“This is important: Not everything that’s thinkable is genuinely possible, and distinguishing between the two is what allows us to distinguish between demands for utopia and for responsible social change” (Neiman, 2008, p. 142).

Perhaps a problem for us in special education (as a field or discipline) is that we’ve become confused on this point made by Neiman—-confused our thinking about change with the responsible social change that is genuinely possible—-and let ourselves demand utopia rather than the responsible but much more modest social change we can actually achieve.

In Mother on Fire, Sandra Tsing Loh says of children with severe disabilities attending a special education school, “In a universe darker than ours, no one would give two figs for these kids. These children would be the discards” (2008, p. 240). Maybe we should be celebrating these kids’ education in a special school, not brooding about the fact that they’re not included in general education in a utopian universe. We might even come to terms with the fact that, if we’re not careful, lots of kids with less severe disabilities will become the discards of general education for whom the general public won’t give two figs.

I’m not suggesting that we give up dreaming, just that we get better at telling the difference between a dream and reality.

Loh, S. T. (2008). Mother on fire: A true mother’s story about parenting. New York: Crown.

Neiman, S. (2008). Moral clarity: A guide for grown-up idealists. New York: Harcourt.