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Featured Article: PHILOSOPHY FOR CHANGE

"Dear Teachers and IEP Team Members..."

New Book Coming: Life Experiences of Adults with Disabilities Wanted!

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Featured Article

PHILOSOPHY FOR CHANGE

Epictetus (55-135 AD), a Stoic philosopher from Roman times, is one of my favorite teachers. A former slave, he rose to prominence by recommending simple ways to a better life. His wisdom is presented in The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, interpreted by Sharon Lebell. And every page of this little book is filled with big strategies that can be used by everyone.

Epictetus said, "Popular perceptions, values, and ways of doing things are rarely the wisest. Many pervasive beliefs would not pass appropriate tests of rationality. Conventional thinking---its means and ends---is essentially uncreative and uninteresting. Its job is to preserve the status quo for overly self-defended individuals and institutions. On the other hand, there is no inherent virtue in new ideas. Judge ideas and opportunities on the basis of whether they are life-giving. Give your assent to that which promotes humaneness, justice, beneficial growth, kindness, possibility, and benefit to the human community." What if we applied the wisdom of Epictetus to disability issues?

Numerous organizations---including Federally-mandated vocational-rehabilitation (VR) services and local/state agencies---are responsible for helping people with disabilities achieve gainful employment. Yet the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is estimated at 70-75 percent (and this rate has changed little over the past 30 years)! If these vocational services were commercial businesses and they had a 70-75 percent "failure rate," would they still be in business? No! Government programs, however, regardless of their level of effectiveness, live on. But responsibility for the dismal unemployment rate cannot be placed solely on the shoulders of vocational services. Like other disasters, responsibility can be shared among many, as we'll see.

The purpose of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is "to ensure that all children with disabilities have available...a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living..." (Italics added.)

But special ed is not meeting its goal if 70-75 percent of students who have received 12 or more years of special education services are unable to join the workforce or further their education! And it's certainly hard to achieve independent living if one is not employed, right? According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES-www.nces.ed.gov), (1) the graduation rate for students who receive special ed services is half that of students without disabilities, and (2) only 46.5 percent of students with disabilities spent 79 percent or more of the day in general education classes, despite IDEA requirements regarding "least restrictive environment." What's the connection between the segregation of students with disabilities in self-contained special ed classrooms, the low graduation rate, and the high unemployment rate?

Young children with disabilities are routinely enrolled in special ed preschool classrooms. Most parents believe this will prepare their preschoolers for success in kindergarten and beyond. But few realize that segregated preschool settings usually lead to segregated special ed classrooms as described above.

According to Congress, the intent of early intervention (EI) services is "to reduce the educational costs to our society...by minimizing the need for special education and related services after infants and toddlers with disabilities reach school age...and to maximize the potential for individuals with disabilities to live independently in society." But the vast majority of children who receive EI services are referred for special ed services---and rack up "educational costs"---when they reach school age. And, back to the estimated 70-75 percent unemployment rate again, it's hard to "live independently" if one has no job. So are EI services meeting the intended goals?

The promise of today's conventional wisdom---from EI to VR---is to help people with disabilities achieve employment and independent living. But the actual practice does not live up to the promise!

Epictetus said, "Popular perceptions, values, and ways of doing things are rarely the wisest." The Service System's perceptions and values are, in essence, based on the "deficit/medical model" paradigm: a disability is seen as a "problem" and specialists have the "solution." Yet even with the thousands of specialists in the field and the billions of dollars in services, the so-called problem of developmental disabilities has not been eradicated. Does this mean all the specialists have failed in their quest? Or should we lay the blame on people with disabilities? It's neither---the source of failure rests in our perceptions and values!

For every action there is

an equal, and opposite,

government program.

David Veal

When we recognize that disability is a "natural part of the human experience" (per the Developmental Disabilities Act), we'll stop trying to change or fix people with disabilities through therapies, special services, and other interventions, and we will, instead, simply provide them with the assistive technology, supports, and accommodations they need. And if we adopt a "social/environmental model" of disability, we'll recognize the terrible process that occurs: the issues confronting individuals with disabilities are the result of negative perceptions, which create environmental and attitudinal barriers, which lead to physical segregation and social isolation! We don't need to change people with disabilities; we need to change ourselves---including our attitudes, our ways of doing things, and the rules and regulations of our social policies.

What about passing the "tests of rationality"? Doing things the same way and expecting a different result is considered "irrational." If decades of special services provided by thousands of specialists, costing billions of dollars, have not achieved the intended result, is it rational to continue to embrace conventional wisdom?

With the shameful unemployment rate, is it rational for young adults to depend on vocational agencies? Is it rational to educate students with disabilities in specialized, segregated classrooms, when this practice yields dismal results? If, for example, we want a four-year-old with autism to learn to talk, is it rational to put him in a class with other children with autism who are also not talking? is it rational to start babies and their families on a path of dependence?

What about Epictetus' words that conventional thinking's job is "to preserve the status quo for overly self-defended individuals and institutions"? While a few souls bravely say they're ready and willing to work themselves out of a job, the Service System as a whole works hard to maintain the status quo: keeping children and adults with disabilities needy, helpless, and/or dependent, so workers keep their jobs, and agencies/institutions remain open.

As Epictetus wrote, what "new" ideas can promote "humaneness, justice, beneficial growth, kindness, possibility, and benefit to the human community"? Providing people with disabilities with the tools they need, as mentioned. Helping them learn to help themselves, like how to get their own jobs, instead of trying to get jobs for them. Ensuring they receive an academic education in general ed classrooms to enable them to achieve post-secondary education and/or employment. From the time they're babies, building on their strengths and abilities, instead of trying to remediate their disabilities. Ensuring that all of our efforts to "help" moves the person away from dependence and closer to successful employment and independent living as an adult. Changing ourselves and our communities to ensure all are included. What else? There's more, much more.

Epictetus counsels, "Be suspicious of convention. Take charge of your own thinking. Rouse yourself from the daze of unexamined habit...Be ceaselessly watchful over your beliefs and impulses...Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do---now."

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Copyright 2006 Kathie Snow, www.disabilityisnatural.com. If you'd like the handout version (PDF) of this article, click here. You may share and/or distribute this E-Newsletter or the PDF version of this article (in their entirety and unedited) to other individuals and list serves (non-commercial use only). As a courtesy, please let me know how/when you use it - kathie@disabilityisnatural.com. Do not violate copyright laws---request permission before reprinting this article in newsletters, on websites, in chat rooms, etc.

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"Dear Educators and IEP Team Members..."

If you're a special ed director, principal, general or special ed teacher, school psychologist, therapist of any kind, or serve in any other professional capacity on an IEP (Individualized Education Program) Team, this is for you.

As a public speaker and trainer, I've presented to many teachers, therapists, and others who are on IEP Teams. And I routinely ask, "How many of you have read what the law (IDEA-Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) says?" In one group of 60, only three or four people raised their hands. In other audiences, no one replied in the affirmative! How can this be? A student's IEP is the implementation of IDEA. But how can you accurately and appropriately contribute to writing a student's IEP if you don't know what the law says? What educators may know is school policy, which may or may not reflect the spirit or intent of the law!

Do you know the law says:

Evaluation data should include "evaluations and information provided by the parents of the child; current classroom-based, local, or State assessments, and classroom-based observations; and observations by teachers and related services providers," and that no "single procedure" should be used as "the sole criterion for determining an appropriate educational program for the student."

"To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities...are educated with children who are nondisabled; and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily;" and "Unless the IEP of a child requires some other arrangement, the child is educated in the school that he or she would attend if nondisabled, unless the parent agrees otherwise;" and "A child with a disability is not removed from education in age-appropriate regular classrooms solely because of needed modifications in the general education curriculum." "Not remove" is used twice in the law. The intent of the law is that students with disabilities start out in the general ed environment with supports and accommodations. For example, if a student is ten but reads at a second-grade level, he should not be excluded from the fifth grade. Instead, he should receive curriculum modifications. Is your school following this part of the law?

Schools are to ensure parents are "members of any group that makes decisions on the educational placement of their child." So if you've already decided where a student will be educated before the IEP meeting (and without the parents' input), you're not following the law, are you?

The IEP Team is to consider the strengths of the child. And the Team is to write goals "designed to meet the child's needs...to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum" and "to participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities; and to be educated and participate with other children with disabilities and nondisabled children." Are these procedures routinely followed in your district's IEP meetings? (Italics in the law added.)

Some members of the Team may need to know more than others. Special ed directors should know just about everything, while teachers need to know only those parts of the law related to placement, writing the IEP, goals, etc. As you can see by the quoted material, the law is not hard to understand and it can be easily found on the Internet. Many parents have chosen to learn what the law actually says---and not depend on educators' recitation of school policy---because it's in their child's best interests to do so. Isn't the same true for educators? Is there any excuse for not knowing the law?

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New Book Coming: Life Experiences of Adults with Developmental Disabilities Wanted!

My greatest teachers have been adults with developmental disabilities---they're the true experts. They've shared personal experiences of their lives with me---experiences from their childhoods and their lives today---and they've helped me become a better parent and a wiser human being. In turn, I've tried to share this wisdom with others in my presentations and writings. But I know there's much more wisdom out there, and I'm collecting the personal stories of adults with developmental disabilities in a new book---a book that can help parents, educators, service providers, and others learn what's really important to children and adults with developmental disabilities! Download the Request for Stories (pdf) for more information. Click here to download the plain text version for screenreaders. You can also retrieve the Request for Stories from the home page at www.disabilityisnatural.com, or write to me at kathie@disabilityisnatural.com and request the appropriate version of the Request for Stories---and please share this request with the adults with developmental disabilities in your life!

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The Disability is Natural Online Store

Ready to share new ways of thinking with others? Check out all the great products and the new lower price on the Disability is Natural and Presume Competence posters at the Disability is Natural Online Store! You'll find the one-of-a-kind Disability is Natural book and video/DVD, along with T-shirts for children and adults, tote bags, note cards, badges, bookmarks, sticker sheets, bumper stickers, and posters in a variety of sizes----all available in your choice of 25 different designs that promote positive new ways of thinking about disability!

If you think it's time to celebrate, value, and share the many strengths, abilities, hopes, and dreams of children and adults with disabilities, check out the Abilities Box! Use it at IEP/IPP meetings or in other settings!

And don't forget to check out the articles available on Revolutionary Common Sense page at www.disabilityisnatural.com. Check 'em out.....ponder.....embrace new ways of thinking!

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