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Spoken like someone who has NO EXPERIENCE in the field. First they lowered the cutoffs to put even lower functioning kids into the 'normal mode'. This also pushes the cutoff for the 'mild' students down into the range that was once considered 'moderate'. Now the NON-POLITICALLY CORRECT terms for these groups were EDUCABLES and TRAINABLES but those terms were (are) functionally accurate. The trouble here is that the two groups have been mixed. Besides all this, the Severe & Profoundly handicapped students have also been dumped on the public school system. While this group does deserve public assistance, it is should NOT BE in the school system (but again lawyers at work here). But it is currently pointless to talk to the JCs and worthless to talk to administrators who see mainstreaming as ECONOMICALLY to their advantage. Talk to the teachers--both special-ed, trying to serve many students in different classrooms and to the regular-ed teachers who have 1st grade (at best) readers in their 6th grade classes. It will eventually come around, but in the meantime the likes of JC will continue to foster chaos in the classroom. I give up as have many special ed teachers who are rapidly bailing out of the field. It has become a case of rather than being flexible enough to recognize the special needs students who can be successful (how those successes are measured and how much REAL cheating goes on in such assessments is another story) and recognizing that many (if not most) 'retarded' children DO NEED a non-academic curriculum, we insist on throwing them all together. The net effect is that from top to bottom (ask the teachers) no one is being served very well in school system after school system despite some well publicized (and from my wife's first hand knowledge I will remain skeptical about this) 'success' stories. But no need to keep shouting at a brick wall so no more posts on this from me. Just get out your checkbooks and watch for your next property tax bill.
As to the "mentally handicapped" needing a special curriculum, they need
cognitive enhancement. At one time the truism was that Down's syndrome
children would never be educable, but now a significant number can make it
through school, even in regular classes. There certainly are some students
who can not handle regular classes, but the rest need the special services
to equip them to handle education.