Special Education the Key Points

¶ … Special Education

The key points in the text, time and again, seem to me to center around the tendency of attributing 'special' labels to those who seem different to the norm, and the, at times, unjust and even brutal behavior accorded those individuals merely on the premise that they are outliers to the norm.

In the 1800s, individuals with disabilities were often confined in jails and almshouses without decent food, clothing, personal hygiene, and exercise. Even in the nineteenth century when it was believed that urban conditions, such as poverty and crime, induced these disabilities and that large institutions in the countryside would, therefore, be ameliorative, residents of these facilities were still referred to in the social sciences as 'feeble minded', idiotic', 'insane' or 'mad'. Unfortunately, some of these perceptions and labels have still colloquially persisted today. Even some of its modern replacements, such as the term 'mental retardation', are controversial. In the nineteenth century, the dominant cure for this 'madness' was moral treatment in psychiatric facilities, where, although humane and effective in some instances, later - due largely to the belief that mental illness was innate (and, possibly -- some believed - a Divine punishment or a biological distortion of nature) - became largely inhumane and abusive.

The peak came with eugenics where, for the alleged betterment of a socially advanced society that would produce only handsome, intelligent, and genetically superior individuals, people who were considered mentally ill were segregated, sterilized and placed in warehouse like institutions that manifested abuse and neglect of these vulnerable individuals. .

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, under the influence of pioneers such as G. Stanley Hall and Ann Sullivan with her famous pupil Helen Keller, state governments established juvenile courts and social welfare programs, including foster homes for children and adolescents, but even with these improvements, the residents were diagnosed (and often times misdiagnosed) under the new and popular pseudo-science of psychoanalysis and its offshoot, psychodynamics. Special classes within regular public schools had been launched in major cities, initially established for immigrants and for students who were slightly learning disable or who evidence behavioral disorders. Categorizations included 'steamer children', 'backward', 'defective', 'truant', and 'incorrigible'. At least two of these terms have persisted still today. In 1904, special procedures for identifying 'defectives' were presented at the World's Fair.

In 1951, the categorization changed again, with a major section of special education called the 'slow learner' what today we refer to as 'learning disability'. Even here, this term has split into countless subcategories such as 'ADD', 'ADHD', 'Asperger's', 'learning deficiency', 'special needs', 'borderline line special needs', and so forth.

The 'take home' points for inclusion in the classroom would be primarily the endeavor to respect each and every student as an individual and to look past the labels. I believe that the use of diagnostic labels are potentially stigmatizing to students locking student in an, oftentimes, undeserved categorization that impedes the teacher from seeing him as a complex, remarkably rounded individual who has tremendous potential. The label has the danger of fixing one in time -- permanently tagging him or her with a certain classification. Individuals, on the other hand, are shaped by their constantly fluctuating environments and experiences. Respect, dignity, compassion and understanding make them grow; perceiving them as objects may likely create negative self-reinforcers.