This was a very educational week in my Introduction to Education class. We are now studying barriers to learning and problems faced in early childhood development. We have split the information up and I am studying the benefits and reasons behind "labeling exceptional children" and so far I have found out a lot. I have also discovered I must be very open minded about everything, which is fun anyways because you get more out of life.
Hi Jan,
It is so good that you are studying this topic and learning a lot. I am wondering what you have learned from your study of the benefits and reasons behind “labeling exceptional children.” I would really like to hear what you have found. I think one of the reasons I am so interested is that when I worked with exceptional children who had been labeled “learning disabled”, I wasn’t sure the labeling was really a benefit, at least from my students’ point of view. To them the label was belittling, and meant they would be teased and bullied by classmates. They wanted more than anything to be “normal”. And sometimes their teachers did not hold high expectations for them. A good example would be what happened to Mark. Mark came to my class as a junior from another high school where he had not been allowed to take the state proficiency tests because he was “learning disabled.” He begged me to be allowed to take the tests. I always expected that all my students would!! Mark passed all five parts of the test the first time he took it!!!!! This is one point of view I know. I hope that you will share with me another side in which the labels are a benefit.
Best,
Lani
Posted by: Lani | November 02, 2005 at 05:23 PM