What Is Good About Special Education?

Although special education is beneficial to countless people, in the 1980s and 1990s it has been the target of a plethora of criticism. As a result, feelings of disappointment and frustration occurred, leading to the creation of this special issue of "Exceptionality" - an appropriate response to all the disparagement that special education has faced over the latter part of the 20th century. This special issue: provides discourse around seven specific ways in which special education is befitting of continued praise and support; examines the positive aspects of special education for those with behavioural and emotional abilities; justifies the existence of the construct called learning disability and discusses why it is appropriate that special education serves such persons; provides an historical perspective of how the concept of least restrictive environment (LRE) entered into the late 20th-century vernacular of special education; and discusses how traditional special education might meet its demise or be saved from destruction.