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LD is an ill-conceived, but well-intentioned, movement that has run amok and is placing millions of youth on a disabling trajectory toward failure and low self-esteem. There is no generally accepted definition of LD and no evidence that LD programs help students. The central theme of this book is that all children are capable of learning. It is the trappings of educational practice--the labeling, testing, segregation by exceptionality, poor instruction, and committee-generated curricula--that have caused children to be condemned to the second-class status of LD. Good teaching is what leads to learning. Finlan offers suggestions to parents of what to do to avoid having their children labeled, to take charge of their own children's education and not leave it entirely up to the so-called experts.
List of contents
Introduction
LD: The Imaginary Disease
A Smoke Screen of Precision
What Is LD and Where Did It Come From?
LD Classification Models
Testing
Labeling
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Science or Scientism?
Increasing Children's Options
Predestination
Readiness: Rush to Judgment
Good Teaching
What Really Is LD?
Getting Along in Regular Education
Getting Kids to Join the Right Club
When Your Child Has Already Joined a Club
About the author
Thomas G. Finlan is Director of Special Education at the Riverview Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania. He has a PhD in Educational Administration from Pennsylvania State University and has contributed to LD journals as well as a book on
Helping At-Risk Students (1992).
