Social Commentary

The other day, I had a conversation about the accelerated integration of special needs and mentally handicapped students into the main sector of education.  Though the conversation was brief, I began to contemplate this new phenomenon in public education.  In both high school and college, I have shared classes with handicapped students.  While many argue that it is not fair to put these students in a different classroom, I have always believed it unfair to force them into an environment that had not been created nor adapted for their learning style.  The average public classroom is designed for the average student.   They constitute the majority of America's learners, and there is nothing wrong with this.  Special needs classrooms are and should be designed for the handicapped student.  They constitute the minority of America's learners, and there is nothing wrong with this either.  People are not all the same, we all have different needs.  Forcing mentally handicapped students to use average classrooms is like removing wheel chair ramps for the physically disabled.  They are a group with a unique need, and it isn't fair to pretend that it doesn't exist.