From Disability to Possibility

Three decades after landmark special education legislation promised a better learning experience for students, special education is still just that--a promise. In America we have earned a failing grade in educating diverse learners, as evidenced by their overwhelming underemployment or joblessness after graduation. We can do better by adopting a new model--one that honors varied teaching and learning styles, transforming disability into possibility. Only then can we finally fulfill the promise of special education. From Disability to Possibility leads the way, presenting the specific kinds of teaching, classroom practices, and support approaches that will make this new model of possibility a reality. Drawing on the stories of learners, both with and without disabilities, as well as families and teachers, Patrick Schwarz shows you not only why many current special education frameworks don't work but also how they damage children, often for life. Then he demonstrates how possibility studies offer a meaningful, practical, and doable alternative to traditional special education practices both during the school years and after. Ideal for general educators, special educators, administrators, educational leaders, related service professionals, paraeducators and self-advocates, From Disability to Possibility illustrates, through stories of struggle and success, how creative, conscientious teachers can work with everyone involved in a student's learning to make special education work. In addition Patrick Schwarz will show you that special education is a service, not a sentence, and that labels hurt. His ideas and passion will inspire you to look at diverse learners, their instruction, and theirsupport in the classroom, the curriculum, and the social world of school from a new perspective: the possibility of disability.