Over on Filing the Pail, Greg Ashman discussed the tension between different perspectives on human rights. Under the headline “Binary thinking: What’s behind the headlines prompted by Ronald Sackville’s comments?,” Mr. Ashman analyzes aspects of the view that providing special education services often separates and segregates as opposed to the view that providing special education services enables individuals with disabilities to exercise human rights.

Some advocates for either of these over-simply drawn (perhaps cartoonish?) views sometimes talk in terms that reflect what I think is called “fighting words.” The rhetoric sounds emotional, positions are explained forecfully, and one can almost hear phrases like “we-they” and questions such as “Are you for us or agin’ us?”

Knowing that my pal Jim Kauffman thinks about these topics frequently, I sent him a note drawing his attention to Mr. Ashman’s column. In reply, Mr. Kauffman, wrote, “Oh, man, RE your text, yes, right. It is right up my alley!” He added, “On the money, that [Ashman] text.”

Mr. Kauffman then referred to a book by Kevin Dutton (2020), Black-and-white thinking: The burden of a binary brain in a complex world. Following the citation, he inserted a paragraph from a paper he and colleagues (2022) are writing. The quote reads a follows:

Policies that do not take exceptions into account inevitably result in neglect of some individuals with disabilities (e.g., see Ciesemier, 2022). Universal, no-exception policies about education, regardless of intent, risk disregard of the appropriate education of individuals. Choice certainly allows mistakes and cruelty, but it guarantees neither in any case. No-exception policies preclude choice, guaranteeing both mistakes and cruelty in some cases. However, nuance always creates ambiguities, and some people cannot abide them. Neither a rigid ideology of full inclusion nor the elimination of special education is helpful in designing appropriate education for all children. Both guarantee that mistakes will be made and that some children will be neglected. 

Is this food for thought or simply a way to feed one’s biases?

Sources

Ashman, G. (2022). Binary thinking: What’s behind the headlines prompted by Ronald Sackville’s comments? [blog post]. Filling the Pail, 23 August 2022. https://fillingthepail.substack.com/p/binary-thinking

Dutton, K. (2020). Black-and-white thinking: The burden of a binary brain in a complex world. Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Kauffman, J. M., Ahrbeck, B., Anastasiou, D., Burke, M., Felder, M., Hornby, G., Lopes, J., & Wiley, A. (2022). Imagining and reimagining the future of special an inclusive education. Unpublished manuscript.