Since I arrived at Trinity in 2002, a number of exciting changes have been made in the education program. The most substantive change has been the addition of a special education concentration attached to the elementary education program and the opportunity for secondary education majors to choose special education as a teaching field.
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I believe this is a very important addition to our education offerings. The public schools have been offering special programming for students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and mild autism since 1974. In spite of the fact that these disabilities have been recognized and treated educationally for almost 40 years, our Christian schools often have nothing in place to help these students. They must either struggle through years of schooling or leave and go to the public school to have their needs met.

Christian schools should be more compassionate than the public school, but in this area, they display less concern for students who learn differently. The special education concentration prepares our graduates to begin a program in a Christian school to help meet these needs. One of the required courses is in program development. The final exam for this course is to develop a program that could be used in a Christian school, considering finances, curriculum, facility needs, etc. Once the student has completed this course, he or she is ready to either work in an existing program or develop one in the Christian school where God places him or her.

Another exciting addition to our educational offerings is a M.Ed. degree with a concentration in special education. A number of people who are teaching in a regular classroom have completed this degree, and they have expressed that these courses have made them better teachers in the regular classroom as they learn techniques that work well for all students, not just those with special learning differences. The power of this program is that it teaches techniques that work well for all students even though they are especially important for students with learning differences. Most regular education classrooms have students who learn in a variety of ways, and being able to meet the needs of all students should be the desire of every classroom teacher.

Graduates from these programs are working in the public school arena, in other countries, and in Christian schools. Having this additional training makes the student even more employable, and these graduates rarely have difficulty finding jobs.