One of the problems about being a legend in any field is becoming the subject of conjecture. This imaginative inference is designed by others as a means of determining how the great hero would respond to a given situation. That is what is being presented here: an educated guess of how an icon of education would respond to the ideas of two contemporary theorists. So therefore, in this scenario one finds the fabled John Dewey philosophically sparring with present-day experts G. E. Zuriff, Lorella Terzi, and John Stuart Mills regarding their opinions of education.
In his article The Myths of Learning Disabilities, G. E. Zuriff dared to attack one of the sacred cows of education, that being the label of learning disability (LD). Zuriff went on …show more content…
The LD diagnosis is actually being used as an excuse for school officials to adopt a very broad and hard to prove medical theory of what constitutes learning disabilities, a security blanket for parents so that their children “tested” so as to have extra support on achievement tests as well as academics, it actually ignores other factors in that may impede a child’s ability to learn, and may in fact discriminate against said students. Zuriff pointed out that there are children that are “slow learners”, those who are doing poorly in all of their subjects and because of that usually do not qualify for the LD label. Genetic traits and socioeconomic standings may all be contributing circumstances that impact these slow learners, but yet since they are not LD and therefore eligible for federal financial assistance, these children tend to be the ones that fall through the cracks. Zuriff stated that slow learners actually benefit from the same diverse interventions, experiences, and flexible curricula as LD students and the failure of the educational system and the federal government to recognize that fact and strive to help all children is deplorable (Curren, 2014, pp. …show more content…
According to Terzi, a distinction has to be made between three terms that are often used interchangeably by the public, but are in fact distinctive from one another. She wrote that an “impairment…is and abnormality in the structure or functioning of the body, [a] disability…is the restriction in the ability to perform tasks due to impairment, and [a] handicap…is the social disadvantage that could be associated with impairment, disability, or both” (as quoted in Curren, 2014, p. 299). So therefore, with the differences firmly established, Terzi went on discuss the impact that each one has on an individual’s
In his article The Myths of Learning Disabilities, G. E. Zuriff dared to attack one of the sacred cows of education, that being the label of learning disability (LD). Zuriff went on …show more content…
The LD diagnosis is actually being used as an excuse for school officials to adopt a very broad and hard to prove medical theory of what constitutes learning disabilities, a security blanket for parents so that their children “tested” so as to have extra support on achievement tests as well as academics, it actually ignores other factors in that may impede a child’s ability to learn, and may in fact discriminate against said students. Zuriff pointed out that there are children that are “slow learners”, those who are doing poorly in all of their subjects and because of that usually do not qualify for the LD label. Genetic traits and socioeconomic standings may all be contributing circumstances that impact these slow learners, but yet since they are not LD and therefore eligible for federal financial assistance, these children tend to be the ones that fall through the cracks. Zuriff stated that slow learners actually benefit from the same diverse interventions, experiences, and flexible curricula as LD students and the failure of the educational system and the federal government to recognize that fact and strive to help all children is deplorable (Curren, 2014, pp. …show more content…
According to Terzi, a distinction has to be made between three terms that are often used interchangeably by the public, but are in fact distinctive from one another. She wrote that an “impairment…is and abnormality in the structure or functioning of the body, [a] disability…is the restriction in the ability to perform tasks due to impairment, and [a] handicap…is the social disadvantage that could be associated with impairment, disability, or both” (as quoted in Curren, 2014, p. 299). So therefore, with the differences firmly established, Terzi went on discuss the impact that each one has on an individual’s