Medicate the Label

When my brother was in the third grade, he said that he felt like he was in a cave. With a cocktail of medication and behavioral therapy to combat his diagnosis of severe ADHD, my brother was forced to fit into a standard of "well-behaved" children and it put him in a cave.

Educational environments, especially for children, tend to have certain standards that define how a "good" student should behave, one of them being the ability to sit still in a chair during lessons. For my brother, this was difficult. Having the ability to stand up and sit down when he wanted made it easier for him to listen because he could displace the extra energy he had. However, teachers viewed this as a disruption to the class and he was often punished for this behavior with negative reinforcement, in other words, putting his card from green for "good" to red for "bad". To combat his "behavior issues", teachers suggested medication, therapy, and even holding him back for a year so he could "mature" more. All because he wanted to stand up during lessons.

As a society, we must do better when we label children with learning disabilities. Classroom environments should be inclusive to all types of students rather than highlight the differences in ability through labeling. 

An example of a card system for a classroom: green representing "good", yellow representing "warning", and  red representing "bad". Retrieved from Pinterest.

Another name for this card system is a Shame-Based Behavioral Assessment System, and yes, it is as bad as it sounds. The system promotes public humiliation for all students and their "unacceptable behaviors".  On one hand, this type of punishment may deter other students from acting in similar ways to avoid the negative attention. However, it forces a label of "bad" onto the student who committed the action. For students who have a learning disability, frustration at oneself is a common response in education environments. Often times, these students do not ask for help because they feel so behind and different from other students. To add the label of "bad" through this system, these students may further shy away from seeking help and increase the want to be unseen by the teachers. While there should be some type of conversation between a teacher and a student when behavior disrupts learning environments, public shame should not be the solution.

In general, labels are problematic for students with disabilities. Labeling recognizes the differences on a person to person standard, often forcing people to choose what part of themselves they are portraying to the world. For people with disabilities, the label recognizes the biological and uncontrollable difference of them from the "norm" and forces them . This construction of labels leads to potential stereotyping and discrimination based on the expectation placed on a person when their disability is named.

In the context of the classroom, highlighting learning disabilities may not have the desired outcome teachers hope for. On one hand, a student with a disability may need different aid than a student without one. For example, a student who suffers from hearing loss can be accommodated in a school environment by having a teacher wearing a microphone that connects directly to the student. In this case, it is beneficial to know that a student has this disability, but public labeling of the student is unnecessary. The issue with labeling is that disability is not binary, but separating students into two groups makes it seem like it should be. This separation seemingly creates an environment that those with a disability cannot participate in, only furthering frustration.

I am reluctant to admit that I do not have a solution for labeling. Labels are so deeply rooted into our society, they are on every application, bathroom door, and nearly everything in-between. Getting rid of labels completely seems like a daunting task to demand of our society. However, what we can do is understand the impact of these labels on those with a disability. We are constructing early environments of discrimination when we do not need to. While educational environments do need to make adjustments to every student, we also must make adjustments to the labels we place on students. "Bad" should not equate to "disabled", and surely we must have enough words in the English language to find more positive ways to promote inclusive educational environments.