My child is a snowflake!

I was watching a House episode where the patient had to decide whether to keep her perfect memory (her ability to recall every instant of her life) or take pills to get better (which would make her lose her ability).  She struggled with the decision, of not wanting to be normal.  In the end she took the pills.

“if you want to be special, you’re going to have to be alone”

(notice how I’m sticking with the alone theme here…seems somewhat important, eh?)

What does this have to do with education you ask?  Well in the world where “every child is a snowflake”, at least to their parents, the idea and what it truly means to be “special” should really be examined.  This woman, who I believe truly is special, would probably have gotten an IEP in my classroom (I she can’t, who can?).  However the way I see the development of IEP’s and the expansion of learning disability diagnoses is this: I will have 20 kids in classroom with 20 IEP’s. 

Fantastic, no?  My child is a snowflake, going to be the next president, and fly to the moon, they should be getting individual attention from teachers.

So I ask again, what does it mean to be special when everyone else is special?  Does our education system deteriorate when we are unable to discern between those that truly need a more focused attention and those that would succeed if they just applied themselves a bit more, the parents were more involved, or a wide variety of non-“lesson plan accommodation/modification” methods?

My concern and heart goes out to those that truly feel alone because they are special.  Who cannot succeed the same way as their peers, not because they don’t try, but because they try every second of every day with little avail.  My concern and heart goes out to those that might not be seen as that “special” for too much longer going the way we are.