Special Educational Needs a (very) Brief History

Pre 1960’s – People with disabilities are considered defective and ineducable, labels like imbecile are official medical terms.

1967 – Plowden report recognised that disabled children should be educated alongside able bodied children.

1978 – Warnock Report recommended Inclusive education should happen wherever possible, parents of children with S.E.N should be involved with their children’s education, the broader term ‘special educational needs’ should be used.

1981 – Education Act incorporated most of the recommendations of Warnock report.

1983 – Above mentioned Education Act came into effect.

1989 – UN Convention on the rights of the child treaty was adopted by the UN general assembly.

1993 – Education Act revised previous legislation. S.E.N code of practice was published and was mandatory for schools and LEA’s.

1994 – Salamanca conference in Spain produced the Salamanca statement which made a commitment to ‘education for all’. Britain agreed to make inclusion a priority in educational policy.

2001 – ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability Act.’

2002 – Revised S.E.N code of practice came into effect.

2004 – Welsh government made UN convention on the rights of the child treaty part of all its planning and policy making.

2011 – Wales was the first place in the UK to make the UN convention on the rights of the child treaty law.

2012 – Welsh government proposals currently under review include: Increasing S.E.N support up until the age of 25, replace the term S.E.N with A.N (additional needs), bring together services provided by health, social and educational services and have an individual development plan for a child which can cover all areas.

Sir Ken Robinson 'School Kills Creativity' TED Talk - A Reflective Journal

The main theme of Ken Robinson’s TED talk is that the creativity of children is not nurtured in our education system and that the schools are primarily focused on achieving academic success. He highlights that a significant potential problem with this could be that children will grow up scared to make mistakes. Making mistakes and learning from them is something that is an inevitable part of the creative process. He believes that creativity should be considered as important as literacy.

Children are being educated within a system that is examined very rigorously and where success is measured by grades and percentages and getting an answer wrong has become increasingly stigmatised. Young children aren’t afraid to make mistakes and will make attempt to answer a question; however this approach is educated out of children by the time they leave school.

Robinson discusses the idea of an educational hierarchy of subjects that exists in schools around the world. He puts maths and literacy at the top, followed by humanities such as history and geography then lastly the arts like drama and dance. The arts are considered the least important faculty and so have the least time and resources dedicated to them in school. He goes on to say that there is even a hierarchy within the arts themselves; art and music is considered more important than drama and dance.

The symptoms of this style of educating according to Ken Robinson are that it only serves to produce university professors. Academic success dominates the view of intelligence in society and so education focuses on academic achievement. Robinson predicts that in the next thirty years the amount of university graduates will cause academic hyper-inflation. Academic inflation is something that can be seen already. Twenty years ago a university degree could almost guarantee a respectable, reasonably paid job. Now there are a huge amount of university graduates that cannot find employment or who are working menial, minimum wage jobs. Also the level of university education required for certain jobs is increasing. Where previously a degree was required, now a masters is required, and where previously a masters was required a PHD is now required.

According to Ken Robinson the way we are educating our children for the future is not sustainable. There needs to be more emphasis on vocational education and building skills for work and for the future.

Ken Robinson does raise some interesting points in his TED talk, however I believe he puts far too much emphasis on creativity in education. I agree that academic inflation is already a problem but I think this is to be combated by having more vocational subjects taught in school. Children should be given the opportunity  to choose whether or not their education is academically focused or vocationally focused after a certain age, maybe fifteen or sixteen. Up until then literacy and numeracy are vital for any job sector, industry or academic career. I agree with the point Ken raises about the examination systems that are used in schools. They do not measure learning they are more often than not just a memory test and I don’t believe they give accurate results of an individuals’ intelligence or potential. I don’t believe that creative children will sustain an economy, I believe children who are literate, numerate and skilled to work will.

Techniquest

I went to Techniquest science museum in Cardiff Bay on Sunday 30th December 2012 with my boyfriend Ben and my twelve year old cousin Callum. Afterwards Ben claimed that while he enjoyed Techniquest and playing on the exhibits he said that it was not very educational and he believed that neither he nor Callum had learnt anything. In my short time studying an education degree I was able to refute these claims and proved that while they had not realised it he and Callum had been learning – Kinaesthetically. They had learnt that a possible explanation for lots of ships sinking in the area known as the Bermuda triangle could be attributed to large amounts of Methane gas being released from under the seabed which decreases the density of water causing ships to sink. They also learnt that it is possible to move a very heavy industrial hook with just a small magnet if you are patient and pull the rope attached to the magnet in just the right way. Ben was able to communicate with Callum with just a whisper even though he was about 15 metres away because of two giant dishes that reflect sound waves. I learnt that when confronted with interactive science toys 26 year old men regress into children.