Empathy is a side lesson, doc, not the primary one, but its still not a bad one to get in situations detached from one's parents and like it or not as long as children will be with someone other then their parents for 7 hours a day they are going to learn about behavioral lessons from someone else(and I would consider teachers a part of a child's 'immediate community' when they spend so much time with them).
We will have to agree to disagree......I can only speak from my experience, but it seems that when "empathy", and "self esteem" became common phrases in our educational system, kids began graduating from HS without the ability to read, or make change in a business environment.....
I think that there is certainly a place in the educational system for children with disabilities....so long as they do not interfere, in any manner, with the progress of the class as a whole. If a teacher is spending an inordinate amount of his/her time attempting to control/coach/lead/compensate several "special needs" children, and the remainder of the class is sitting there waiting for the next set of instructions in order to progress, the class as a whole is being deprived of their due.
I have no problem with classes for special ed kids, but I have a BIG problem with "mainstreaming", in its various permutations....I've seen it in action, and to an extent, the normal kids are getting robbed.....
Instead of empathy in the classroom, I would expect teachers to spend that time on discipline.......
doc
Nice way to discount empathy by throwing it in with something we all know gets a hell of a lot of bad press(and should the way its been used)---self-esteem. Nice! They are not the same...let's settle that first. And it is undeniable in an environment where children spend the majority of their waking hours, that they will be learning other things besides the basics. This was even true hundreds of years ago when children had tutors, were sent off to school, or whose parents taught them. You can not seperate emotional learning from academic learning. The sheer amount of time spent at school makes that impossible. So, while they are there, what are they going to learn becomes the question? I can think of worse things to learn then empathy can't you? Self-esteem is a very self-centered concept, empathy is not.
And while analytics and practicality are important, so to are ethics and ethics aren't learned in a book that teaches one algebra. Ethics are learned by what we see around us, whether at home or outside of it. An integral part of ethics is being able to put yourself in the position of someone else ie empathy. They reflect our values and what do you think those kindergartners learned that day? And again, that is the other point, this is about a KINDERGARTEN class. I will ask you again, in a class full of distractions, how is an autistic child a problem? Have you ever been in a kindergarten class? The autistic child is probably the most reserved and quiet at that point becuase of the communication problems.
As for not interfering...all children are 'inconvenient' in that way, tvdoc. At some point in time every child in a classroom except the most introverted 'disupt' the class in some way. Children are children, they are growing and learning and have behaviors that consistently need to be addressed.It also doesn't kill kids to realize that life is messy. They will have to live with distractions in all situations: they home, their jobs, and just living life. They will adjust and be fine. I'm sorry, but I don't buy your argument. I think it is the grown ups who have a problem with this more then the children do. I also do not believe you really understand how mainstreaming works in some area. The 'regular' teacher, in my disrict anyway, is not alone with all the kids. The special needs children(2 or 3) have an aid who works with them alongside. The regular teacher does not address their special issues and they adjust their day accordingly if it is especially difficult for them(the aid does, not the teacher). I would venture a guess that the teacher spends more time redirecting the normal children then she does any of the special needs kids because of that, so AGAIN, given those circumstances, what other reason when that interruption is taken away do you have for excluding special needs kids from a regularly classroom part of the time? I still don't see a reason except they represent the 'messy' part of life. And you are right, this is an area I part ways with conservatives. I consider many conservatives on this issue cold and totally out of line with their pro-life views(the ones who have them). Also this conservative notion that school should be totally practical and have no emotional dimension or depthy too I consider to be total rubbish and very out of line with ethical principles found even in very practical areas of business(if that's where you are looking forward to).