The Moral Crisis in Special Education

Abstract

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, we have not been able to solve the riddles and contradictions of educating the disabled. As Joe Valentine (2007) argues, those involved in educating the disabled, myself included, often found ourselves in a constant state of “professional schizophrenia” (p. 127). While I am committed to educate and work with disabled students, I am not oblivious of the contradictions, dilemmas, and frictions facing the profession. Today, over 5 million students are enrolled into some kind of federally supported program for the disabled in the primary and secondary schools.