I Pray for the Labeled Child

That Child Who is Gifted and Talented

No Longer Can She be Lazy and Idle

Or a Daydreamer

So Much More is Expected

Of Those as Gifted and Talented as She

I Pray for the Labeled Child

That Child Who is Learning Disabled

No Longer Will the World Expect Brilliance

No Longer Will Someone Tell Him to Reach for the Stars

Because that is Where Greatness Will be Found

I Pray for the Labeled Child

The Child Who is Dyslexic

Reading—oh the Joys of Reading!

Will Always Be Hard for Her to Find

No Matter that She Can Recite—No Sing—

Mary Had a Little Lamb

She Won’t be Able to Read it

At Least, Not without Difficulty

She Will Learn that All Her Friends

Who Laugh & Cry & Wonder about Books

Can Do so Because They are Not Dyslexic

I Pray for the Labeled Child

That Child Who is A.D.D.

An Unorganized Bubble of Hyperactivity

No Longer Will Someone Teach Him to Cope in a World

That Values Compliance

No Longer Will Someone Say, “You Can Do This;

Oh, It May Be Hard, But it is within You to Do This.”

A Dose of Medicine Now Replaces the Need for that Inner Effort

And Eliminates the Possible Victory

I Pray for the Labeled Child

That Child Who is Emotionally Handicapped

That Child Who Rebels

Because She Should Rebel

The Child Who Acts Out

Because there is Nowhere Else

For the Hurt & Anxiety & Fear to Go

The Child Who is Diagnosed “Sick”

When Perhaps Her Actions are the One True Sign of Sanity

In the Demented World in Which She is Forced to Live

I Pray for the Child of No Label

In a System Which Marks So Many Special

This Child Neither Shines Nor Demands

For This Child Life Has Been Neither Harsh Nor Gorgeous

This is the One Who “Makes” a Teacher’s Day

Because There Are So Many Children Who Need Real Attention

I Pray Most for All for Some Magic Day

When the Tests, the Labels, & the Names

Will Disappear—Will be Forgotten

When Each Child Who Enters a Classroom

Will Be an Apprentice of Learning

When Each Classroom will be a Safe Place

To Discover—on Your Own——

What Will be the Struggles of Your Life

And the Victories

When the Feeble & the Bright

The Gregarious & the Shy

 Will All Find Their Place

 In the Great Adventure of Education

When the Only Label that Will Be Attached to Anyone is

LEARNER

So, because there are, so many kids with special needs (and I don’t mean those with the handicaps, in need of their separate I.E.P.s, and you DO know what those are, right???), and, in a classroom of say???  25 to 30 children, there’s, NO way that one teacher can keep an eye on all 25 to 30 children, which still means, that some of the smart ones (the G.T. students!!!), as well as the developmentally delayed (your M.R.’s???) will get overlooked, because, just like the bell curve (and, you DO know what that is, right???), most of the population “lands” in the middle portion, with what???  About a total of FOUR percent (-ish???) on the either extremes, and, those on the upper AND lower extremes, are left, to their own device, and that would be, one of the biggest problem education still faces today!  But hey, that’s just my opinion!!!