I Offend You, You...And You..

In a class yesterday one student was particularly interested in a traditional slave folktale about how people came to have the skin color they do. He shared with me, and with the rest of the class, that in his religion they have a similar story. In his story, God had an oven that he baked all the people in and some came out too light and underdone and this displeased Him, and some came out too dark because they were cooked too long, and this displeased Him, and then He got it right. "And that's people with skin color like mine!" I looked around the room and realized that this kid had just told 95% of the class that they were inferior in God's eyes because of their skin color. Do I critique the story and dis on his religion, or do I let it stand that he is one of the two "good" people in the room? I fumbled, panicked, and said something about how "lots of religions and folktales deal with trying to understand how different people can look different" and then moved on. Yikes.

At the same school, I had two, count them TWO, classes that I was informed were Special Ed classes either as I was entering the classroom or half-way through the class. I adapt, that's what I do, but I couldn't help but notice the absolutely shocking level of Teacher-Yelling that happened in both of these classrooms. This leads me to ask two questions:
1) If you spend 20 minutes yelling at the kids out of a 40 minute class, when does the teaching and learning take place? Sub-question: Is the yelling all these kids are learning today?
2) Why does Special Ed have to equal a punishment for these kids that are especially in need of care and attention?