Special Needs

Students with disabilities are generally viewed as students with special needs. Over the years, I have been openly critical of this piece of political correctness. There might be a way for this term to work, but current usage is problematic.

In a sense, I get the idea. Having a disability does not mean that an individual is inferior. Saying that such people have special needs is more supportive. The problem with this is that people know that special needs is essentially code for disabled, putting a negative connotation on having special needs.

Because of how the term is used, people don't want to think that they have special needs. The truth, thanks to individuality, is that we all have special needs. Because people don't want to be identified this way, most people try to avoid acknowledging that they have special needs, even to themselves.

To avoid the label, it has become common for people to pursue learning in the manner that pretty much all teachers embrace. This ultimately requires students to give up on what makes them special. Students conform to rigid standards as they fear the consequences of individuality.

I would like to see teachers bring an end to the words "special needs." If they don't, there might be a workaround. The only way to salvage the term is to use it more broadly. To avoid harming individuals, we need to make it clear that everybody has special needs. Internally, they could discuss the special needs of disadvantaged individuals. Done properly, this would allow them to openly acknowledge that a child has special needs without publicly attaching them to any form of disability.