Special Education and Enlightened Reform

The author of this opinion piece provides what he believes to be a definition of the present special education system at it's worst. Special education is described as a team of professionals gathered to plan for the individual. They assess, interpret, break down deficiencies into categories and divide those deficiencies to distribute among a variety of therapies and programs. The process has many names: Individualized Education Plan, Individualized Program Plan, or Personal Future Plan. The name changes, the process evolves, but the unconsciousness remains. The author states that the result, even if unintentional, is to break a whole child into perceived parts and cause the child to become known as those labeled imperfect fragments. The effect on the professional as an acquired assignment, is discussed which is often seen to be unsolvable and as a result harmful to both the professional and the student.