Special Education in Rural Communities

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Special Education in Rural Communities Christmas in January, I hurried quickly to the party, stereo in hand. Checking the time, I rushed across Pollock road to attend my first function as a member of Best Buddies, a community based program sponsored by universities throughout the world to enrich the lives of college students and adults with intellectual disabilities. I entered the room; a low buzz nagged at the edge of my hearing. As I placed my stereo upon the piano and plugged the chord into the socket, I kept my face adverted from the room. I struggled, as flashes of memory coalesced into bright beads, markers, and hours of speech therapy. If you are among the 2.9 million Americans with a Learning Disability (LD), you realize that LD has no cure; instead, you manage it in a series of patterns and behaviors (LDA 1). I was fortunate; my last moments in a Special Needs classroom were as a fifth grader leaving State College. However, I remember clearly Mrs. Weiss and Ms. White and their impact upon me. Years later upon my return from the Army, I found among my old things the posters, alphabet book, and little stories that had made me so proud and received such encouragement from my teachers and parents. Returning to the present, I turned back towards the room and walked to the table, pinning on my Santa Hat name tag as I went. Milling around me was a throng of adults, buddies and students. I meandered to the air-hockey table and saw an unaccompanied buddy. Hitting the puck to him, he casually returned the stroke and a conversation ensued that ranged from his prowess as a bowler, to difficulties with his dad, to the small escapades at his work, a local Sheetz. Talking in often excited tones, the intensity of the air... ... middle of paper ... ...d, expressed in alphabet books, stories, and posters. Works Cited Bureau, U.S. Census. Meeting the Challenge: Americans with Disabilities, 1997. Washington D.C: U.S. Census Bureau, 1997. Jimerson, Lorna. Special Challenges of the "No Child Left Behind" Act for Rural Schools and Districts. Washington, DC: The Rural School and Community Trust, 2003. LDA. Postion Paper of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. 2000. webpage. LDA. 12 February 2004. McIntyre, Alexander Ph.D. Special Education and Rural America. Washington D.C: Department of Education, 2002. MST. Multisystem Therapy: Treatment Model. 2000. Webpage. MST. Available: http://wwww.mstservices.com/text/treatment.html. 25 March 2004. Sitlington, Patricia L., Gary M. Clark, and Oliver P. Kolstoe. Transition Education & Services for Adolescents. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2000.

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