Growing Out of Adolescence: Reflections on Change in Special Education for the Behaviorally Disordered.

Special education for the behaviorally disordered is characterized as at an adoles cent stage of development. Seven characteristics of adolescence are discussed as they apply to special education: (a) overestimation of abilities and importance, (b) underestimation of needs, (c) misinterpretation of parents "withitness", (d) lack of tolerance for ambiguity, (e) uncertain identity, (f) residual belief in magic and regret about loss of innocence, and (g) impulsivity and the desire for immediate gratification. Professional growth and maturity related to each of these character istics is discussed. When I began working recently on a book chapter about current issues in behavioral disorders, I opened with the observation that perhaps the best single word one could use to describe behaviorally disordered children and youth is confusion. The children and youth about whom we are concerned are confused about who they are and about where they fit in the social fabric of school. They are confused about how to get the gratification and approval that others seem to obtain naturally and easily. I went on to suggest that the field of special education for behaviorally disordered students is just about as confused as the kids (Kauffman, in press). As a professional group — and perhaps as individuals grappling with the issues involved in our professional growth —I think we have often behaved much like a behaviorally disordered adolescent. I include myself in this evaluation, and I am keenly aware of the remarkable accomplishments of the individuals who have shaped the field and of the progress we have made by our concerted efforts. I expressed this opinion about our adolescent-like stage of development more than 10 years ago in my series editor's foreword to a book about the personal and professional development of leaders in the field of special education for behaviorally disordered children: As members and future members of the special education profession, we are in many ways at an adolescent stage of development. We are being pulled in opposite directions, not really knowing whether we should separate ourselves from the educational mainstream and assert our independence or embrace and merge with the disciplines from which we spring. It is an awkward and painful This paper is an adaptation of a presentation made at the Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavior Disorders, Kansas City, MO, February 1,1986.1 am grateful to Laura L. McCullough for her many helpful comments regarding a previous draft of the manuscript. 290 August 1986 Behavioral Disorders This content downloaded from 40.77.167.89 on Sun, 06 Nov 2016 06:17:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms stage that is full of conflicting urges and perplexing characteristics. We realize that our self-assurance is accompanied by self-doubt, that our growth is rapid and uneven, and that our desire to perform exceeds our knowledge and skill. We keenly sense our own tendency to be argumentative and we are constantly aware that our economic needs outstrip our ability to acquire financial support. (Kauffman, 1974, p. vii) Along with our adolescent confusion, I perceive today a lot of active searching — for identity, for conceptual roots, for security, for support, and for reality. In the process of reflecting on my statement of more than a decade ago, I have come to believe that we are finally beginning to show some sig ns of maturing as a professional group. We are still at an adolescent stage of development, but beginning slowly to work ourselves past the narcis sism and fragile self-esteem that characterize people who are neither children nor adults. Our adolescent characteristics have been demonstrated in numerous ways, seven of which seem particularly obvious to me. Fortunately, I believe there are also signs that for each way in which our adolescence is characterized one can find evidence of our beginning to adopt a more mature view of ourselves and the world in which we live and work. Overestimation of Abilities and Importance Adolescents are often braggarts, overestimating their abilities in public displays of bravado, while secretly feeling extremely insecure. We have tended, as educators of the handi capped, to overestimate our abilities and our importance. We have had something close to delusions of grandeur. For example, we have said that all children are educable; there could not be any child too profoundly handicapped to be beyond our help as educators. In this way we have come uncomfortably close to making the definition of special education a very bad joke. We also have gotten caught up in the belief that schooling, in the form of special education, must do everything for handicapped children. I think we are finally beginning to realize that some problems and some children are not our business. But what are those problems that are not our business? And who are those children for whom we should not be responsible? We need to debate these questions with respect for each other as persons and without vinification of or threats of recrimination against those who disagree with our opinions on emotionally charged issues (see Bailey, 1981, p. 51; Ellis, 1981, p. 103). Increasingly, I feel, we are doing so, as evidenced by the debates and courtroom dramas staged as part of the Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavior Disorders. Who should decide what education should be? More importantly, perhaps, who should decide what the public schools should do for or to children? Obviously, the public who pays the bill ultimately must decide — that is only fair in a democratic society. But professional educators must discuss and debate the issues. Discussion and debate of such issues must be, it seems to me, part of our job; and we cannot blame someone else for doing that job, and then criticize them fordoing it poorly, if we are unwilling to do it ourselves. Patricia Graham, Dean of the Harvard School of Education, stated this extremely well (1984): We Americans, who are appropriately vociferous in our critiques of education generally and the schools particularly, need to come to fundamental agreement about what we want our schools to do. In reaching that agreement, one group of Americans has a particular responsibility, though not an exclusive one, to participate in that discussion. They are professional educators: teachers, prin cipals, superintendents, professors, college and university administrators. They all need to participate actively in that discussion, bringing the expertise they uniquely have to both the vision of education and the means of implement ing that vision, (p. 55) Graham goes on to suggest that she believes the major purpose of the public schools should be "to nurture and to enhance the wit and character of the young" (p. 49). By wit she means mind, intellect, understanding, and sense in addition to ingenuity and humor. By character she means strength of mind, individuality, independence, and moral quality. I think these are fine, lofty goals for the public schools, and I can find little fault with them as Behavioral Disorders August 1986 291 This content downloaded from 40.77.167.89 on Sun, 06 Nov 2016 06:17:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms they apply to regular education. Obviously, one wonders how they might apply to handi capped pupils, especially to those who are handicapped by disordered behavior. Achieving the purpose of schooling — enhancing wit and character — should enable and encourage children to become more than they thought they could be, to enhance children's options, Graham believes. "The essence of the curriculum must be to expand children's understanding of the world so that their destinies may be truly chosen, not simply a consequence of their circumstances of birth" (Graham, 1984, p. 48). Surely, most of us could support this notion, even for most handicapped children. Regrettably, though, some children seem unlikely ever to have an understanding of the world that can be expanded or to be able to make a rational choice about their destiny. But, if we say that some children's problems are not educational, then which problems do we exclude? These are highly emotional issues, but we must not avoid them. One thing I find encouraging is that we are beginning to hear more discussion of the subtleties of what is and what is not our business. I think we are moving toward a more insightful and realistic appraisal of what education, special education included, is and is not, can and cannot do, should and should not try to