Students may be misdiagnosed with a learning disability
because their teachers believe their behavior or academic success can only be
explained by having a learning disability; behavior like not participating,
disrupting the class by being loud or not being able to stay still. Their academic success might be judged
on whether how much homework they turn in, how much they participate, and how
well they do on tests, but their lack of success might have deeper roots than
just a learning disability. Their home environment might not allow the student
the time or quietness they need to study. Their parents may not be around to
help them with their homework or there might be a language barrier either
between the student and teacher or the parent. All of these factors might add
to the difficulty the student has in completing work, or the teacher is right
and they have a learning disability, but their needs to be an extensive look
into the other possibilities, instead of just jumping to conclusions.
People are always being compared to what is normal, whether
its appearance, intelligence, or wealth, and on top of that we’re also told
that we’re all unique in our own way. Well, what is it? It has to be one or the
other. What is considered to be normal in terms of economic status and
intelligence is that students will be middle class or higher and average or
above average in academics. If students fail to meet these “normal” standards
it’s assumed there is something wrong with them.
A student’s race might be influencing a teacher’s decision
to place the student in special education because the teacher starts with a
preconceived notion about a certain race. Like we talked about in class, a
teacher who has an African American male student might be judge him to be loud,
rude, illiterate, or even criminal-like. Students who are lower class may have
a more difficult time completing their homework for reasons I listed in the
first paragraph, which may make them appear to not be learning at the same
level as other students. Just by general observation boys tend to be more on
the rambunctious side, it’s more difficult for them to sit still, so when they
exhibit these behaviors in class teachers can attribute of to them having a
learning disability.
Race as a
social construct in relation to disability as a social construct share
commonalties along the lines of them using what white men see as normal as the
base line. If it’s not white or upper/middle class it’s abnormal. They
differentiate in how they affect people. People are even more segregated for
the population once they’re labeled with a disability.
If a disability is viewed as “in-child” it’s like saying
that it’s a problem within the child that has not outside factors contributing
to it. It’s a problem unique to this child that may or may not be
“fixable”. This kind of diagnosis
hides that outside factors that might influence the behavior or success of the
student.
The prime example of how all of these hierarchies of race,
class, gender, and ability are upheld can be seen in the history of the disease
HIV Aids. When the disease was first diagnosed as a “black” disease and then it
was a “gay disease;” showing how race, gender, sexuality, and class intertwine.
The doctors that were diagnosing it refused to look at the facts and data they
we’re given because it would taint the stereotypes of the straight white
community. Because the medical community has the power to understand medical
terminology and medical issues it can manipulate it to favor certain people or
outcomes, not to diminish all the great things that comes out of the medical
community.
From the definition I used in my earlier blog post it
defined learning disability as a person presenting systems of the
imperfect ability to listen, speak, think, read, write, spell, or to do math
calculations, all of which can be connected with a language barrier. Language
barriers can directly correlate with economic status and race because lower
economic status may be influenced by a person’s lack of ability to obtain a higher
paying job. It’s really a cycle, if a parent doesn’t speak English well or
isn’t well educated they rely on their children and then the pressure is on the
child to succeed, but if they are diagnosed with a learning disability they are
faced with something else holding them back from succeeding, when in fact they
may just need extra attention or help with the language or understanding the
material. People learn in different ways and some people just need more time.
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