From one of my textbooks, that I didn’t sell back to the school…
I Pray for the Labeled Child
That Child Who is Gifted and Talented
No Longer Can She be Lazy and Idle
Or a Daydreamer
So Much More is Expected
Of Those as Gifted and Talented as She
I Pray for the Labeled Child
That Child Who is Learning Disabled
No Longer Will the World Expect Brilliance
No Longer Will Someone Tell Him to Reach for the Stars
Because that is Where Greatness Will be Found
I Pray for the Labeled Child
The Child Who is Dyslexic
Reading—oh the Joys of Reading!
Will Always Be Hard for Her to Find
No Matter that She Can Recite—No Sing—
Mary Had a Little Lamb
She Won’t be Able to Read it
At Least, Not without Difficulty
She Will Learn that All Her Friends
Who Laugh & Cry & Wonder about Books
Can Do so Because They are Not Dyslexic
I Pray for the Labeled Child
That Child Who is A.D.D.
An Unorganized Bubble of Hyperactivity
No Longer Will Someone Teach Him to Cope in a World
That Values Compliance
No Longer Will Someone Say, “You Can Do This;
Oh, It May Be Hard, But it is within You to Do This.”
A Dose of Medicine Now Replaces the Need for that Inner Effort
And Eliminates the Possible Victory
I Pray for the Labeled Child
That Child Who is Emotionally Handicapped
That Child Who Rebels
Because She Should Rebel
The Child Who Acts Out
Because there is Nowhere Else
For the Hurt & Anxiety & Fear to Go
The Child Who is Diagnosed “Sick”
When Perhaps Her Actions are the One True Sign of Sanity
In the Demented World in Which She is Forced to Live
I Pray for the Child of No Label
In a System Which Marks So Many Special
This Child Neither Shines Nor Demands
For This Child Life Has Been Neither Harsh Nor Gorgeous
This is the One Who “Makes” a Teacher’s Day
Because There Are So Many Children Who Need Real Attention
I Pray Most for All for Some Magic Day
When the Tests, the Labels, & the Names
Will Disappear—Will be Forgotten
When Each Child Who Enters a Classroom
Will Be an Apprentice of Learning
When Each Classroom will be a Safe Place
To Discover—on Your Own——
What Will be the Struggles of Your Life
And the Victories
When the Feeble & the Bright
The Gregarious & the Shy
Will All Find Their Place
In the Great Adventure of Education
When the Only Label that Will Be Attached to Anyone is
LEARNER
So, because there are, so many kids with special needs (and I don’t mean those with the handicaps, in need of their separate I.E.P.s, and you DO know what those are, right???), and, in a classroom of say??? 25 to 30 children, there’s, NO way that one teacher can keep an eye on all 25 to 30 children, which still means, that some of the smart ones (the G.T. students!!!), as well as the developmentally delayed (your M.R.’s???) will get overlooked, because, just like the bell curve (and, you DO know what that is, right???), most of the population “lands” in the middle portion, with what??? About a total of FOUR percent (-ish???) on the either extremes, and, those on the upper AND lower extremes, are left, to their own device, and that would be, one of the biggest problem education still faces today! But hey, that’s just my opinion!!!