Ethics/Legal/IEP Essay

1411 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Implications of moral development in education

Ethics/Legal/IEP Essay

In the treatment of those individuals labeled as disabled, be it physically, mentally, or a combination thereof, we are faced with many challenging ethical questions. The first and foremost of these is, what is ultimately, “the right thing to do.” While we may or may not agree on the answer to this question, as well as those that follow, many advances have been made in our society to deal with disabled individuals in the most humane and ethical way possible.

What is the right thing to do?

Is there an ultimate resolution?

In 1975, Public Law (PL) 94-142 was passed. This law has several parts, each pertaining to a different aspect of discrimination, or nondiscrimination, of disabled persons. This law was passed in hopes of avoiding not only the horrific scenarios found in Nazi propaganda films such as Selling Murder, but further to guarantee all disabled individuals a fair chance at life: to live to the fullest extent of their capabilities and fulfill their potentials. In the film, Selling Murder, Nazi officials convey to the public that disabled people are a threat to the world community, and that they are living a “life without existence.” It goes further and says that not only should those who are disabled be quarantined and banished from society, but for their own sake they should be sterilized, and ultimately killed. Labeling the mass deaths of disabled persons “mercy killings,” the film explains how they, the disabled, are unable to function as “real” human beings, and that if they had the mental facilities to make the choice, they would choose death over such a menial existence. Showing gruesome photos of the severely physically disfigured, the propaganda seeks not only to convince, but to scare the masses into agreement.

On the other hand, films such as Regular Lives demonstrate the ability of disabled individuals not only to survive, but to flourish and better their communities through their own efforts. It demonstrates the necessity to include disabled students in any and all ways possible in order to help them adapt to a social environment as normal as is possible.

PL 94-142 states that all disabled students are guaranteed a FAPE (free and public education). With this comes the formulation of an IEP (individualized education plan). This grants students a goal guided objective list for their education. The ...

... middle of paper ...

...ther teacher or administrator to explain evaluation results to those involved.

Why does it matter?

What is the relevance/necessity of making moral judgments when formulating a course of action?

Disabled people have been discriminated through time. They have been played as Jesters for entertainment, banished as havens for evil spirits, and massacred simply for being different. They have been subject even to sterilization, seen as people unfit to breed. We are forced to ask ourselves- why then, does it matter?

Hardman states on page 52, “Social justice and equality for all people should be of paramount importance in the design and delivery of all curricula.” Fair and equal treatment of disabled persons matters because they, like all other citizens of this country, are people. They are born in this country with the guarantee that they will be granted “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” With this in mind, it is our moral and ethical obligation to “hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are [indeed] created equal.” This country was founded on these beliefs, and as we continue our progress forward with laws such as PL 94-142, we support this creed.

Show More
Related

  • Wal-Mart is Bad For America

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ir employees without their knowledge at all. Because of their prices being low, wage is even lower to make an over decent profit. Wal-Mart is a growing competitor to those who have enough trouble just surviving. It is easier for everyone just to back-off and let them do what they want, but they have taken advantage of that and the people do not like that.

    Read More

  • Andre Dubus 'Why The Able-Bodied Still Don' T Get It

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most people feel relatively uncomfortable when they meet someone with an obvious physical disability. Usually, the disability seems to stand out in ones mind so much that they often forget the person is still a person. In turn, their discomfort is likely to betray their actions, making the other person uncomfortable too. People with disabilities have goals, dreams, wants and desires similar to people without disabilities. Andre Dubus points out very clearly in his article, "Why the Able-bodied Still Don't Get It," how people's attitudes toward "cripples" effect them. It's is evident that although our society has come a long way with excepting those with physical disabilities, people do not understand that those with physical disabilities are as much human as the next person

    Read More

  • Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, Harriet McBryde Johnson: Disability

    1916 Words  | 4 Pages

    What comes into one’s mind when they are asked to consider physical disabilities? Pity and embarrassment, or hope and encouragement? Perhaps a mix between the two contrasting emotions? The average, able-bodied person must have a different perspective than a handicapped person, on the quality of life of a physically disabled person. Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, and Harriet McBryde Johnson are three authors who shared their experiences as physically handicapped adults. Although the three authors wrote different pieces, all three essays demonstrate the frustrations, struggles, contemplations, and triumphs from a disabled person’s point of view and are aimed at a reader with no physical disability.

    Read More

  • Wal-Mart: The High Cost of a Low Price

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).

    Read More

  • Bulimia Nervosa Case Study

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever since 1979, the world became introduced to a different type of anorexia disorder called bulimia nervosa by Gerald Russell. In the similar attempt to lose weight like anorexia, bulimia nervosa is characterized by having episodes of binge eating, followed by intense efforts to avoid gaining weight. Some of the methods to avoid gaining the weight can be to induce self-vomiting, and consuming laxatives or diuretics. As a result of Russell studying theses eating disorders, he discovered that approximately 1/100 women in Western societies were affected in 1990 (Palmer, 2014). Ever since bulimia nervosa became a known eating disorder, more people have been able to effectively be diagnosed with it, and more useful information about the disorder

    Read More

  • Against Walmart Essay

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    B. Walmart is often thought of as a greedy, selfish, big-shot corporation with the desire to make money for themselves. This corporation is often criticized for costing jobs, giving out wages that aren’t exactly up to par with other competing companies, having no health insurance, destroying local businesses, and hurting the environment. It is my job to explain to you why most of those claims are not true.

    Read More

  • Wal-Mart and its Affect on the American Economy

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many criticisms and outrages about Wal-Mart and its growing presence, as many people who oppose the company believe it brings nothing but negative outcomes to communities and economies around the United States. This claim is not true as Wal-Mart may have some downfalls and unintended negative effects but overall proves to have a positive affect on the economy of the United States as a whole. Wal-Mart pays its employees comparable rates, gives them comparable benefits, has little to no effect on surrounding small businesses (often times even having positive effects), does not play a negative role in the unemployment problem in the U.S., and provides communities with employment, access to cheap goods, and provides low income consumers with the opportunity to increase their quality of life.

    Read More

  • What Is Søren Kierkegaard Critical Of The Aesthetic Life

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kierkegaard is critical of the aesthetic life due to the fact that it is a simple concern of daily tasks and other pleasures such as art, music, or literature; it is a way to escape any kind of proper responsibility or commitment. The aesthete only lives for themselves and has little to no concern about how the impact society. Kierkegaard critique stems from his belief that there are only three stages of life. First is the Aesthetic stage, second is the ethical stage, and third is the religious one. Each stage enables a gradual progress to the point where the individual can achieve more, rather than remaining stagnant in the first stage of solely seeking aesthetic pleasures. Boredom remains a major obstacle for the aesthete simply because all they desire is pleasure, whether it be physical, emotional or psychological. When they are “bored”, this means the excitement that they once felt has been drained; what had once before quenched their desire no longer has the same effect because they have become accustomed to it. This is a problem because pleasure is the aesthete’s primary objective. If this drive is unfulfilled then, to an extent, their life becomes dull and monotonous. The way to deal with this boredom is to juggle between pleasures. For example, an aesthete may enjoy playing the violin and shift to painting. In this way, the aesthete does not have lasting periods of boredom will not have a reason to consider their lives dull. Instead they fluctuate through hobbies and find excitement by whatever means necessary. Seducing someone would terrorize us enough to realize that the aesthetic life is essentially brought about through our ...

    Read More

  • Social Models Of Accobility: The Social Model Of Disability

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Medical Model of disability has been the dominant paradigm of conceptualization disability: “For over a hundred years, disability has been defined in predominantly medical terms as a chronic functional incapacity whose consequence was functional limitations assumed to result from physical or mental impairment.” This approach to understanding disability tends to be more descriptive and normative by seeking out to define what is normal and what is not. Consequently, strict normative categories abound, namely the “disabled” and “abled” dichotomy. This model views the physiological difference itself as the problem, where the individual is the focus of that said disability.

    Read More

  • Villain Essay

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...beld person as equal and for society to take responsibility for their ignorance and become more open minded and accepting of those who may have less functioning ability or mental awareness of what is going on around themselves. Only recently has the (dis)Abeld community been given the spotlight through television shows such as Bones, or House, Or CSI have those with disabilities been given a platform to push over society’s negative stereotypes of ignorance and shown how despite limitations, those with limitations can indeed live happy and healthy lives. Despite much of the stigma that still exists towards those who are (dis)Abled, much success has been made and continues to be made because of the selfless determination of a select few who are determined not to be restrained by society’s ignorance and to make a difference in the world around them and for others.

    Read More

  • On Being A Cripple And A Plague Of Tics

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two essays “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs and “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris are excellent pieces of work that share many similarities. This paper would reflect on these similarities particularly in terms of the author, message and the targeted audience. On an everyday basis, people view those with disabilities in a different light and make them conscious at every step. This may be done without a conscious realisation but then it is probably human nature to observe and notice things that deviate from the normal in a society. In a way people are conditioned to look negatively at those individuals who are different in the conventional

    Read More

  • Medical and Social Models of Disability

    1847 Words  | 4 Pages

    It could be said that in modern industrial society, Disability is still widely regarded as tragic individual failing, in which its “victims” require care, sympathy and medical diagnosis. Whilst medical science has served to improve and enhance the quality of life for many it could be argued that it has also led to further segregation and separation of many individuals. This could be caused by its insistence on labelling one as “sick”, “abnormal” or “mental”. Consequently, what this act of labelling and diagnosing has done, is enforce the societal view that a disability is an abnormality that requires treatment and that any of its “victims” should do what is required to be able to function in society as an able bodied individual.

    Read More

  • Understanding the Disabled

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    While these three authors have different reasons to write their essays, be it media unfairness, ignorance, or ethical disputes, they all share a basic principle: The disabled are not viewed by the public as “normal people,” and they are unfairly cast away from the public eye. The disabled have the same capacity to love, desire and hurt as any other human being, and deserve all of the rights and privileges that we can offer them. They should be able to enter the same buildings, have representation in the media, and certainly be allowed the right to live.

    Read More

  • Anorexia and Bulimia - A Threat to Society

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    BUPA’s Health Information Team. (2003 November). Bulimia nervosa. BUPA. Retrieved January 6, 2005, from http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/pdfs/Bulimia.pdf

    Read More

  • Bulimia Nervosa Case Study

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ormant at the time of pregnancy. The women were interviewed in order to find out what, if any, complications arose. After examination, it was concluded that “active bulimia during pregnancy is associated with postnatal depression, miscarriage and preterm delivery.” Seeing that having active bulimia nervosa during pregnancy could reduce the chance of having a healthy baby is a beneficial discovery because it can be treated (Morgan, Lacey, & Chung, 2006). In this day in age, it is just the beginning for researchers to uncover more and more about bulimia nervosa. Whether it be finding the exact cause of this disorder, new symptoms that are showing, changes in the criteria for diagnosis, hopefully a better prognosis, advances in treatment options and continued research to be as proactive as possible, the doors to bulimia nervosa are wide open and ready to be explored.

    Read More

More about Ethics/Legal/IEP Essay

Open Document