Yes. Students leave special ed all the time. There are some basic things you need to know as an advocate for the mother (and that is what you are at this time). There are some basic FEDERAL laws and some state laws that govern Special Education. PL 94-194, IDEA, etc. IF you start researching this on the internet, you should find lots and lots of information. The mother has the right to call for an IEP anytime. She can have an IEP every week if she so desires. The mother is in charge of her child and the child's education. The teachers and everyone can disagree with what is happening and the decisions, but usually the mother gets the final say. So, if you were not happy with the last IEP, call another one! Call the schools and say you want it on x date at x time with principal, teachers, etc there. There is something called Least Restrictive Environment - This means that whenever possible the student should be with his peers. To this end, he might be in special ed for science to work on reading and math to work on math, but should be in regular PE, music, etc. Sometimes schools lose sight of the fact that it's often times better for a child to get a c or sometimes a d in a regular ed class when he's truly working than it is to get an a in a sped class. There is also something called modifications- that is what can be done, reasonably, to help the child in a regular ed. class- Some examples- maybe he can do ok if he can take his written tests to the sped room for reading help or for extra time to work on the test. Maybe he'd do ok in reg ed classes if he could do only half the spelling words. The above can be very controversial because a. it's not like this in the real world- your boss doesn't say- sure do only half the work and Jone's will cover for you. and b. because it is a bit more work for other teachers (both sped and reg ed) and I can go on and on- I've heard all the arguments. There is also something called meeting the needs of the child. The school must meet the needs of these sped children. If he is not in summer school right now, based on what you are telling us in your post above, I'd call the sped office (the main office of sped services in your district) and talk to the director. I'd try to get an IEP and get him tutoring or help on reading and math over the summer. I would also see if I couldn't get him extra reading class in sped just to concentrate on the weaknesses. This is what I did for a living. I did the IEPs and I tried to teach parents how to be advocates for their children. Many teachers are not as concerned about these students as I was. Please feel free to email me directly. I might be able to direct you to some sources or through some of this IEP/SPED maze. Ginger (apoemge@worldnet.att.net)

If you think English is hard, try learning Russian. You'll then see how simplified English is in comparison. Of course most Russians do not speak grammatically correct Russian, and so it is difficult for them as well. Also, much of Russian is idiomatic, and so a lot of things have to be learned by phrases. For example, to say it is raining, you say "идет дождь", which literally means "rain is taking a walk." The formal grammar is more complex than Latin, with more declensions, cases, and more complex verb conjugation. Also Russian has three genders, like German, but German only has four cases while Russian has six. In addition, much of Russian (like English) is irregular, meaning that even if you know the rules, one third of the time they will not apply. The one thing that is easy about Russian is its pronunciation - it does follow rules, although sometimes it is always possible to tell from a spelling. "e" has two pronunciations, "eh" and "yo" and you cannot tell which is correct unless it is indicated by an umlaut over the "e", but this is not used except in grammar books to teach the language. Portuguese also is not pronounced exactly as it is spelled. If you want to use a simple language, learn Spanish.

This year I gave my sister Mark Vieira's book, Into the Dark (Turner Classic Movies): The Hidden World of Film Noir, 1941-1950, and for Mark's birthday, I gave him aKierkegaard anthology, edited by Robert Bretall, which contains the best translations. I had Mark over for brunch week-end before last to give him his late birthday present because I wanted to read part of Either/Or to him to help explain why I was giving him this book, and he wrote me a nice thank you note afterwards. My sister really liked getting Mark's book, partly because I introduced her to him at his studio in Hollywood when she came to visit me one year. Right now I am reading the autobiography of Brenda Lee. I only recently discovered her very early (pre-teen) recordings when I saw her on MeTV on the Danny Thomas Show, during which show Danny Thomas advised her to put off her music career. Anyway, she sang Dynamite on that show, which I had not heard before and had to have. She recorded that song, along with Rock the Bop when she was 12, and they are my two favorite songs of hers - I'm not really a fan of country music, but I do like Rockabilly, which is what she recorded in the beginning. Her autobiography is really interesting and makes me like her even more. She got to meet Elvis when she was 12 and also tried to help the Beatles get a record contract in the '50's but was unsuccessful in that attempt. I seldom read novels any more - most of what I read is non-fiction, but I do read some science-fiction. I have a collection of "UFO, CONTACT from..." books (from Wendelle C. Stevens) that I bought at UFO conventions that I used to go to, and I consider those to be some of the best science-fiction books. I used to go to the UFO conventions with my friend Jimmy to listen to the outrageous (and often funny) stories that people would tell there, but they stopped having the conventions here after the year 2000, when their predictions did not come true.

I teach mostly freshmen at a public university. I have come to the conclusion that most of my students are mediocre intellectually (also, I don't teach the more gifted freshmen who test into the advanced composition class in the fall). Now, some of them seem to be better at science and math than English; they can solve a math problem with a definite answer, memorize for a test, but abstractions (ideas, ideologies, connections, parallels, analogues) and the ongoing intellectual curiosity that relies on analysis and synthesis and contextualization to explore them eludes them. And of course few actually read. The few (very few) that do read popular fiction. Most of my students are Hispanic in origin, varying in generations away from Mexico or other countries. Many are bilingual, which I actually think should be an asset to learning grammar (we only spoke English in my house; my Dad heard my grandmother speak Polish, but it was not encouraged in a family that wanted to assimilate in the 1940s); if one learns a different language, one has to learn the grammar, but they grew up speaking English and Spanish fluently. It's not like they went to school to be taught another language. Also, many of my students are Polish (Chicago holds the largest population of Poles next to Warsaw), and in contrast to my Dad's upbringing, many speak Polish at home, and even though they may have been born here, English is the second language. It is a challenge, and more so each year as the school takes in more underserved students who are more unprepared and need remediation. Some do show potential, but their background (as well their own internal struggles) often keeps them from achieving what they could do. And it's not just the minority students who are underserved; most of the students are struggling financially, and I've seen more who need to work full time to support themselves and their families. The traditional student who goes away for four years at age 18 and lives in the dorm and graduates in four years is more the minority. I could say more, but I've spent the last two days grading their first major project; I have so many papers to grade I cancelled class tomorrow (I gave them plenty to do in the interim) in order to get caught up. I do agree with some posters that basic writing techniques like cursive, civics, and grammar are no longer emphasized. Now, one can still learn them without the beat it into you/rote method I encountered, especially in Catholic school, but sometimes the new mediums to do so overwhelm the message,