Label Making

She made it seem as if it was the new cool thing parents were doing  to make either her job more difficult, or to give children an undeserved academic edge. She seemed not to recognize that by nature of identification children would have a less encumbered path to education—that a label would open the door to possibility not impossibility.

She forgot that education was designed to empower children not educators.

Because what I recall her saying (with a sigh) was this: Every year more and more parents are opting for testing and so the district finds itself with increasing numbers of identified children: kids with autism—including Asperberger’s--- or attention deficit  with or without hyperactivity-- or children with some kind of learning disability that the State mandates must be addressed.

   

I mentioned in an earlier blog how in all my years in school I never knew any gay people-- which I realize now was statistically impossible as  Gays constitute 20% of the population. But what I also now realize is that it was statistically impossible for me not to have known at least one classmate who in this day and age would have been correctly identified as having  special needs requiring accommodation.

In my time, kids with learning disabilities were the unfortunate ones labeled as slow or worse lazy. They were the “write-offs”—the barely literate “push them through the system” bottom percentile who were destined for menial labor or work that required little cognitive activity---if they were lucky.

We also had what were called the “problem children”—kids  with behavioral issues—the few who could not physically sit still in their seat no matter how much punishment and “talking to” they had. They never could complete their homework assignments or finish their exams. They were labeled “disruptive” and “unfocused” and “impulsive.” They too were considered “write-offs with an uncertain future—like a life of crime.

And my favorite group of labeled misfits was what was known  back then as the weirdos. They were the classmates (and sometimes professors)  I encountered mostly in college and in graduate school who were highly intelligent (often genius-level intelligent)yet had tunnel vision regarding their course of study or area of research. Social cues were routinely missed or misconstrued. They remained absent in group discussions and were verbally abrupt. The masses tolerated their abrasive behavior simply because their minds were so sharp and their contributions were so great.

Everyone of those children (or adults) would have benefited academically and emotionally had they been correctly diagnosed as being dyslexic or having attention deficit or Asperberger’s and given a proper educational plan.

But who knew?

And I would like to say that I stepped up to the plate and defended special education to the “couldn’t be bothered” school staffer.

But I did not. Because the school staffer had her own label to deal with---an insidious one for which she was totally unaware—yet one that said it all.

Hint: it begins with and “i” and ends with a “t” and has the Italian word for “God” wedged in between.