I’ve had the very interesting situation in my life of seeing special education in science from both sides of the desk.  As a teacher, I’ve wrestled with adapting middle level science lessons for students who have a wide variety of special needs.  As a parent of two children on the Autism spectrum, I’ve wrestled with administrators and teachers to get the adaptations that have allowed my daughters to succeed.

It’s much easier to be the teacher.

If a science teacher has a student who has special needs in her classroom, she may struggle to meet the student’s needs.  She may get frustrated with the student who still isn’t getting it, the parents who might deny the need or demand more than the teacher can provide, or an administration that doesn’t provide support.  Tough?  Yes.  Been there.  But it’s only for one year.

The parent of a special needs child has those struggles for life – the child’s life.  That parent has to keep up the battles for appropriate placement and necessary services year after year, no matter what the latest state law, federal funding, or politically correct verbiage.  There’s also the eerie reality of planning for the child after the parent is deceased.  Who can the parent trust to love the child, who becomes the teen, who becomes the adult?   Who will be dedicated enough to give them the care the parent would have given?

The best thing a science teacher can do for one of these students is to provide the best experiences in inquiry that are possible.  These students – more so than typical students – learn best from experiences and problem solving.  These lessons can make a difference in their attitudes towards life and learning.

In the TerraLuna workshop this week, we’ve been talking about the best ways to provide these science experiences.  We noticed that the adaptations we’ve made for our special needs students have benefits for typical students as well.  We’ve noticed that science inquiry, with its emphasis on teamwork, teaches all students much more than science concepts; it teaches that every person has a gift that can help move the learning of science forward.

It’s an important lesson for all of us to remember.