A Definition of Regular Education

A Definition of Regular Education Regular Education  is the term often used to describe the educational experience of typically developing children. The content of this curriculum is defined in most states by state standards, many which have adopted the Common Core State Standards. These standards define the academic skills that students should acquire at each grade level.  This is the Free and Appropriate Public Education  against which the program of a student who receives special education is evaluated. General Education is used interchangeably with regular education but is preferred. It is better to speak of general education students as opposed to regular education students. Regular implies that special education students are irregular, or somehow flawed. Once again, General Education is the curriculum designed for all children which are meant to meet state standards, or if adopted, the Common Core State Standards.  The General Education program is also the program which the states annual test, required by NCLB (No Child Left Behind,) is designed to evaluate.   Regular Education and Special Education IEPs and Regular Education: To provide FAPE for special education students, IEP goals should be aligned with the Common Core State Standards.  In other words, they should show that a student is being taught to the standards.  In some cases, with children whose disabilities are severe, IEPs will reflect a more functional program, which will be very loosely aligned with the Common Core State Standards, rather than directly linked to specific grade level standards.  These students are most often in self-contained programs.  They are also the most likely to be part of the three percent of students allowed to take an alternate test. Unless students are in the most restrictive environments, they will spend some time in the regular education environment.  Often, children in self-contained programs will participate in specials such as physical education, art, and music with students in the regular or general education programs.  When assessing the amount of time spent in regular education (part of the IEP report) time spent with typical students in the lunchroom and on the playground for recess is also credited as time in the general education environment.   Testing Until more states eliminate testing, participation in high stakes state tests aligned to the standards is required of special education students.  This is meant to reflect how the students perform alongside their regular education peers.  States are also permitted to require that students with severe disabilities are offered an alternate assessment, which should address the state standards.  These are required by Federal Law, in the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary education act) and IDEIA.  Only 1 percent of all students are allowed to take an alternate test, and this should represent 3 percent of all students receiving special education services. Examples: A statement in an IEP: John spends 28 hours each week in a regular education third-grade classroom with his typical peers where he receives instruction in social studies and science.

Life and Art of Charles Demuth, Precisionist Painter

Life and Art of Charles Demuth, Precisionist Painter Charles Demuth (November 8, 1883 – October 23, 1935) was an American Modernist painter best known for his use of watercolor to portray the industrial and natural landscapes of his Pennsylvania hometown. His paintings emerged out of the abstract Cubist style and ultimately led to a new movement called Precisionism. Fast Facts: Charles Demuth Occupation: Artist (painter)Known For: Abstract Cubist style and involvement in the Precisionist movementBorn:  November  8, 1883 in Lancaster, PennsylvaniaDied:  October  23, 1935  in Lancaster, PennsylvaniaEducation: Franklin Marshall College and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Selected Paintings: My Egypt (1927);  I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928);  Roofs and Steeple (1921) Early Years and Training Demuth was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, whose urban landscape and emerging industrial setting served as an inspiration for several of his paintings. Demuth was ill and often bedridden as a child. During those times, his mother kept him entertained by providing him with watercolor supplies, thus giving the young Demuth his start in the arts. He eventually portrayed the agricultural portraits he knew best: flowers, fruit and vegetables. Demuth graduated from Franklin Marshall Academy, which later become Franklin Marshall College, in Lancaster. He also studied at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and in the arts scenes of New York, Provincetown, and Bermuda. He socialized with and was photographed by Alfred Stieglitz, who was working at the time to organize exhibits of modernist art for his American Place Gallery in New York. Demuth spent time studying art in Paris, where he was part of the avant garde scene. His contemporaries included  Georgia OKeeffe, Marcel DuChamp, Marsden Hartley and Alfred Steiglitz. Painting in His Own Backyard Though he traveled to and was influence by exotic locales, Demuth painted most of his art in the second-story studio of his Lancaster home, which overlooked a garden. In the painting My Egypt (1927), Demuth depicted a grain elevator, a massive structure used to store the harvest, next to row house rooftops. Both structures are common in the rich agriculture economy and historic urban setting of Lancaster County. Like many of his contemporaries in the arts, Demuth was fascinated with Americas landscape, which was being altered at the hands of industrialism. He saw firsthand the smokestacks and water towers in cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Paris. He painted those skylines and contrasted them with grain elevators that were common in his hometown. The Precisionist Style The movement to which Demuth belonged, Precisionism, stressed visual order and clarity in the visual arts and combined those facets with a celebration of technology and expression of speed through dynamic compositions, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Demuth and his fellow Precisionists painted distinctly American landscapes in an intentional move to distance themselves from European artists. Demuths most famous work is a 1928 oil painting called I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, which has been described as a masterpiece of the Precisionism movement. The painting was inspired by the poem The Great Figure by William Carlos Williams. Williams, who had met Demuth at Philadelphias Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, wrote the famous poem after watching a fire engine speed by on a Manhattan street. Demuth tried to capture the following lines in his painting: Among the rainand lightsI saw the figure 5in goldon a redfiretruckmovingtenseunheededto gong clangssiren howlsand wheels rumblingthrough the dark city I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, as well as other Demuth paintings, served as an influence on commercial artists who later designed movie posters and book covers. Later Life and Legacy Demuth was diagnosed with diabetes at a relatively young age, and the condition made him weak before he turned 40. He spent his final years confined to his mothers home in Lancaster, away from his fellow artists working in Paris, and died at age 51. Demuth made a significant impact on the art world with the development of the Precisionist movement. His emphasis on geometrical forms  and industrial  subject matter came to exemplify the ideals of Precisionism. Sources Further Reading Johnson, Ken. â€Å"Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuths Late Paintings of Lancaster - Art - Review.† The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/arts/design/27demu.html.Murphy, Jessica. â€Å"Precisionism.† In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. metmuseum.org/toah/hd/prec/hd_prec.htmSmith, Roberta. â€Å"Precisionism And a Few Of Its Friends.† The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Dec. 1994, www.nytimes.com/1994/12/11/arts/art-view-precisionism-and-a-few-of-its-friends.html?ftay.