Blog
Read All About It!
73 High time to end the Stigma against Special Schools
I return to this post after ten days in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lakes and, with aclearer head, sharpen my pencil. So a few changes to the original.
I shall soon be putting a film of the stage performance of “Death of a Nightingale” on this website. I hope you will find that it is good theatre. It is something else. It helps to put right a wrong started by some people thirty years ago, people trying to create a better world, or a cheaper one, and getting it very badly wrong in both respects ever since.
To sell the idea of mainstream education to parents of children with special needs under the banner of Inclusion, they had to “do down” special schools. They had, in a word, to stigmatise them. It is high time I addressed this, and encouraged others to do the same.
This is how they described special schools. “Segregation”. Not treating kids like “normal” kids. I even heard them describe the school I was a governor of as a “ghetto”. I know what a “ghetto” is, and “ghetto” it was not. A denial of human rights. I have argued elsewhere that “a right” without “a benefit” is no great “right”.
Yes, I am sure that there were some bad special schools, just as there are bad schools. I was fortunate enough to see with my own eyes a very, very good one. They tarred them all with the same dirty brush.
Some politicians and mandarins started it. Academia followed closely behind. And the media believed them. The blind led the blind.
And, it goes on to this day.
There is the little episode of the parent demanding mainstream education for his child from David Cameron which TV likes to report implying that governments get it wrong if they don’t provide it on request.
Another illustration – an article in the Times on Tuesday May 24. It reported a remarkable story about Lewis Hamilton’s brother, Nicholas. He is himself “on track for a racing career, despite cerebral palsy.” It was a great story and a great human achievement. I shall come to that in a moment.
And another, the response of some in Academia to the recently published Green Paper on Special Education. They all wilfully or incidentally stigmatise special schools.
First, Nicholas Hamilton and Mr. Hamilton senior, father of Nicholas and Lewis. In the press report, Dad is quoted as saying “If you have disabled kids don’t put them in a special school – put them in a normal one. If they can’t cope then make other provisions but give them a chance.”
Do anything else, Dad is saying – I wouldn’t know what “other provisions” he has in mind – but don’t send your child to a special school! What absolutely outrageous nonsense! What a gratuitous slight on all those wonderfully dedicated teachers and carers who work in such schools.
That is how the process of stigmatising works, and the Times is as gullible as anyone in publishing it.
In my play, Tracy, a pupil in Brighouse School, sums up my view of people like Mr. Hamilton senior. In the play, she says:
“Maybe it’s because they think that what’s right for them is right for everyone else, when it just isn’t, and then they go on to think that everything else is wrong. If that is the reason, they make a big mistake. When you think about it, isn’t it a bit arrogant? A bit blinkered? Aren’t they – how do you say – sometimes just too clever by half? Certainly too clever for our good.
It isn’t as though they’ve always got it right for the kids that want to go to mainstream schools and there are some. Somebody should tell them. The trouble is that they think they understand us. They just don’t, and they don’t understand what they are stealing from some of us either.”
And in real life Max Lewis gives the lie to it too. He also has Downs Syndrome. He is a pupil in East Lodge School Finchley and he aspires to be an actor. He has already acted alongside Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett in Oscar nominated film “Notes on a Scandal.” He took the part of Terry in my play, acting alongside professional actors for a full
month. He is one of many children I have personally seen who have got their chance in life from a special school, and enjoyed their schooldays at the same time.
I must tell Mr. Hamilton senior that teachers tell me that they are finding parents telling them that LEA’s raised their hopes that their children could be educated in “normal” schools only to find, when they arrived, that they are bullied, they find it difficult to make friends and they are excluded in an inclusive environment, just handed over to classroom assistants. Meanwhile teachers themselves can’t cope.
It is not as though Nicholas Hamilton himself didn’t have to tough it out. He was bullied and in Nicholas himself says “People have no idea of the effort I’ve had to get here.”
Not all children with special needs have the same raw aggression of the Hamiltons. Some are much more vulnerable. I have just read the latest truancy figuresstill on the rise. Latest Govt figures: 450,000 pupils in Autumn 2010 and Spring 2011 – 7% of all pupils.)
I wonder how many of these children have been bullied in mainstream schools and that is why their parents don’t force them to go to school? Statisticians never seem to pose this question. and the media never ask them to.
Yes, parade, trumpet the success of mainstream schools in educating children with secial needs, of the ones that survive and thrive. I know that there’s some great work going on there. But don’t project narrow, singular experience for everyone else in ignorance of their needs, in ignorance of the provision that can be made to meet those needs elsewhere, and don’t stigmatise special schools in the process.
The good news is that the Government has at long last seen the light. The recent Green Paper issued by the Department for Education wants to “end the bias towards inclusion”.
And Sarah Teather has just wrapped the knuckles of Academia when they didn’t like the sound of that. About time too!
In response to the letter in the Guardian on Saturday 12th March 2011 about the SEN Green Paper by an eminent group of professors , the Minister, Sarah Teather, said this:
I was very disappointed to read the misrepresentation of the Government’s Green Paper on special educational needs and disabilities. (Letters p.41 Saturday 12th March)
The suggestion that Government is trying to make children with complex needs ‘earn’ a place in a mainstream school is both offensive and inaccurate. At the heart of the Green Paper is the importance of parental choice. Parents know what type of education they want for their child
and they should be allowed to decide if that is a mainstream or special school, academy or free school.
At no point do we suggest that one form of schooling is better or preferable for children with additional or complex needs – this is about parental choice, not the ideologically driven idea that the state knows best.
http://goo.gl/vskuz
The academics Sarah Teather is referring to are the people who don’t want parents to have that choice because they continue to assert that Inclusion is “a socially just and fair approach to schooling with benefits for all.” By implication special schools are socially unjust and unfair.
They have got smear tactics down to a fine art! Revisit Post 71! They have not the slightest interest in trying to see and meet the differing needs of these children and respect the wishes of their parents. They see that as turning the clock back. Another smear!
And they smear the Green Paper too, ” For many, these proposals signal their likely exclusion not only from mainstream education, but also from whatever “big society” this government intends to create.”
For the past thirty years Academia has treasured anything and everything that confirmed its view but binned everything and anything that didn’t. They had worked it out in the libraries of their minds not in the classrooms of the real world thirty years ago, and they’ve got stuck in the same groove ever since. I prefer to call it a “rut”!
I don’t need to name and shame them. They did it themselves in their letter to the Guardian. What is the collective word for a group of professors who have lost their way? A wandering? A meandering? A twaddle? Yes, I shall call them “a twaddle”. Here is a right “twaddle” of professors:
Professor Richard Rose -University of Northampton, Professor Philip Garner -University of Northampton, Professor Emeritus Klaus Wedell – University of London, Professor Juliet Goldbart -Manchester Metropolitan University, Professor Brahm Norwich – University of Exeter, Professor Sue Ralph – University of Northampton, Professor John Dwyfor Davies – University of
the West of England, Professor Joe Elliott – University of Durham Professor Saville Kushner – University of the West of England, Professor John Visser – University of Northampton.
Just how long will they be allowed to stigmatise special schools, teach their students the error of their ways, and require their students to repeat them to pass their exams? How long must we wait for them to eat their words or, if they can’t move their brains out of idling mode, take early retirement?
The late Flo’ Wilkinson, a retired teacher who lived to the age of 105, when asked by the Chief Rabbi the secret of her longevity, replied “Never stop learning.” I commend that advice to that twaddle of professors and others like them. They’ll soon have an opportunity to watch my play.
I wonder whether they will.
<
David Cameron faces a battle to protect the UK’s position in the single market after a draft of the new treaty to foster greater fiscal unity in the EU shows that British objections will carry no weight. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/8996463/Debt-crisis-live.html?
I just added this site to my google reader, excellent stuff. Can’t get enough!
Hi there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!
Greetings from Colorado! I’m bored to tears at work so I decided to browse your blog on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the info you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m surprised at how fast your blog loaded on my mobile .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, very good blog!
Heya! I’m at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 3gs! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the superb work!
Hello there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!
Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Ie. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know. The design and style look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon. Thanks
Hello there! This publish couldn’t be composed any greater! Studying via this submit reminds me of my prior space mate! He usually held speaking about this. I’ll ahead this short article to him. Fairly confident he’ll have a very very good examine. Thanks for sharing!
I have really enjoyied reading your well written article. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!
I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your blog. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Exceptional work!
“Its always excellent to learn tips like you share for weblog posting. As I just started posting comments for weblog and facing problem of lots of rejections. I feel your suggestion would be helpful for me. I may let you know if its work for me too.”
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is required to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very web savvy so I’m not 100% positive. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Kudos
Try using Youtube
Usually I don’t learn post on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very pressured me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thanks, quite great post.
Hi! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so I came to give it a look. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Fantastic blog and wonderful style and design.
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before but after reading through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!
Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new Zune, and hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.
Many thanks for an unbelievable submit, would see your particular others content. thanks for your thinking with this, I experienced somewhat made an impact to by this article. Thanks again! You make a good moment. Portrays natures best by the great facts here. I feel that if a greater number considered it that way, they’d have got a better moment in time have the grasp ofing the difficulty.
A lot of the things you articulate is astonishingly appropriate and that makes me ponder why I hadn’t looked at this in this light previously. This particular article truly did turn the light on for me personally as far as this subject matter goes. Nonetheless there is actually one factor I am not really too cozy with and while I attempt to reconcile that with the actual core theme of your point, let me observe just what all the rest of your subscribers have to point out.Nicely done.
Wow, marvelous weblog layout! How long have you ever been running a blog for? you make blogging glance easy. The full look of your web site is great, neatly as the content!
Hello! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!
Everyone loves what you guys are up too. This kind of clever work and coverage! Keep up the very good works guys I’ve you guys to blogroll.
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this outstanding blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group. Talk soon!
I greatly appreciate this post. Please post more tutorials.
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say excellent blog!
Excellent read, I just passed this kind of onto a colleague that was doing a small study on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that.
Greetings I am so happy I found your web site, I really found you by mistake, while I was browsing on Digg for something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say many thanks for a marvelous post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the great work.
Hey there! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog. Is it difficult to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about making my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Appreciate it
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your webpage? My blog site is in the very same niche as yours and my visitors would definitely benefit from some of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Thanks a lot!
Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My website is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my visitors would really benefit from a lot of the information you present here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Thanks a lot!
We absolutely love your blog and find a lot of your post’s to be just what I’m looking for. Would you offer guest writers to write content for you personally? I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on some of the subjects you write in relation to here. Again, awesome website!
Hello! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
Wow, this is in every respect what I neeedd to know.
Fantastic write-up! Hey there, I am so glad I found your interesting web site, I really discovered this by mistake, while I was browsing on Bing for freelance editing rates. Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say kudos. I don’t know who you are but definitely you are going to be a famous blogger if you aren’t already
I don’t have time to look over it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and included your RSS feed to my Google reader, so when I have time I will be back to read more. Also, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!
Kind regards! – Kasie Spearow
As the admin of this web page is working, no uncertainty very shortly it will be famous, due to its quality contents.
Peculiar article, just what I wanted to find.
look forward to all your posts! Keep up the fantastic work!
I’m not sure why but this web site is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
Hey! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to give it a look. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Excellent blog and brilliant style and design.
Wow, superb blog structure! How long have you ever been running a blog for? you make blogging glance easy. The full look of your site is fantastic, as well as the content!
Greetings from Idaho! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to check out your blog on my iphone during lunch break. I love the knowledge you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m shocked at how fast your blog loaded on my phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, wonderful blog!
Excellent blog, sincerely, Dr. Smith,
Sanford Dental Excellence
4942 W. SR 46 Suite 1038, Sanford, FL
(407) 513-4950
Have you ever considered publishing an e-book or guest authoring on other websites? I have a blog centered on the same information you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would enjoy your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e mail.
Greetings from California! I’m bored at work so I decided to check out your site on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the info you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m shocked at how fast your blog loaded on my phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, very good blog!
Thanks for your personal marvelous posting! I certainly enjoyed reading it, you might be a great author.I will make sure to bookmark your blog and may come back at some point. I want to encourage one to continue your great posts, have a nice day!
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back in the future. Cheers
We’re a group of volunteers and starting a brand new scheme in our community. Your web site provided us with valuable info to paintings on. You’ve performed a formidable task and our whole community might be grateful to you.
Highly descriptive post, I liked that a lot. Will there be a part 2?
yes
My developer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a variety of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform. I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Anyway I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
Greetings from Florida! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to browse your blog on my iphone during lunch break. I love the information you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my cell phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, fantastic blog!
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say great blog!
Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing several weeks of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any solutions to stop hackers?
Hello! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone 4! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts! Carry on the superb work!
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road. Many thanks
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your excellent post. Also, I have shared your site in my social networks!
Im extremely impressed using your writing abilities and as well with all the structure for the blog. Is this fact a paid theme or do you colorize it for you yourself? Anyway keep up the favorable top quality writing, it’s rare to check a fantastic blog such as this one these days..
I actually wished to compose a small note to thank for you for a number of the pleasant secrets you might be showing on this internet domain.
My spouse and I stumbled over here coming from a different page and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to looking into your web page for a second time.
Hi! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Carry on the outstanding work!
Hello, i feel that i noticed you visited my website thus i came to “return the want”.I’m trying to find things to enhance my site!I guess its ok to make use of a few of your ideas!!
I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post.
You got a very great website, Gladiolus I found it through AOL.
I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here. The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get got an impatience over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this hike.
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say wonderful blog!
Excellent blog you have here but I was wondering if you knew of any discussion boards that cover the same topics discussed in this article? I’d really love to be a part of community where I can get suggestions from other experienced individuals that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!
Greetings, do you have a Twitter page that I may follow? Thanks
Google…
[...]The information and facts talked about inside the article are a few of the top readily available [...]…
peace be upon you…
I can see you have high standards when it comes to your writing. It shows in your excellent writing. Thank you for your high standards….
Good – I should certainly say I’m impressed with your blog. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs and related info. It ended up being truly simple to access. Nice job…