I’ve read the horror stories regarding K-12 students and they’re parents. The picture doesn’t get any rosier when you return to college to further your education.
In my case the do nothing witch running the students with disabilities office told me if I didn’t have an IEP I was SOL. At that time I wasn’t sure what an IEP was so I asked how do I get one, even though I saw the blow-off comming. She said I shoulda got one in high school and that that was the only way. (I don’t know if thats true) Anyway, knowing I was getting danced around by the phoney slacker I gave her the usual Ball style hard time wich usually involves some suggestions on what to pack and not pack for the after life.
I doubt if my experience is unique. The college will sell you the notion that they have a students with disabilities office but in reality it’s a token thing to keep the college ADA compliant.
Some instructors are helpful and understanding. Some could care less.
I needed tutoring in some subjects as with my “disability” I need repitition in order to absorb information. tutors were not available nor were the instuctors available in the subjects I needed the most help in. I was on my own and I had keep bugging my classmates for help or fail. No accomodation no compliance
I didn’t need that much help, but some departments, particularly the ones with the most egg-heads are the most insensitive. I think it’s because the academic types are no it alls that are insulated from the real world and real world challenges.
Anyway, that has been my experience for what it’s worth. Don’t let what I’ve said discourage you. We LDs tend to be creative and can figure out way around the hurdles and pit falls of our affliction. Give it your best shot.
slightly irreverant and somewhat jaded,
Ball
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
Shannon,
What was interesting is that I presented the slacker at the students with disabilities office A nuero-psych report and a report confirming dyslexia. She only read the one confirming dyslexia and said this isn’t enough. The other report documented a laundry list of cognitive impairments. She said it wasn’r current enough as it was done in 1993. I wanted to break my foot off in her butt. If she were a man (maybe she is) I would not have been as polite.
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
Shanon,
Chess game doesn’t quite describe it. Dog & ponyshow, liars club clue, survivor, boggle, ect…
I’ve managed to do OK so far. I had two understanding instructors. These guys taught HVAC and were at one time contractors in that field. They weren’t the usually academic know nothings that think they know everything. They made themselves available to me. These two humble men could teach a lot to the so called experts. Some people are too educated for their inteligence and therefore are not as smart as they think they are. While others less educated, often sell themselves short.
Attitude adjustments are certianly needed in a lot of cases. I look at it like this: I’m probably not going to get any help so I might as well be a SOB and tell those types what I think of them.
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
I can empathize with Ball 100% because I struggled with the same problems. After a car wreck left me unable to return to my illustrious career as a union construction worker and part-time exotic dancer over 11 years ago, I was denied SSI and told to “just og to college and learn something else”, despite the fact I was severely dyslexic and illiterate. After struggling for 10 years to get a Bachelors Degree, often getting denied accommodations in classes, the state agency in PA that is supposed to place disabled people in adequate gainful employment failed me in that endeavor. I ended up becoming a stockbroker ( a commission-only job)a few months before 9/11 happened. And I had gotten that position totally on my own. I now am building a small independent brokerage business, and have a satellite office in my home. The whole problem with the system is that it is comprised of over-paid incompetent bureucrats who have no vested interest in helping those with LD obtain economic self-sufficiency. Ball is right about people that are educated but not smart(referring to egg-head profs). My mentor once told me that there are plenty of people educated beyond their mental capacity: they are called intellectuals. They are clueless when it comes to having to think outside the proverbial box, and so, those of us with learning disabilities should try to remember that we are dealing with people that have thinking disabilities.
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
Jacqueline,
There’s an old saying that goes like this; Those who can do. Those who can’t teach.
Check out SBA.gov they have a great template for a business plan. A well planned business is more likely to be profitable. The can also hook you up with SCORE. ( service core of retired executives)
I’m looking into self-employment. Not because I want to but because it make most sense to me as I can accomodate myself.
The other thing is the Northeast stinks. New York State is hostile to business. Senators Clinton and Schummer have helped some but unfortunately they din’t have the authority to order an airstrike on Albany
Good luck in your biz. Things will get easier.
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
> Those who can do, those who can’t teach..
Ball:
That expression has a final line: Those who can’t teach, teach education! Now there’s food for thought….If I were to qualify the educrats as publically traded stocks on the NYSE whose performance directly ties to profits, I would heartily reccommend short-sale!!!! Other effective hedging strategies would be to buy put contracts or write covered calls on the s.o.b.’s….too bad educrats and bureucrats are not stocks on the NYSE……that are optionable w/ derivatives as I just mentioned!! LOL!!! other
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
Don’t hold your breath. Send me your email and I’ll tell some you stuff. but for now just plan on studying very very hard.
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
AA:
Speech to text software, to the best of my knowledge, is a cartridge you plug into your computer, whereby you can speak to the computer, and thus type your term papers that way. It runs from $300-$1000. I needed it because of my poor typing problems due to spatial/dyslexia related problems. That is part of why it took me so much longer than 4 years to get my degree, because OVR would’t help me obtain that even though I needed it and the neuropsychologist affirmed that need in his report.
You should definitely request double or unlimited test time, and also permission to mark your answeres on the same paper as the test questions instead of that scantron format where you read the questions from the booklet and shade in the circle on a seperate paper.
As to learning in class, pick up a set of Pentel ballpoint pens, in all 7 colors, and develope a color scheme for note taking, with each color having a meaning for you. It helps you absorb/retain info much better. For example, in higher math courses, my scheme was:
Green for Rules and Axioms, Purple for Theories, Dark Blue for copying the problem directions, Red for formulas, Sky Blue and Hot Pink for inserting mathematical identities into the solution, and of course, the solution is done in Black.
Also, i would ask for seperate testing locations because w/ your ADD, it will be too much distraction when others in class are getting up and collecting their belongings upon completion of their tests. You need no interruptions in exam situations. Just learning and comprehending the material will be struggle enough. Recall, I have been there and know what I am talking about. This will not be easy but you CAN do it. Good luck to you in your endeavors and if I can ever be of any help or support academically or otherwise while you undertake this journey, please email me at
[email protected].
Re: Returning adult students with LD beware!
Colored ink is helpful. Putting a transparent tinted sheet cuts contrast and makes reading easier for me. There are a lot of componets to vision besides eyesight. I used color for outlining my notes. There’s a lot to how the brain reacts to color that the “experts” don’t know. Even the olfactory(smell) bulb plays a role in memory in the human brain. Study the brain. After reading one book you’ll know more than the experts!
Ball,
It’s true that everyone that needs an IEP doesn’t gets one. The important people in the school system that give out these IEP’s seem to pick and choose. Anyone that didn’t get their IEP needs to be diagnosed by a good doctor, if you can find one, and use that paper work to TRY and get you help in continuing your education.
But beware… IEP’s are just letters of the alphabet to some people and the doctor’s paper work is just that…paper. The real help like you said is being creative in helping your self. The problem is they don’t really know how to help! We’ve got to outsmart them! Sometimes the system reminds me of a big chess game.
Shannon
And Ball find my question on the board and read it please and go to the website if you haven’t already and look through it… I want to know what you think about it!