Learning disabilities.?

Question

I am middle age now.Do you think if the proper help

was available when I was younger(1960s-70s) that

I could have possibly been brought up to close

to grade level? Back then being in special ed

and not learning how to read or do math,what was the point in school for LD kids? My parents gave up

on me and said I would never amount to anything

no matter how hard I try. Everytime I wanted to go back to school to learn how to read so I could get a GED my parents said no that is a bad idea.

Why wasn't more help available and why did most

people in education gave up on me? I guess it was

easier and less work for them to tell me give up.

I was told I can not be helped.

Answer 1

First, forget what people said about you. I was learning disabled when I was in school and people gave up on me because of my learning disability. I went on to college graduating with high honors, memeber of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society for Junior Colleges, and made National Honor Roll despite my family making the ignorant statement "People with disabilities, learning or otherwise, will never amount to anything, and that I'm just wasting THEIR money going to school." My 20th high school class reunion is taking place next summer and many of the same people I went to school with who took AP Classes either went to college but  never finished or the graduated from college but they have some petty job that a 16 year-old college drop out can do despite the fact that they took AP Classes in High School and graduated with Honors.

Second, you got to believe in yourself. If you believe you will be a failure, you will be a failure. If you believe that anything is possible just as long as you just put your mind to it, everything in life will be possible.

Third, seek help, take action, and prove these naysayers wrong. Most community colleges do offer refresher courses students can take, if the students needs. I learned a long time ago having a "what-if attitude" gets you no where fast.

To answer your question "Why wasn't more help available and why did most people in education give up?", people gave up on the disabled because the "Normal People" have it in their heads that the disabled can't do anything else other than scrub some sh*tty, nasty *ss toilet for a living. The reason why I state this fact is because after I got hurt at work in 2004, I had the pleasure of being told by the Communist-wealth of Virginia that I was "An extremely simple man and I need to stick to what I know how to do", which is manually labor and nothing more despite having over 5 years computer experience backing me. This statement was made all because of my speech impairment.

Good luck! Prove to these *ssholes that you can be whatever you want to be, regardless.

Answer 2

It's hard to tell what the outcome would have been with a specific person/situation given proper intervention as early as possible.  At that time special education laws were almost non-existent, and certainly nothing compared to what they are now.  Now a child with LD MUST be provided with a free and appropriate public education, just like any other student.  People just didn't know then what they know now about LDs and about the fact that all persons can learn and progress.  Over time, with new research and professionals and parents advocating for change, special education has evolved and continues to evolve.

I assume from you message you have since learned how to read.  Did you ever go back to get your GED?  It's never too late to learn, and if you'd like to do so, do a web search or look in the Yellow Pages under Adult Education or check with your local community college for adult education courses.

Best wishes!

Answer 3

back then the mind set of a lot of people was not  the same as now and yes i think if you would have had more support yes you would have done better sooner  but you should be proud of your self because you are trying to better yourself so you should be very proud here is one thing I tell my kids the only limits are the ones you allow people to put on you or you put on yourselfs never let people tell you  that you can't do something you want to do having a disablity does not mean that you are disabled

Answer 4

It wasn't required until later.  The first major legislation was the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142).  PL 94-142 was a Federal law that laid out some of the very first special education requirements.  It has since been revised - the new law is called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 00-17).  Because of the lack of requirements, people were doing all they had to - at the time - which wasn't very much.