Google Pledges Funds For Special Education

[Jefferson23]

12/1/2015

Google is sharing the wealth this holiday season, with a plan to donate millions of dollars to benefit students in special education at schools across the country.

The Internet giant said that it will donate $1 for every purchase made using Android Pay through Dec. 31. Google indicated it will give up to a million dollars total.

Separately, Google is also asking users to chip in, with a special link added to the company’s search homepage on Dec. 1 — known as Giving Tuesday — prompting visitors to “support special needs teachers.” The company said its charitable arm, Google.org, will match donations from users up to $1 million.

https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/12/01/google-pledges-funds-sped/21606/

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Throwing $$$ at special ed is one way to cover up bad management and....

... even worse pedagogy.

Contemplate the sentence that follows:

>>Since each student learns differently, let’s support special needs classrooms across the country to make education more inclusive for every kid,” >>>

It encompasses two basic ideas that are fundamentally in conflict.

1. Every child learns differently.

2. We need to make education more "inclusive" ( what they mean is "generic&quot for every kid.

The truth is: one can do one or the other.... but one can't do BOTH. At least not coherently and not at the same time.

[Jefferson23]

2. I posted it due to the fact that our incredibly wealthy country can't fund

education as it should. These are the scraps we get..take it if you can
get your hands on the money. See what good can come from it, since
no one who can is doing much of anything about it.

It's not that I disagree with you, I don't. I am sick of how
desperate schools are for funding, it's all I ever hear.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Your posts are always perceptive and I generally agree w. them

We may not be on the same page about this one though.

I'm not sure I completely agree w. your premise that because schools are forever "desperate for funding"... or say they are.... that this is necessarily the case.

I'm retired, but my recollection is not so much we didn't have $$$ available... it was that the cash was misallocated. Esp. in the last few years when the big $$$$$ started flowing in from the Foundations and the like.

I found it easier to teach, frankly, in the days when we had to create our own materials from scratch. I was a better teacher then also; I could more directly match the learning task to the individual kid. When the $$$ started to flow, the admins started buying all these dumbass commercial online curricula that were supposed to mimic the CCSS. ( Our kids were severely and profoundly handicapped... and the CCSS were an insult to their... and OUR... intelligence.)

The educrats don't care though: it keeps the $$$ flowing. Plus one has to wonder how much of this google $$$ is going to actually make it into the classroom after the upper echelon bureaucrats and the local admins get finished deciding how to ... you know.... *allocate*it.

I wonder who's really watching the store. Probably no one... in many districts.

[Jefferson23]

5. That's awful. Who benefits is usually my approach to looking at obstacles that may

stem from corruption/agendas.

I would hope we could get back to relying on the leadership/knowledge of the teacher to
know what her/his students needs are and apply the funds accordingly.

You pose legitimate questions, and I may be looking at these opportunities
naively.

I admit it feels overwhelming more often than not.

Thank you for your insights, always appreciated.