Elementary School Education + Learning Disabilities

Excerpt: 

“There was Devin Foster, whose teacher told him he ‘wasn’t smart enough for her class,’ and Spencer

MacArthur, whose peers said, ‘just didn’t want to learn.’ There was Anthony Gustafson, who stopped

participating when his elementary school teachers would ask, ‘Does anyone else have anything to say?’”

(Baines, 2014)



Commentary:

I couldn't help but think of a close friend of my brother after reading through a few of the case studies.

I'll use the pseudonym Garrett for him. Since he was a small child, Garrett, who has autism, has struggled

to integrate into the K–12 educational system. He was enrolled in special education, where pupils with

disabilities were frequently the subject of disappointment and sympathy. After doing some reading,

I've come to see how oppressive and limiting the special education system is. Disability-related pupils

are isolated with their own educational programs and informed they aren't smart enough to stay in class

with the other students. At a young age, the stigma associated with special education was also quite strong.


Citation:

Baines, A. (2014). Introduction & Chapter 1: Positioning and the production of disabled identities.

           In (Un)Learning disability: Recognizing and changing restrictive views of student ability, 1-41.

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