Reflections on the Field

I began my career in special education in the 1960s. If I had tried at any time in that era to predict the status of the field in the early 21st century, I would have missed by a mile. I would have missed by a mile even 20 years ago. I thought things would be better than they are today. So, yes, I'm disappointed about certain things. Still, I haven't given up hope that things will get better eventually. Many younger people in the field are committed to ideas and values that I think are important, and they're very smart, too. They aren't going to let good ideas die. I'll mention six ideasand ideas are always related to moral values-about which I'm disappointed but still have hope. First, I thought that the scientific base of special education practice would be almost universally acknowledged by now and that it would be stronger than it is today. Instead, I see erosion of the scientific view in favor of radical doubt in everything except, of course, radical doubt about the reasonableness of radical doubt. There seems to be no doubt among postmodernists that science has no particular value in education. I've discussed my opinions on this matter in previous publications (e.g., Kauffman, 1999b, 2002). I think our choices are misrepresented by proponents of postmodernism. We need and can have both science and values. It makes no sense to me to suggest that we have to choose one over the other. I think science can help us understand what works best to accomplish a given objective. Therefore, it helps us understand how to get what we value. Without science we don't know how to do what we should. Postmodernism might therefore be considered caring that doesn't really matter. As one psychologist critic of postmodernism put it, "All it can offer, by its own admission, is word games-word games that lead nowhere and achieve nothing. Like anthrax of the intellect, if allowed into mainstream psychology, postmodernism will poison the field" (Locke, 2002, p. 458). Sasso (2001) aptly described postmodernism as a retreat from knowledge, and I think this retreat leads us directly into careless posturing and opens the door wide to some very destructive ideologies (see also Krueger, 2002; Kruger, 2002; Locke, 2002). But younger colleagues who see the value of science give me hope (see Crockett, 2001) Second, since I entered the field about four decades ago, there has been a shift in the way special educators and the public view special education. We special educators have gone from being good guys to being bad guys. Special education is now often portrayed as dead end, second class, the kiss of death, something to be avoided because it provides no benefit. We find special education portrayed in the public media as a loser's choice, a garbage can, a disaster (e.g., Bolick, 2001; Cottle, 2001; Fisher, 2001; Soifer, 2002). Even special educators have described special education in very uncomplimentary terms (e.g., Stainback & Stainback, 1991). But, here again, I have hope. Without denying that special education needs improvement or that special education often is not what it should be, there are younger people who see that special education can be both separate and better for students who need it. And some are willing to say so publicly (e.g., Kauffman, Bantz, & McCullough, 2002; Mock & Kauffman, in press). Third, if you discount science as a way of finding things out and believe that special education is fundamentally flawed, second rate, ineffective, unfair, and oppressive, then you're not going to use it for prevention. Our field was talking about the importance of prevention even before I turned 20 (e.g., Bower, 1960). In my earlier years I thought, perhaps very naively, that our profession and our society were serious about prevention. I no longer think so, for reasons I've discussed previously (Kauffman, 1999a). The retreat from science and the adoption of the notion that special education is oppressive, unfair, and ineffective contribute substantially to our own unwillingness-and to public unwillingness-to practice prevention. …