"Special People"

Here's an amusing and often on target web site to check. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=politically%20correctIt's the nightmare site of the politically correct crowd, The Urban Dictionary. Read a few passages and tell me you don't agree with the notion that people have gone overboard in trying to not offend others or in trying to elevate the less successful or perhaps the discriminated individual with speech that elevates, embraces or just plain condescends to the individual or group who is seen as in need of protection.


As a former teacher the politically correct group that most got all the love and all the protection was what was called "special education". I want to write a little about that because you can see from the size of that site that there are too many politically correct terms and groups to discuss them all. Those special ed kids are kids who are now labeled as "developmentally challenged" and will probably be re labeled when society sees the folly of couching reality in artificial labels.


You see the school system decides to make those kids into victims, and to do so they need to be labeled with a cute term that says they are "different' but never telling exactly how. It is most confusing, for within the special ed classification hierarchy are those with the highest IQ's, they call them "gifted", and also those who are so dumb they can't write their own name. At first the smart ones were not labeled as special ed, but the politically correct crowd decided that because they were not of normal intelligence, lumping them into the "special ed" group would add a group of parents who are probably smart, savvy and willing to advocate for more money for special ed programs. Clever move!


California, for example, spent $9.3 billion on special education in 2006-07, or about 17 percent of the total kindergarten-through-12th-grade general fund expenditures. That's 17% for the "special ed" programs. The federal government (which is highly politically correct these days) mandates that states spend huge amounts for the "special kids". Politicians know there are votes in supporting special education funding. But states have to eliminate ordinary programs for ordinary kids to meet those funding guidelines. It's crazy.


I can remember the "crazy checks" too. Crazy checks are money payments the federal government gives to parents of every child who is "mentally challenged". That's why some parents tell their kids to act crazy in school, so a politically correct evaluator will tell the government that little Johnny is "special ed'. Mom and dad happily get a reward of monthly checks because of it and encourage all the rest of their kids to behave badly in school in order to get more checks. (Oh.... If based on my rants here, you think I need a crazy check, please write to the U.S government to let them know.)


Most special education programs assume the child is dumb and can not learn. This is far from the truth, but by placing such limited expectations on the special ed child, and by dumbing down the curriculum to prove it is so. They are a poorly educated group, but if they were never labeled and pandered to those kids would be far better off.


Seventy years ago, before there was such a classification in schools as "special ed" or "developmentally challenged (or delayed)", the kids that we would today label that way either "got smart" (they were late bloomers but did fine eventually because they were not held back by labels and politically correct programs of today), were sent to vocational training where they learned a skill and supported themselves well, or were truly slow and were taken care of by family. It worked quite well that way.


But today most special ed kids sink badly under the weight of low expectations and never escape the labels they are given. I think the special education programs in the U.S. have the ironic effect of showing that changing labels and condemning people to live down to them only makes matters worse. For that I suggest a new label for the educators and politicians who have done this- stupid!