Event: Cure or Cult?
Special educational needs in the classroom
I’m pleased to announce that I’m writing a book!
Despite a longstanding scepticism about the the increase in conditions like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), since becoming the father a child diagnosed with both I’ve been forced to question my views. As I’m sure any parent with an Autistic child will tell you, the condition runs through them like a stick of rock. It’s not something they can fake, or a behavioural problem given a fancy label. It is an inseparable part of who they are. It can also be tough, both on them and on their families as we try to support them.
And yet, there seems to be something else going on too. It’s hard not to be struck by the record numbers of pupils being labelled as ‘neurodiverse’, having special educational needs (SEN) or struggling with anxiety and attendance issues. Why? How can that be? Do we know what normal is anymore? The book is less about providing answers - which I don’t claim to have - than it is about posing uncomfortable questions. Questions for you, me, schools, campaigners, and for policymakers. Instead of just celebrating how accepting we have become, or simply calling for ever more resources to meet the growing demand - why aren’t we querying what has changed? What is it about us that has allowed for this explosion of needs?
Are we in danger of making identities out of disorders? Why do some parents appear oddly eager that their children be labelled neurodiverse? Has SEN become a hold-all category for too many different kinds of issues and conditions, and thus an unhelpful term? At a time when schools struggle to fund SEN provision, is a growing ‘awareness’ of neurodiverse, and other similar conditions, part of the problem or the solution? Are there other reasons for the increasing rates of referral and diagnosis, and for rising numbers of children needing support in class? By asking these questions, I hope to stimulate open debate about what is going on, and to get closer to the likely drivers of what I describe as a needs crisis.
I also ask questions about schools and the impact of these needs on kids’ education. As the SEN agenda becomes a greater part of the school experience, is teacher autonomy being undermined by the expectation that they follow scripts produced by SENCOs and SEN departments for some pupils and lessons? How are mainstream schools expected to cope with students who are unable to regulate themselves against sudden, intense, and uncontrolled expressions of emotion or aggression? Instead of experts being brought in to teach teachers how to teach pupils with neurodiverse conditions or other special educational needs - wouldn’t it be better if experts taught these kids in specialist schools? Or is the problem of inclusion, and the variety and nature of the needs children bring to the classroom, more complicated than that?
I hope you can join me on the evening of Tuesday 13 May in Central London, as I explore some of these issues and themes with the Academy of Ideas’ Education Forum. I hope both to hone the arguments for my forthcoming book, and to obtain some insights from those working in schools and education, from parents, and anyone else interested in understanding the reasons for this crisis in the classroom.
Tickets available here
Image: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute
