Mainstreaming.

As a child I was diagnosed with numerous learning disabilities, my first grade teacher told my mother there was no point in educating me in a normal classroom because the only job I would ever be able to have would be volunteering at Goodwill. I struggled with reading, math, as well as many physical limitation, such as having limited ability to balance, I would walk up and down stairs without alternating legs. When I was in elementary school I spent about half and then later a quarter my time in a special education classroom I also spent 2 hours three times a week with an occupational therapist and special education specialist. I was never disruptive in classes, I would often get in trouble because my teachers often though I was not listening because I would not look at them when they were speaking, I would doodle or play with things on my desk. I spent part of middle school in a special education classroom. When I was in 7th grade I decided I was tired of having a learning disability diagnosis, I didn't feel like I needed special education. I struggled in my classes while mainstreamed but I also learned more. When I was no longer taken out of a classroom to be taught somewhere else my belief in my ability increased. I feel like being taken out of classroom only told me that  I could not succeed, the more time I spent in the mainstream classroom the better I did in school. I think that if I had continued to spend my time in special education classrooms there is no way I would have gone to college. I have overcome most of my learning disabilities through learning who I learn and how it is different then others, but I don't think I would have learned this without being in a mainstream classroom.