WHAT IS UP WITH SOME PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ESPECAILLY THOSE WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!
My son has LD, dysgraphia, same as I do. Unlike me, he also has some physical issues and is considered gifted.
So fine.
He started middle school last week.
This week the adepted phy ed teacher calls me because my son is scheduled to be evaluated. We talk for a bit and I mention I have no idea what the adepted porgram is like or what it does. Can he explain? So he goes on about what they do for physcially chanllenged kids and then says HE ALSO DOES ADEPTED FOR THE LEARNING DISABLED ONES, YOU KNOW, THE ONES WITH IQs IN THE 70s. THE ONES THAT STILL READ AND WRITE AT LIKE, FIRST GRADE LEVEL.
WHAT!
I informed him that son was learning disabled and although he did indeed write at the second grade level he read at the 11th. That his IQ was 143, no in the 70s.
This guy really should have known better.
Then, to relax, I popped on one of the more general interest boards i post on only to find a thread on how schools used to put physcilly sick children in with the LDers, those who can’t learn. I realize *this* person didn’t know better but it was just bad timing.
Barb
Re: A rant, thank you very much!
Thank you, Victoria.
It did help to get a response.
I think you have nailed both the issue and the solution on the head.
Thanks again,
Barb
Ah, the ever-expanding euphemism. And how dishonesty in language can cause all kinds of complications in many areas.
First the word “retarded” (which actually only means behind or held back) was invented, because the previous words such as “moron” were now considered insulting.
Then the word “retarded” in its turn became an insult, so we have to search for another expression.
Well, the LD folks have fought for recognition of their issues, and we can take low-IQ students and class them in with LD — never mind that the definition of LD specifically includes average or higher IQ — and this way we can avoid having kids given a negative label.
So them of course the term LD gets identified with the low IQ kids and the people who are going to throw out insults make that one unacceptable too, so we have to search for other terms for the kids who are actually LD …
Then of course there is the whole term “special education” which started out as another euphemism and has slowly gone down to have negative connotations.
There was a thread on here a while ago where a teacher asked what to name her special ed room, and I told her it didn’t matter because if the school atmosphere is negative, whatever name you choose will become negative.
I don’t know if there is much you can do about this in larger terms. personally, I guess stress the “gifted” part first and mention the difficulties later — that’s what I did.