There is a place for special schools

for some children. The idea that this is not so is rooted in a false belief about "equality" and that, by sending a child to a school not suited to their needs, the child will somehow have an equal opportunity otherwise denied to them. This is wrong.

I know something about those apparently old-fashioned "special" schools. I have visited many of them, worked in three of them, done research in more. I had a long, happy and close association with one just by sheer chance. I still have close friends who went there. 

Those friends are fully integrated members of the community. They may now be retired but they went on to finish school if they were able. They went on to post secondary education and some went to university. The school produced two students with doctorates and more. 

It also provided physiotherapy, speech therapy, specialised assistance for learning difficulties and much more. There were Guides and Scouts and a social club for older students. They went out and about in the community and learned to volunteer their skills where they could. 

It was not a perfect school because no school can be that but it was a good school, a very good school. I do not know one ex-student who resents their time spent there. They were, and still are, proud of the school and what it achieved.

It is no longer there of course. The Education Department took it over and closed it down. All children would be "integrated" into the mainstream. They would "thrive" there because they would be treated "like everyone else". 

It has not worked. Parents now carry the burden of trying to get their children to physiotherapy, speech therapy and more. Teachers do not have the specialist training or the time to deal with the many learning issues associated with not being able to perform acts of daily living in the same way as everyone else. They do not understand the complexities involved and they do not have the almost instant access to things like wheelchair seating issues or a broken communication device. 

At the same time we are told that the child will have "friends", that able-bodied children will willingly include the child in all their activities. No, that does not happen. It may happen occasionally or when the able-bodied children are pushed into including the child but it is rare for it to happen all the time.  

This is what parents and children tell me. They tell me this even when the child is falling behind and parents are looking for outside tutoring in the hope their child can "keep up" with every other child.

Yes of course there are children with disabilities who thrive in the mainstream.  I know one child with a sight issue who is managing extremely well and has plenty of friends but it is taking constant vigilance on the part of his parents. I know of another child who has a mobility issue but is academically very able. He has gone from a big state school to a smaller fee paying school with a very different philosophy and is now doing very well. I know of a child with Down Syndrome who is very happy in a small class in the Catholic system. It can happen but it has not been easy for any of them. It has taken hours of discussion and support from others. 

For many children that will never happen or can never happen.  A severely autistic child  may be highly disruptive and others will, rightly, complain their own learning is being disrupted. A child with a profound hearing loss is not going to build vocabulary at the same rate and will often be confused in class.  

So a neighbouring state is setting up new "special" schools and being condemned for it by the very people who should be supporting them. Equal opportunities do not mean being put in the same classroom as everyone else and simply hoping that some extra assistance (if you can get it) is the answer to everything. It isn't.