The author: Julie Tollefson is managing editor at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. This article originally appeared in the July 1998 issue of Strategram, a newsletter for SIM teachers.
Return to Article ArchiveAt the age of 10, Rick Lavoie knew he wanted to be a special education teacher.
Now headmaster of a residential school for 150 students with learning disabilities, Lavoie could look back at a distinguished career in the field, but it's the future of special education and the students it affects that has his attention.
In an address to members of the International SIM Trainers' Network in July, Lavoie shared his concerns about the field of education and some of the trends it seems to be following.
"Too many people think progress is replacing what's old because it's old and accepting what's new because it's new," he said. Unfortunately, what's new may not be what's best for the students. He praised the work done at the Center for Research on Learning during the last 20 years, saying its magic is the quality and consistency of the message it has promoted over the years. The quality of its work, he said, is an example of the types of interventions that should not be replaced by the latest educational trend.
Peppering his message with tales of students he's known over the years, Lavoie continually brought the focus of his talk back to the students with disabilities who are most affected by trends and decisions made by educators.
After working as a teacher and administrator, Lavoie took his knowledge and experience on the road, presenting workshops around the world. Lavoie is the developer of, among other things, the F.A.T. City Workshop, in which parents, educators, psychologists, and social workers participate in a series of classroom activities that cause frustration, anxiety, and tension. The workshop allows participants to look at the world through the eyes of a child with learning disabilities.
During the five years he spent presenting his workshops around the world, Lavoie also spent long hours and late nights talking with people. As a result, he said, "When someone talks to me about the latest trends or issues, I automatically think 'how's it going to impact on individuals?'" Unfortunately for students, that's not the approach of all members of the educational community.
Too many decisions are made for monetary or political reasons, he said, and the decision-makers don't think about how they are affecting real people.
Compounding the problem, he said, is that people are always looking for simple solutions for students with learning disabilities. Lavoie's response to that is adamant: There are no simple solutions.
"I think the largest problem we face in education, the largest problem we face in special education, is the lack of a work ethic," Lavoie said.
In 1975 when schools first began to mainstream special education students into general education classrooms, the great fear among special educators was that general education teachers would not understand the students and would work them too hard, Lavoie said. Actually, the converse has proved to be the problem. No one expects students with special needs to do anything today, he said.
In some districts, he said, there is a near total lack of work ethic in special education today. This lack of work ethic manifests itself in four ways:
1. Lack of unasked expectations
No one expects the students to work. Teachers look for excuses not to teach and for excuses for students not to learn. "It is a cancer growing in our field," Lavoie said.
2. Strengths versus weaknesses
When Lavoie entered the field, the special education teacher's job was to work on the student's weaknesses. The teacher recognized the student's strengths and used those strengths to improve the areas in which the student was weak. Now, he said, special educators seem to be working only on strengths and ignoring the weaknesses.
To illustrate his point, Lavoie described a classroom he visited in which all of the students but one received a math lesson packet and a spelling lesson packet to work on that day. The remaining student received two math packets. When Lavoie asked why the student didn't receive a spelling packet, the teacher replied that the student wasn't very good at spelling.
"When did we get the idea that if a kid can't do something, we shouldn't work on it?" Lavoie asked conference participants.
3. Compensatory versus remedial education
Another trend in special education is toward compensatory education, bringing content down to a student's instructional level. Compensatory education has its place, Lavoie said, but he doesn't believe it's in special education or the resource room. Too many teachers are so involved in compensatory education now that no one is doing any remediation. A special educator's job is to remediate, or help improve a student's skills, Lavoie said. Compensatory education may make it seem that the problem has gone away, but in reality it's still there under the surface. Remediation attacks the problem at its root.
4. Use of support personnel with special needs kids
Lavoie expressed concern that every field except education recognizes that specialists should handle the toughest cases. A hospital admissions clerk, for example, does not treat heart attack victims. A summer intern does not represent a law firm's most important client. Yet too often in education, the really tough students are entrusted to the least experienced workers. Lavoie cited a case in which a student with learning disabilities whose difficulties had confounded an experienced staff was placed with a "volunteer grandmother" for several hours a day. Lavoie's position is that the student should have been working with the teacher, the specialist, while the volunteer grandmother circulated throughout the rest of the classroom to provide assistance that did not require professional expertise.
According to Lavoie, the second biggest problem facing both general and special education today is multidisciplinary education.
This concept, which brings educators from different specialties together to solve problems, has gone awry. The way it is implemented in many cases makes decision making almost impossible. Educators may come together to discuss a situation, but each comes with blinders limiting their vision to their own area of specialization. Discussions can become territorial, with each educator afraid someone else will infringe on his or her area of expertise. Each educator represents a special interest, but no one represents the whole child.
At Riverview School, Lavoie's staff practices transdisciplinary education. All participants attend meetings as equals, not as specialists affiliated with specific niches. Every person's contribution is valued. When staff members walk into Riverview's conference room, each one is there to be an advocate for the student, not for a special interest.
To remind staff of their primary purpose during these discussions, the only decoration on the conference room wall is an African proverb: When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled.
"When adults fight," Lavoie said, "it's the kids who get hurt."
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