Labels go a long way. When I grew up, exceptional children were known as "disabled", "gifted and talented", and in severe cases "mentally retarded". The American culture has tried to remove labels from being directly associated with the student. For example: disabled children are now "children with disabilities", mentally retarded children are now "children with mental retardation", yet gifted and talented children have retained the same name. The effort to remove any negative correlation with the child's character or physicality has proven to be successful in the world of educational jargon. I was recently out to dinner with some friends who teach special education in a nearby district, and we had this discussion. Students are not to be classified by or known as anything that may mark them as different than the mainstream population. Rather, students have differences, thus making a disconnect from any "fault" or "blame" of why the student may be that way.
While our country is now trying to make "everything right with everyone", it hasn't always been that way. According to our textbook, Gollnick and Chinn (2009) address the history of treatment of individuals with mental disabilities. These people were shunned, locked up in mental institutions, eugenically sterilized, and prohibited to marry. Who knew that Americans did that to each other up until the second half of the last century? It makes me cringe to think what still happens today that we don't even know about. I wonder what the reasons were behind such poor treatment. Was it because people didn't know what to do with someone who was different than themselves? Was it because they didn't understand different doesn't mean bad? Was it because they thought they were doing the others a favor? No matter the reason, there is no excuse.
That is where educators can step in. We have an amazing opportunity to form the next generation of leaders into loving, caring, compassionate, accepting, and humble people in the way that they treat others. We get to set an example for our students that everyone does have something to offer, even if he or she is different than we are. We can encourage students' growth at any level, challenging and equipping them to do and be the best they can. We get to build community and forge relationships between our students, giving them a chance to interact in a safe and caring environment. We are in a position to change the world, one student at a time. We might not be able to change all 198 million square miles of the world, but we can change one person's world. Isn't that an honorable place to start? How can you change someone's world this week?
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