Even when teachers want to help, the system is set up to put children into special education if they are not performing at their grade level, according to Dauphinais. Special education was intended to provide a safety net for students with disabilities who might otherwise fall through the cracks of the school system. However, scholars such as Thomas Skrtic believe that the special education system instead serves as a safety valve for schools that don t know how to adequately serve diverse students. He believes most K-12 administrators have been trained to run a school as a rationally organized machine. Labeling certain students and removing them from the classroom helps maintain order, according to Skrtic s article in the Harvard Educational Review, which is quoted in the Resource Guide in this issue.
Special education becomes a dumping ground for behavior problems.
If it s not done right, special education creates more problems, according to Dr. Elden Lawrence, president of Sisseton Wahpeton Community College in South Dakota. Children can be cruel, as we all know. No matter what the instructors call it, the students inevitably start calling the special education resource room the Retard Room and labeling those students for life. He has seen the system fail too many children. No one suggests we should dispense with special education.