why do handicapped kids go to school?

Question

why do handicapped kids go to school?
I think its pointless cuz the cant do anything with their life
im talking bout the ones who r in the wheel chairs and who are vegetables and cant move whatsoever. i think its just because the parents want a babysitter.

Answer 1

coz they're human beings too. Look at stephen hawking

Answer 2

Just because a person's body does not work like everyone the average person's does not mean their mind does not. There are special education programs to help those that need help with cognitive function and daily living. Here is an example of a person who has physical challenges but possesses the power of the mind:

Stephen William Hawking CH, CBE, FRS, (born 8 January 1942), is considered one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton), and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Despite enduring severe disability and, of late, being rendered quadriplegic by motor neurone disease (specifically, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease), he has had a successful career for many years, and has achieved status as an academic celebrity.

Answer 3

I hope you get this answer before I report you.

I think your question was very inapropiate.

personally, If you really want this question answered you need to go to a school(any one,private or public),you need to see how many kids have turned from not doing anything to saying "mom I love you".You might not think that's much because your heartless,but alot of kids have the misfortune of a disibility,but they strive on and get better.My god brother has cerebral paulsy,and yet everyone treats him as if nothings wrong.My BEST FRIEND has autism ,but he's the sweetest most kind hearted child I've ever met.

Even though I'm only 14 I love working with kids who have disibilities.I fill that sometimes besides their immediate family their isn't any love for them,especially from people like you.

Answer 4

Because they deserve to get the best education possible available to them, just like you. You would be surprised at just how much those kids can understand and do. I am guessing by your judgemental arrogant attitude, that you have never taken the time to even find out what kind of people they are. If someday you had a child that was handicapped, would you just close them away in some institution? That's how your question made you sound.

Answer 5

you know, these kids have parents who are like any other parent, who wants their kid to have as normal of a life as they can provide for them. ...and to have a babysitter, now that's insulting the parents, again. i'm not thinking you'll get this, and i wished that i didn't get your two points.

Answer 6

Because everyone deserves to live as normal a life as possible, even heartless, insensitive bi tches like yourself.

Answer 7

You never know if/when life and communication skills will start to "click." Programming should be lifelong, for ALL people. "Normal" people's programming includes school as a child, and college and on-the-job training, etc., as adults. Why should we refuse to allow someone the chance to be a better, more independent adult just because they learn so very slowly?

For someone apparently insensitive to these kids as, well, actual human beings, you should still understand this:

Financial gain for the community.

A growing child, of any level of ability, is MUCH more sensitive to any chance for learning than an adult whose brain and body have stopped growing.

Every skill, no matter how slight, a child can be taught toward independence and communication, reduces the amount of help they need as adults. The less help they need as adults, the less the government has to pay out for life supports. Many more disabled people are working today, at a greater level of skill, because of the instruction they received in school.

The more expert the instructor, the more independent the person as an adult, and the less the lifetime cost to society.

Progress for these young people is measured over months or years rather than days. But there is progress... rather than them just sitting around. Each step brings them into requiring a bit less support from others as adults.

I worked last year with a 4th grade (9 year old) with microencephaly (small brain) and profound mental retardation, confined entirely to a wheelchair, hands twisted and apparently useless, and non-responsive to everyone except her mother. Her ability levels were limited to the birth to 1 year range. Someone who people would label as a "vegetable."

Such a child is, according to most people, a "hopeless" case, both instructionally and medically. She had been "warehoused" in her prior school in a different state (if I ever meet those people, I'll personally kick them where the sun don't shine...both for their neglect, and for the falsified IEP document that claimed the child was learning to add and subtract, and knew her letters). The child had learned to be withdrawn, quiet, and non-responsive. Note that I say "learned." People like YOU had written this child off.

Her mother, unable to speak English (although middle class income-wise) and from a country where the schools did their own thing without challenge from parents, had NOT known just what schools could do for her child or her rights in the United States. The father focuses on work rather than child daily care, but obviously loves his daughter. The only reason why they were bringing their daughter to schools (prior to her coming to us), was that the law here said they had to.

This is a mother who clearly was a good, loving parent. The child was clean, correctly fed, hair done nicely each day, etc. Most telling of all, the ONLY person the child would turn to when we first met her, was her mother. As soon as I saw her vocalize and raise her hands to be picked up by her mother, I knew we had a chance with her for better things... she communicated using gesture and sound...although at a very early infant level.

I designed most of her life skills program, therapists designed other activities to build her alertness and strength, and we placed her with an extremely compassionate educational assistant with a disabled daughter of her own. Yes, the EA was an important part of the team, brought her experience to the table and was an invaluable resource. She took our plans and activities, and worked the real magic through her minute-by-minute attention to the child.

With love, AND highly-trained professionals working on bringing out her potential, by May she could:
--walk on her knees, and can bear a few seconds of weight on her feet
--vocalize in response to people talking to her (we will be working on producing phonemes next year)
--use a communication board to ask for her favorite things (from 2 choices only -- we'll be adding panels sometime next year)
--push buttons on electronics to cause change -- like turning the TV on and off (that was a fun one to discover)
--make eye contact and smile at people when they speak to her
--make direct response to her name
--use her wheelchair to navigate on her own... we are working on her learning how to do back-and-forth to get untangled from obstacles
--identify a couple of colors by pointing to the requested one
--USE HER HANDS! both for mobility and for holding objects. She now plays with toys... an important developmental step, as well as helping during her feedings and diapering routines (she has assigned tasks).
--and MOST IMPORTANTLY, understand words spoken to her in TWO languages (we do all instruction bilingually). She knows her name, "no", "yes," "wait," "now," "later," "music," "paper," "chair," "table," "toy," and other words.

We know she knows the time-related words because she won't bug us again if we tell her "no," if we say "wait" she usually gives us about 2 minutes and then starts vocalizing and gesturing again, and if we say "later" she settles down because she knows that it will be a while, but we'll get around to it.

During the last month, when she really wanted something and we would say "no" or even "later" (if she was feeling impatient), she would vocalize angrily back at us. Toddler-level temper tantrum! Growth! Yes!!!

If we could turn her from vegetable to responsive and starting to communicate in one year... WHERE WOULD SHE HAVE BEEN IF PEOPLE BEFORE US HAD ACTUALLY TRIED TO WORK WITH HER?

Other examples:

-- I worked with a child as a substitute teacher one year when she was in 6th grade, who could NOT communicate except by grabbing and screaming. She was a biter. She had a 1:1 aide to supervise her consantly. She would have been considered a total loss by someone like you.

I played a recorder-flute for the class for the one day I was there, among our other activities. She showed her appreciation by grabbing and attempting to bite my hand. Yippee.

I saw this child again when she was in 8th grade. She was carrying a communication board, and walking independently from the bus to her class. She saw me, smiled, and waved at me to come over. When I got there, she gave me a brief, gentle hug and then took out her communication board, pointed at the "music" button, then to me, and then waved her fingers in front of her face with a happy grin. She then pointed hopefully at my bag. No, I didn't have my flute with me. She was disappointed, but then smiled again and patted my arm. After 2 years, she remembered me. She was also in control of herself and her behaviors, was communicating effectively, and had "grown up" quite a bit emotionally.

I have many other examples, but you, I hope, can get the idea. Bringing a child out of darkness and giving him/her skills like this takes serious professional training, which is why it doesn't usually happen from parenting, no matter how loving. These kids NEED schooling, with appropriate specialists.

The second one, now, is an adult... and holding a simple job, living in a group home and helping to pay her own bills. She continues to "do her studies," and is trying to understand how the finances are done so she can get her own place.

People like you would have condemned her to a lifetime without communication, or hope.