Let's Get Rid of Special Classes, But…

Abstract

If you should attend the next professional conference on special education, you'd arrive early at any meetings devoted to the topic of eliminating special classes. By the time the gavel falls there will be standing room only. Everybody's talking about it, and in some schools somebody's doing something about it. It is impossible to brandish a wand of approval or disapproval for any decisions made by school districts to do away with some or all of their special self-contained classes. There always have been a variety of reasons such action might be taken. But today there is a movment afoot, a current of disbandenment grinding a path across the country. This movement is aided and abetted by forces of discontent with things as they are. Research is cited to show that students placed in special classes do no better than those not similarly placed. Court rulings are suggesting it may be a violation of rights to segregate certain students into special education programs. Instruments designed to measure intelligence as well as other psychological evaluation devices are frequent black-hatted actors in the drama. But let's stop and think. What are we doing? Are we improving the life condition of children by ending the era of special classes? Or are we simply seizing the tail of the dilemma and swinging it rashly without regard for who gets hit? There are many problems in all areas of education, just as there are problems in social welfare, health care, politics, and international relations. Change is needed; reform is necessary. Special education is the most vulnerable element in the total educational structure. Many educators still find it difficult to really believe that students who present serious problems or who deviate significantly from arbitrary norms should be in school at all. Historically, it has been parental influence on legislation that has