? This question typically relates to debates over whether someone has the innate ability to be a genius, or whether they can have their talents developed by parents and teachers over time through study and practice. In this context, how would someone like pianist Glenn Gould or an Albert Einstein be people that could be aspired towards? Does genius actually break down to a formula, or are there more intangible factors in play that can’t be reproduced?

Envision walking into a room designed by the King or Queen of Imagination and endless possibility. The room is dimly lit and you feel safe and calm. Its white walls bring a sense of peace and tranquility that you have never felt before.

Teachers need to be sensitive to the reality that there is usually more than one visual thing happening at one time like a teacher talking while expecting students to take notes of the lecture. Expecting a hearing impaired student to read lips and take notes at the same time is not realistic.

An inability to function socially or emotionally is as much of a learning disability as the inability to read. The tragedy of our time is that few people recognize it as such.