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The administration tipped their hand this time. They are usually tight-lipped - preferring to attack from the blindside - hoping parents don't have the sense to stop the plan they put in place long before you ever enter the meeting room.
They want to outplace Cam.
I will fight this.
Past experience indicates outplacement is not the educational solution for Cam.
Past experience indicates that outplacement is socially and emotionally harmful to Cam.
As fate would have it, I came across Jeff Hunter's blog, Talentism, today. Reading his 2007 post titled My Son Won't Do His Homework gave me the push I needed to fight one more fight. He writes:
But school doesn’t care, because school does not have the objective of helping my son produce the maximum amount of value in the future that he will probably encounter. School cares about ensuring that he knows how to take tests, follow directions and can do math that he will never have to care about for the rest of his life. School cares that he can either prove that he is worthy of being in the top 5% that will go on to be homogenized and brainwashed in a top-notch school so that they are almost completely without originality of thought or perspective or that he gets the hell out of the way for those kids that meet that description. School cares that he can be measured and managed, so that he will be a good little cog in a habitual big wheel.What he says is true. You can argue with me all that you want and it will still be true.
This isn't because teachers are bad.
It is because the public school system is broken.
Shattered even.
I'm going into this meeting to fight one more fight.
I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure outplacement does not happen, even if that means declining special education services.
IEPs are supposed to be the equalizer in education. For Cam, the IEP has been used as a tool to segregate and exclude.
I can't keep giving the school a hammer and expecting them to tighten screws with it.
I'm going to take the hammer back.
