The Stigma of Special Education

The stigma of Special Education affects students, parents, teachers negatively in different ways.  Students with Special Education services have to deal with the label, that at times prevents them from receiving support and acceptance from their family, peers, and teachers. Parents have to accept the label of having a child that receive special education in order to receive more support and try different approaches. Special Education teachers have to establish their role  with their co-teachers, while supporting their students and their families.


Text Transcription for this episode is Available here
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Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
Hello, welcome back to this podcast. Today's topic is stigma in special education. I want to talk about how the stigma, which is another word for discrimination, it's a nice word that we use, instead of saying, we discriminate against special education people. I want to talk about how there's a stigma against families, students and teachers, when it comes to special education, and it actually prevents people from being able to access the services that they have rights to, because they are afraid of being discriminated against. There's a lot of supports that can be given to students with special education. But just saying those words out loud is often very difficult for parents and students to hear. Because our brains are telling us that that's an extremely bad thing, and that we don't want to be associated with it. So usually, when I tell people, I'm a special education teacher, they're like, oh, okay, like, damn, like, God bless you. But they don't really know what I do day to day, because it's a brand new position. And I mainly work with all students throughout the day. And the parts of me that make me a special education teacher, are mainly just paperwork, I feel that most people don't understand what being a special education teacher means, or what being a special education student is, in 2021, or being a parent or family member have a student that has an IEP, basically, I would say, there's a high probability of you having a family member that has special education services. Nowadays, it's very common. So it shouldn't be something that's discriminated against, that's only hurting students in the long run, and families to get the supports that they need. So I thought it was a super interesting topic to talk about. Because I've been able to see this, I've been able to see this firsthand as a special education teacher, and having to talk to parents and explain to them what's going on, and then kind of guiding them through their thought process of like, what is the correct thing to do, by providing them the information. Like, even though, theoretically, it's always a good idea, like, emotionally, it's still a very hard decision to make for parents. And I work with students that they completely understand there's a stigma of having an IEP, because other students view them differently. And they might get made fun of, and their teachers treat them differently as well. And even as a special education teacher, I'm treated differently by my peers as well. Just by association of someone that works with special education students, for one reason or another, I can't really correlate that, but I have a suspicion that because I'm, I'm working so closely with these students that I might get mixed up with them, which is, I like that, but I'm not sure if they understand where that discrimination is coming from, or if they realize that it, it's coming across to me as discrimination.

Unknown Speaker  3:48  
Subconsciously, when we hear that someone has special education, or is receiving mental health services, we automatically like went towards it. And we don't want to be associated with that person as eagerly as we used to. So I see that reaction in people when I talk about either receiving mental health therapy myself, or having to talk to parents about how their child is being evaluated for special education services, which in my mind, I'm like, Oh, my God, this is great. Like, this kid is finally going to get the support they needed this whole time. Like, let's get this process started. But when when you say a statement like that to a parent that doesn't really know what I know. They're like, Oh, my God, like, this is terrible. Like my kid. He didn't have a learning disability. He wasn't in special education before. And now he's going to be in special education. And that means that you know the R word. And I have to say but a lot of people, I used to say it a lot back when I was a teenager, I didn't know it was so bad for like, people really, you know, you either, if you have special education, you're in this now this new been where you are less than human. I think that's that's the assumption that people operate under. And people don't really kind of spell it out because it's very nasty to say out loud. But that's the assumption. Like, if your student has an IEP and receive special education services, then they are now considered the R word, which means that they're less than less valuable than a regular human, that they are now in this category where they are stupid, and they can't do anything, and they're not going to be able to take care of themselves, which is completely untrue and hurtful to hear people make these assumptions about students that they probably were having a hard time with, and definitely need more support with. And it's not like they're the only parents struggling with these behaviors, or they're the only students struggling with this work, because many students are especially now during distance learning. So for me, it's kind of it's difficult to see kind of parents, sometimes they deny the whole thing from happening. And parents ultimately have 100% of say whether or not we can proceed with like the special education services, like the valuation, or if their child even receives special education in the first place. Like even after they've been evaluated, a parent could stop it at any time. So sometimes parents are like, No, that's not true. And then they just, you know, they, they don't sign the papers, and then we can't support their student more with like, RSP services, so they wouldn't be able to be taken out of class or receive any other supports that they might need. And then sometimes parents like reluctantly do it, sign and then the their students qualify, and then when their students qualify, it's actually a great thing, because they'll most likely have an IEP until they graduate high school. And once they graduate high school, they will be able to use their last IEP from high school to receive accommodations at the college level. So having more time during the exams and testing in another room, which is usually a really great thing for most people, I always try to communicate that with parents that that this is good, like, it's gonna help no matter what. And yeah, like, it's gonna have a big impact on the amount of support that they receive and how successful they feel in school. Because I wish I would have had an IEP because I needed a lot of support. And I needed to just talk to someone that had gone through school, or knew what path I was gonna take, because I had a lot of silly ideas about education and how I was going to get through it, which I could explain right now.

Unknown Speaker  8:28  
I thought that I was going to be able to complete everything. The first time that I saw it, I thought that turning in assignments wasn't important. But these are all things that I found that weren't true, and would have been nice to hear from someone that had gone to college and told me how silly they were. But I'm not sure if I would have heard that at that young age. So who knows. One thing I do want to mention is that parents, at times, they just want to ignore or run away from the possibility because being labeled as a special education student, seems really detrimental for them in the long run, just based on how our society treats people with special education, that are considered special education or that have mental health issues that they need support with. So they rather like run away from that reality because they feel that if they accept it, then they're actually hurting their child in the long run. Or sometimes parents are like, my child is normal at home and they don't need any extra help. Which, to me, I'm like, Oh, well, you don't ask your child to write an essay at home or you don't ask your child to do math at home. Like you're in a different environment and they're going to react differently at school than they do at home because it's completely different. Now, school and Whole are almost the same. While we were in person that that was something that I commonly heard from parents saying that, Oh, their child is normal. And that like, like normal, like, I don't know what they mean by normal, but they emphasize normal. So I think there's value and trying to understand what they mean by that, or I'll try to piece out what I think they what they mean by normal. I think by normal, they mean, a student that doesn't have special education, supports, which means that they're just like a regular student, and that they're valued. Because if they were not normal, they would have special education supports, and then that would make them to our word, which would make them less than human, or just, you know, not worth anyone's time. Normal that they act normal at home, maybe that means that they're, that they do their work at home. But that's not true. So that they don't do their work at home. Maybe that's the assumption that students shouldn't do their work at home. I don't know, my parents always wanted me to do my work at home, I would just be like, yeah, it's done. I did it at school, which he could still use that. Parents still buy that, which is amazing. I'm like, really doesn't look like you do much. And, you know, like, we all have our avoidance, like, avoid hard things, which I don't blame anyone for doing. It's just a survival mechanism. I've worked with students in elementary and high school and kids like as early as like third grade, I don't know if it has to do anything with special education. But when they work with the teacher, the other kids are like, Oh, haha, you need help. Like, the, like, working with the teacher, I think at a certain age, there's like it's at first, it's a privilege, and then it becomes like humiliating. And there's a lot of reasons that can happen, the way that the teacher themselves actually makes that event happen could be humiliating. Or it could be a reward. And I that definitely can happen from like cake, cleaning kindergarten to 12th grade. I always try to make it a reward for my students to work with me. So but sometimes, like, it's deeply ingrained in like, smaller children's minds, so like, It's humiliating to work with anyone else like to need any type of help.

Unknown Speaker  13:01  
And they we, like kids pick this up from their parents, like kids don't inherently know this. They know. They pick it up from they're not to blame parents, they, they pick it up from their teachers, they pick it up from staff, they pick it up from their caretakers, and their family, the people that they actually interact with, kinda like how we do the same for like racism and classism, and sexism, just pick it up along the way. So this whole notion of needing extra help is likes, it's deeply ingrained in us that or at least in the United States, into schools that I've worked with that, like, I don't need that, like, No, I rather just like suffer and die, basically. Or not learn anything at all. And that's my perspective as someone that's my perspective as someone in power that has been through that system. Like, you better ask right now, this is free right now, like that help is so expensive, when you actually need it. It is so expensive, and no one's gonna want to help you once you're over 18 for free anymore, for the most part. So what something that unlike this word, help, it triggers people. It seems that's like a dirty word. It triggers students, it triggers adults. So like, personally, when I work with students, I try to use the word support. And I picked that up along the way, like, how can I support you? I try to use that word more than help. Sometimes I say help. But usually, by then I have a pretty good relationship with that person where they don't feel threatened by me saying that. But definitely when I started meeting these students and stuff, I always tried to use the word support you cuz I am aware that the word help triggers a lot of students. There's a lot of mental barriers behind that. And I think that the mental barriers come from not being not wanting to appear weaker than others and like, like, if you need more help than you're weaker than others, which I don't really agree with that. And the world is too big of a place to just kind of simplify things that whether you need help in the moment, that means that you are instantly weaker. And like, what category are you even talking about? Or like your capacity to learn? Because, you know, like beans, bean sprouts, they grow really fast. And a tree takes a really long time to grow? Is a bean stock, or sprout better than a tree? Maybe set faster than to sprout from the ground? Probably? Does it grow faster? Yeah, say grow bigger? No, it's gonna live longer. No, like, it depends on what category you judge things by. So I, I don't know, I just don't think things should be as simplified as they are. But students really internalize this kind of stuff. And I think also, as adults, we internalize these things, we think like, Oh, if that's if a person with disabilities, is in my classroom, or in my like, study group, or whatever situation you might find yourself in in the workplace, then that means that they are going to slow down the group that they are somehow not capable of fully participating, which I see that like, you know, no one intends to have these thoughts unless you actually follow your thought through and how it affects your day to day actions, or like how you perceive things. Because just because, like, someone recently told me like, oh, yeah, you know, there was some people with disabilities in this program that I was in. But you know, they participated fully and it was great. And for me, I'm like, of course, they participated fully, like, I'm sure you guys accommodated them in some sort of way. For them to do that. And my assumption is never for them to not participate fully. So it's so much easier to kind of just reject this idea that, okay, so like, that's bad. So I reject it. Like, I'm not a student with a disability, like, I don't need support, like, that's bad. So I'm not going to be that person.

Unknown Speaker  18:02  
But that actually hurts. You know, that hurts everyone involved. To spare themselves some humiliation, I see that some students rather not work with their RSP teachers, because they don't want to be singled out. And they don't want to kind of received that feedback from their peers and their teachers that they needed extra support. And another way that I see that manifesting is, general education teachers, they, they hold special education students to a different degree of accountability at times, like if they throw like, Oh, you didn't complete the assignments, like you had extra help, like, if you're not completing the work, then you don't deserve that extra help. So to me, that means a lot of different things, that means that they're viewing special education is something that you can only get if you deserve, which deserve in terms of the merit of the work that you turn in. But that's not how it's determined. It's just like, Do you have a learning disability? Yes or no, like, you don't have to turn in anything to have a learning disability. You have a learning disability, whether you're in school or not. So there's that and the other thing that confuses me about that is if they didn't turn it in, then you actually need more support, or the supports that are being given are not sufficient. Whether that be at school or at home, for that student to be successful. So we need to reflect on that and actually change our approach working with the student because coming at them with this like negative or like blaming mentality isn't gonna change anything. It's just gonna work. Other internalized like shame and like not really wanting to work with that teacher anymore. In this stigma and discrimination that special education teachers face, and I've heard this as soon as I was in my teacher program, is that, you know, there's always this tension between general education teachers and special education teachers, like general education teachers are like, Hey, you sped teachers, that's like the little term spread is like the slang word for special education teachers, that I use spare teachers like, don't do enough, like, you're just like, not doing anything all day. And then sped teachers are like, oh, like, you know, the gen ed teachers, just little abbreviation of general education. You Jenna teachers, like don't understand and like aren't flexible enough with your students. So like at first, I was like, ah, that's silly. Like what kind of person would fall into such a like, like, trope like that like pitting like, we're all here for the students, right? But really, it I've experienced it firsthand, it's just the way that the system is set up currently, in our society, or in our state or country, that, you know, there's not enough time for everyone to do everything. So it's really easy for us to just kind of like fight against each other. But generally, special education teachers are seen as less qualified, and not being able to meet the standards of a regular teacher. And I understand that there's some like, misunderstanding of what special education teachers do. And why we will be perceived in that way. But often times, you know, that's not really true. And sometimes I got the sense of people like, I'm like, Hey, I have a master's degree. I'm a bilingual certified teacher. I've been teaching for X amount of years. And they're like, oh, okay, like, never mind. Oh, and if I really want to flex on them, I could be like, I have a Clear Credential like, Do you have a clear credential? Okay. So, oftentimes, yeah, like that perception really comes back like to bite people in the booty. The perception that sped teachers are less qualified is something that's holding teachers back from collaborating with each other and really trying to help out students learn, which is why we're both there, both camps are there.

Unknown Speaker  22:44  
And the reason why I mentioned this is because like fetish was also had to deal a lot. With a lot, we need to advocate for our students. And for the families of the students to kind of receive the services that they're entitled to, like outside of the school they can receive, depending on what state they're in, they can receive supports from the state as well, for different like counseling for job employment for additional academic supports outside of the school, as well. So, you know, we're advocating for our students to get their support at school, we're advocating for their families as well to continue receiving supports. And we're also advocating for ourselves on our own staff to kind of have the time to be able to do all our work, and to be seen as equals. We really want our students with disabilities to access the material to gain something meaningful out of their educational experience. That's the overall goal. So in my day to day, no one calls me a special education teacher, because of course, you know, there stigma discrimination behind that, like, I'll be very obvious what I would be. So what students and other staff members call me is an RSP teacher, which stands for resource teacher. I don't know why it's radiated that way. Maybe someone can tell me, but I don't know. But it's a free rated RSP teacher. So as the resource teachers, both of the teacher, they help students, blah, blah. So it's wonderful the way that that's framed, but it's no secret for the students that I am there to help specific students because I am consistently working with certain students even though I may be working with the whole classroom. I definitely focus on a particular group of students at times. And to them it's not it's not a secret most of the time because most schools are doing like cohorts where kids are going through school together, since they're like in kindergarten to like high school, if they live in the same neighborhood, then they definitely have seen each other in the same classrooms in the same community. So it's not a secret that someone has additional services. And I've been, I've had the privilege of being part of some really great cohorts of students where like, you know, the all the students are like, super accepting, and they're, like, supportive their friends, and like, they actually support each other, to kind of complete the work and, and not that they don't like bullied each other and like, talk smack about each other, after school, but like, for the most part, they're like, super supportive. Because when I remember going to school, like my friends, like, we were really mean to each other, and we weren't really trying to help each other achieve any goals like that. So shout out to this Gen Z. They're, they're awesome. They're very supportive. Yeah, and like, it's just kind of the pensive, that the environment that adults create for students. Because at times, like I could really be seen as a resource to the other students, like, oh, like, I didn't get what the teacher said, like, can you like re explain it to me. And that's, you know, that's natural, like, if there's two different adults. And even if we're doing the same lesson, I, we're both explaining it in different ways. Something that I might say, might resonate more with certain students than what the other teacher says, and vice versa. Like, that's just how it works. Like, it's not like, oh, like, I'm a better teacher, or he's a better teacher. And then, like, people have bad days, too. So if someone has a bad day, the other person can really pick up the pace for the class and kind of push things along. So it's, it's, it's awesome when it works, when there's two teachers in the same classroom that are both there. With on the same page, awesome when it works. But yes, students notice things like way faster than what adults perceive. And they act upon, like, their perceptions of what is rewarded, and not, like, way faster than what you would expect. So if, when it's time for testing, and I take certain students out, like, if the teacher presents it in, like a really weird and awkward manner, then like, some kids might say, like, oh, I want to go like,

Unknown Speaker  27:45  
like, and then like, it becomes this weird, like, it becomes weird, where, like, kids would out an IEP, or like requesting small group testing. And, and it always happens too, because they're like, oh, man, like, I want to do that, like that seems way funner than like being in this room, or like, and then I think that's what gets the, my general education teachers that like, they perceived that we're having fun, and that they're not gonna like not that they don't complete their test. But that it's somehow fun, and it shouldn't be fun. I always try to generate some kind of excitement for what we're doing, and joy. Because if not, I wouldn't be doing that job. But like, kids pick up on that. And they're like, I want to be a part of that. Like, that seems cool. Or, but then it becomes like this weird, like moment where we have to, like clarify, and we have to clarify, but we don't have to go through everything. So it just becomes really muddled. Like, if our explanation doesn't come off, like really strong. Are the students like, oh, no, like they need the extra support that like that is not an explanation that I would want to be given. I would want us to be like, Hey, I'm not sure how it will be. I'm not sure how we could clearly state that. Some students will some students just need more supports and others. And there's like a legal binding document that says that this person can test in a separate room. And I think that's one other students might get upset like, man like that should have been me, blah, blah. And then they might say something to their classmates at that point. That's not nice. But usually, I think it's just established that I work with a particular set of students that I might take some of them out. And sometimes I do take out students that don't have IEP s to work with them. But I always had to have a conversation beforehand with the general education teachers. So yeah, I mean, it's difficult to navigate. But it's not a secret. Like it's not. It's not a secret. But like, kids don't ever hear the term Special Education thrown out. Like they hear IEP, probably, from the teachers, and myself, at times. And I always try to explain to students like, hey, like, you know, you have an IEP, this means this like, it means that you have a learning disability, it doesn't mean that you're a terrible person, it just means that it's harder for you to do certain things. And we're gonna figure out how to get through this school thing. Despite this, learning disability, we're gonna learn how to get through the school thing, despite this learning disability. And, you know, you just have extra support this year with me, and let's get to work. That's basically my whole spiel. So yeah, like, the only thing that I can really do as an educator, as a special education educator is to like really build strong relationships with my students, in order for them not to feel shame, not and not that they wouldn't feel shame surrounding working with me, because there are so many different pressures that like, I can't actually control, like, what their peers think of them, or like what their peers say, on social media, or what their teachers might say, like, offhand comments and stuff like that. So I really need, I always try to focus on a strong relationship with a student that way that they feel confident that I have their back, and that I'm advocating for them. And that they see some sort of results. And you know, they're putting their reputation on the line their neck on the line, like risking humiliation. So I really want them to feel rewarded by working with me. So like, I want them to be like, oh, like, you know, the 20 minutes that I paid attention to Mr. Rivera, that really helped me like, it saves me like five hours worth of like, feeling just despair, by not doing my work, at home, or whatever.