Terms "Mental Retardation" and "Mentally Disabled" now wrong
We read:
"U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski today introduced Rosa’s Law, a bill that will eliminate the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from the federal law books. U.S. Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is the Republican sponsor of the bill.
Under Rosa’s Law, those terms would be replaced with “intellectual disability” and “individual with an intellectual disability” in federal education, health and labor law. The bill does not expand or diminish services, rights or educational opportunities. It simply makes the federal law language consistent with that used by the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the President of the United States, through his Committee on Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities.
Rosa’s Law replicates a law recently adopted in Maryland. Senator Mikulski first heard about the state law from Rosa’s mother during a roundtable discussion about special education held in Edgewater, Maryland. Due to requirements in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), each student who receives special education services at public schools has an individualized education program (IEP) that describes the student’s disability and the special education and services that child will receive. Rosa has an intellectual disability – Downs Syndrome – and so was designated as a student with “mental retardation” in her IEP, giving way to people at the school referring to Rosa as retarded. Senator Mikulski promised Rosa’s mother that if the bill became law in Maryland, she would take it to the floor of the United States Senate.
Source
Leftists have a long history of belief in verbal magic. They believe that by changing the name for a thing you somehow alter the underlying reality and people's attitude towards it.
12 comments:
This seems to be very counter productive. With today's youth abbreviating everything, she's just making it harder. I mean, which is easier to write and understand: "IntDis" or "tard"?
Just wait until Senator Mikulski sees the new bill being introduced which says, "no 3 foot tall, retarded socialists can serve in the US senate." I wonder. Are the corrupt, lying, incompetent crooks in congress entitled to unemployment insurance?
This is a big waste of money.
1) States are required to use the same codes on IEPs (Individual Education Plan) to receive funding under IDEIA [(Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act)which is the improved version of IDEA], changing codes is just another time consuming paperwork hassle, and time is money even in government.
2) Changing the coding means a whole new set of publication materials need to be created, more money wasted.
3) Changing the coding just vilifies a new set of words.
4) More time spent on learning new coding means less time teachers and support staff spend teaching or preparing to teach, which means less opportunities for a rewarding educational environment.
5) IEPs become increasingly difficult to comprehend as the codes keep changing along with the codes meaning. Making it difficult to evaluate students' needs.
Does anyone still wonder why public education fails on such a grand scale. A big government creates big waste!
But changing terms works, it really does. An example:
Some years ago, before I retired, a family moved into our school district. Their child was Developmentally Dealayed (or was the term Cognitively Delayed? Or Developmentaly Disabled? Or . . .) Anyway, when we had the required Child Study Team meeting to formally identify the student we informed the parent that our state was quite sensitive to words. Therefore we would not use the term 'Mentally Retarded' that had been used in the last state they lived, but would label their son 'Cognitively Delayed', or whatever term we were using at the time.
The student's mother started crying and said, "Oh, I just knew there was nothing wrong with him. He's just like everyone else."
See? Problem solved. The boy's IQ was raised 45 points into the average range just by changing a label.
The sad part is that his parents, despite our efforts to let them know their son would still need help and would most likely not acheive as well as others in school, had unrealistic expectations of what their son could achieve.
Guess whose fault it was when he didn't acheive to those expectations?
It would be nice if changing terms could erase problems, but all it really does is deny reality and cause confusion.
Oops.
Error in above post:
"raised 45 points" should be "raised 25 points.
Sorry.
Is there a way to edit posts? If there is, I have been unable to find it.
Yes Dean, press the 'preview button' before you submit your post.
Ed is so fcuking clever.
Anonymous 7:17
We see you are off your medications again.
Soon, words will have no meaning. Why don't these people concentrate on what matters - find a cure!
My daughter is autistic and has a developmental delay. I'm fine with the word retarded, which means slowed. Screw disabled. She is perfectly ABLE to learn the same things her peers do, just as a slower (retarded) rate.
I can still remember being in grade school when the term "retarded" was introduced and all us kids were told that it was a good word to use so that we wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings.
Now I can sit back and listen to kids these days and the way they say "special needs" as a jest and an insult.
Round and round....
Liz said...
"My daughter is autistic and has a developmental delay. I'm fine with the word retarded, which means slowed. Screw disabled. She is perfectly ABLE to learn the same things her peers do, just as a slower (retarded) rate."
Thank you, Liz, SO MUCH for understanding the English language and not taking for granted what words really mean. The term "retarded" can only derogatory if one sees interjects his own emotion, hatred, and ignorance. If you take the our language in general and the word retarded in particular literally and at face value, you see that there is no certainly disrespect, only fact.
Post a Comment