Special Education Today Newsletter 5(14)
How about a brief hop along memory lane for the past week?
Welcome to today’s issue of Special Education Today for 6 October 2025. This edition of the newsletter covers the week that began 29 September 2025. I provide a few notes and reports as well as the usual table of contents and editorial. No surprise?
Photo
This week, y’all get another of those photos of an historical family item. Here’s a lamp that hung in my paternal grandparents’ house in Manassas, Virginia. I remember it from my childhood in the 1950s but it may have a longer history than that. I can readily imagine that it might it have been an oil lamp—note the big bowl and the place for a wick where there is now a bulb— from an earlier home (Broad Run?) that was later converted to an electrical version?).
Anyway, it now hangs in our daughter’s kitchen-dining area. In that kitchen, it used to be placed in a repurposed location that caused me to duck under it to keep from hitting my head on it. However, our friend Angie rewired the spot so that it now hangs above a table, protected from my rogue head. I like it!
What is more, it gives me a chance to riff on the importance of light in seeing things. And seeing things clearly in the light of evidence is sorta-kinda connected to this week’s editorial…but we’ll get to that later in this newsletter.
Status update
I am happy to let folks know that SET picked up more subscribers than we lost this week..sigh, not by a lot. I am also happy to report that one of us decided to chip in with a paid subscription this past week (thanks!); that helps make things work for everyone else.
From the Flashes-of-the-Electrons department: It’s so easy to round up the usual suspects: Dan H., and Clay K. who each commented this past week. They were joined by Jim S., Sally B., and Mike N. (who all also have been seen around these parts before). Thank you one and all for your contributions to the commonweal.
Table of sped lets
Well, this week the Dear Readers of SET received notices about these eight posts. They were viewed about 4500 times in aggregate.
Special Education Today newsletter 5(13): Anyone want to know about SET’s week? [JWL]
About “medbed” and “hbot”: Is there a similarity between the recently promoted therapy and one where kids die? [JWL]
Ordering a latte silently: What’s the sign for that frothy coffee drink? [JWL]
Inaugural ABAI single-case research conference: What was going on and who was there? {MJR & JWL]
A fine new book: Want to know about specially designed instruction? [JWL}
The SET library: What are some of the extra sources subscribers get? [€€; JWL]
A defense of IT—haha: Why would do we think that Inadequate Teaching (AKA Poopy Pedagogy) works? [JWL]
Fred has more ‘Fixed Interval’ notes (right on schedule): Don’t you find “The Fixed Interval” a wonderful resource about developments in behavior analysis? [JWL]
Don’t miss out on getting notices about these posts. Make sure that you’ve registered to receive those notes (that’s what Substack calls “subscribed”). And, to get the super-cool, nifty, extra-sauce, nifty-keen, double-scoop, mighty-special-stuff, make sure that you are supporting the community by paying for your subscription.
Commentary
Some people tell me that special education is financially wasteful, fraud-ridden, and “just not worth it.” As some (most?) Dear Readers might imagine, I disagree with that assessment. When confronted with such assertions, I regularly take a couple of deep, slow breaths—and I hope that the people near me don’t take the breathing pattern as an indicator of impatience—then I ask, in what I hope is not a confrontational way, “Oh! Well, what do you mean? What’s so bad about special education?”
Replies vary, but some of them sound like reiterations of the speakers’ original assertions:
“Well special education…just…isn’t…special.”
“Special education—the entire enterprise—just costs too much. My school is spending way too much on these small numbers of kids. It’s just a boondoggle.”
“These kids get all this special attention and in the end they still can’t do anything.”
“Special ed people are all just brainwashed by the system. They don’t really know what they’re doing.”
I interpret other replies as indicating that the speaker believes there are better solutions to the issues of disabilities than special education.:
“Those special education people should just come out and live in the real world. There isn’t any mollycoddling in the real world. You live and you learn.”
“They only want to make kids ‘normal.’ They don’t actually care about the real person.”
“Well, if they’d just follow the teachings of [Professor Smith; Swami Poses; Guru Healthy…] , those kids would be way better off.”
I added embellishment to these made-up versions of criticisms that special educators might hear, to be sure, but they are probably pretty damn close to critical comments many (most?) readers of SET have heard (or maybe even uttered). What, do you think of these critiques, though, Dear Readers?
I “try” to reply by probing for additional info. I want to get my grandmother’s lamp to shine on these questions. I want to learn what the speakers of these critiques mean when they say “sped = bad.” If we can get to the facts and figures on which a speaker bases his or her appraisal, we can have (I hope) a reasoned discussion.
These are thoughts I and a lot of pals have had over the years. Indeed, I wrote about the hopes that we could talk openly about these problems or issues in 2022 in a post entitled “Michael Gerber on fulfilling special education—How much can we learn from a thinker about special education? Lots!”
My post was about a different matter in some ways. Mike’s notes were about τέλος (telos), a Greek word that dates to Aristotle (at least) and refers to fulfilling concepts. In that post I took the thread toward a conversation about debating fundamental ideas. I think the discussions about whether special education is actually not special, as some critics claim, is one of those fundamental ideas.
Now, I don’t mean to condone “free speech” that promotes genocide, racism, mysogyny, or similarly awful remnants of antiquated human ideas. But, I do mean to ensure that the intellectual fora—forums—of university classes should be like the recommendation of Thomas Jefferson. No matter how many of Mr. Jefferson’s steps may have reflected clay feet, he argued for creating an “institution that will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind, for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it” (Jefferson, 1820). I agree with that recommendation. We need to talk!
Now maybe the idea of tolerating error in pursuing truth is a little theoretical. I can understand. But, I do want to ensure that I get to listen to the ideas of colleagues (for example, the late Ken Kavale) with whom I clearly disagree. I can learn from folks like Ken, and I think we all can. Ken didn’t have awful ideas in his arguments; he simply thought that people should have different opportunities, different constraints, than I thought they should have.
So, I’d like to invite the discussion. Let’s talk. What does “special education isn’t special” mean? Why do people say that? What would it take to convince them that special education is special?
I have had the privilege of working with some colleagues who have examined this topic from various angles.1 I recommend that you, Dear Readers, read products by Bryan Cook and Barbara Schirmer (2003); Doug Fuchs, Lynn Fuchs, and Pam Stecker (2010); Jim Kauffman (2055); Jim Kauffman, Dan Hallahan, and Paige Pullen (2024); Jim Kauffman, Dan Hallahan, Paige Puller, and Jeanmarie Badar (2018); Jim Kauffman, Jean Schumaker, Jeanmarie Badar, and Betty Hallenbeck (2019); and Paige Pullen and Dan Hallahan (2015). When you do, I think that you will come away with an understanding that special education really is pretty damn special…and needed. At the least, you’ll be prepared to respond intelligently to many of the critiques I illustrated earlier in this editorial.
Meanwhile, Dear Readers and special educators, please take care of yourselves, take care of your colleagues, help others who are in need, keep Grandma’s light available, and make damn sure that you teach your kids well.
References
Cook, B. G., & Schirmer, B. R. (2003). What is special about special education? Overview and analysis. The Journal of Special Education, 37(3), 200-205.
Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Stecker, P. M. (2010). The “blurring” of special education in a new continuum of general education placements and services. Exceptional Children, 76(3), 301-323.
Jefferson, T. (1820). Letter to William Roscoe. htps://www.loc.govt/resource/mtj1.052_0419_0420/
Kauffman, J. M. (2015). Why we should have special education. In B. Bateman, J. W., Lloyd, and M. Tankersley (Eds.), Enduring Issues In Special Education (pp. 397-408). Routledge.
Kauffman, J. M., Hallahan, D. P., Pullen, P. C., & Badar, J. (2018). Special education: What it is and why we need it. Routledge.
Kauffman, J. M., Schumaker, J. B., Badar, J., & Hallenbeck, B. A. (2019). Where special education goes to die. Exceptionality, 27(2), 149-166.
Pullen, P. C., & Hallahan, D. P. (2015). What is special education instruction? In B. Bateman, J. W., Lloyd, and M. Tankersley (Eds.), Enduring issues in special education (pp. 36-50). Routledge.
JohnL
SET Editor guy
Charlottesville
SET should not be confused with a product with the same name that is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades. Despite my appreciation for CEC, this product is not designed to promote or contradict that organization.
Footnote
In addition to the joy having worked with these scholars, I also am proud to note that many of them are regular readers of SET.