Special Education: Conformity vs Community

While in graduate school, my mom specialized in speech therapy and special education studies.  This lead her to a career where she works with children who have mild to severe ADHD, high functioning autism, or other learning disabilities.  My mom works as an educational specialist at a private school in our area, and has her own private practice.  While growing up, kids would come to our house to receive help from my mom, whether it be for speech therapy or for other learning disabilities.  Some of the kids she saw from when they were in kindergarten until they went off to college, others she helped through elementary school.  One time when I came home from school, I started to do my homework at the kitchen table when I heard screaming from the boy my mom was working with in the dining room, followed by the sound of him running down the hallway.  Later, when I asked my mom why the boy decided to scream and run away during the middle of his session, she replied, "Well, some kids learn differently than others.  Not everyone is going to be able to sit still and read or do their homework, and that's okay.  We are all different human beings for a reason."  I have always appreciated and admired the work my mom does with special needs children.  She has treated them like "normal" kids, which is all they want to be viewed as.  They did not ask for nor could have prevented their disability.  Although the United States has worked toward equality within educational systems, there continue to be people who believe special education programs force conformity on children with disabilities.

This graph shows the increase of disabilities and disorders in children, from the years 2009-2017. Retrieved from National Health Interview Survey. 

The United States' school system is often thought to lack diversity within special education, which stigmatizes these programs as society's obsession with conformity.  This misrepresents the purpose and function of special education programs, and therefore fails to advance all forms of diversity in schools.  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the civil rights legislation that requires special education, has actively addressed the discrimination against students with disabilities in public education.  When special education is critiqued for its subjective conformity, protections for students with disabilities are devalued.  Nonetheless, some people believe special education programs treat disability as a disease and force children to conform to societal normalities. For example, when schools teach students to read and write correctly, the distinction between learning and conformity is lost in some parents' eyes. In order to embrace diversity, schools have reduced their efforts to improve communication, problem-solving, participation, and social skills.  If learning disabilities are ignored in fear of conformity, students will be treated unjustly.  According to federal law, in educational systems, not responding differently to learners with exceptional learning needs is discriminatory.

A special education classroom at Cecil D Andrus Elementary in Boise, Idaho, uses cooking lessons to teach math, writing, reading, and comprehension curriculum.  Throughout the year, individualized lesson plans are designed from regular cookbooks to generalize the skill. 

Under IDEA, parents have been given the right to ask for an evaluation or reevaluation of their child's learning disability at any time.  Furthermore, IDEA requires each child with a learning disability to have an individualized education plan tailored to the child's needs.  This may include services such as, speech and occupational therapy, reading intervention and full-time aide in the classroom.  Schools, however, are sometimes resistant to the extra services involved in special education due to the additional costs.  Ideally, children with ADD/ADHD would have their standard desk chairs replaced with ball chairs, allowing them to move and fidget while working in the classroom.  

Schools have incorporated movement in the classroom for students with ADD/ADHD, through standing desks, stability ball chairs, and allowing children to chew gum. Retrieved from Washington Post Journal.

Although IDEA has made significant stride to help children with learning disabilities, some parents believe this legislation forces conformity, rather than normalize imperfections. Nonetheless, children with learning disabilities are given access to resources, such as evaluations, counseling, and classroom accommodations. Disabilities do not go away over time, thus treating a child with a learning disability the same as one without would set the child back both academically and socially. Whether you consider a child to be disabled, person of disability, or simply different, they still require an inclusive community that encourages the diversity of human minds and bodies. Special education classrooms provide the child with an environment that allows them to grow into their own person.