Special Kids for Special Treatment?, Or, How Special Do You Need to be to Find Yourself in a Special School?

The decision to transfer a pupil from mainstream to special education can have a profound effect on the child's life. This text exposes the often arbitrary way in which such a decision is made. The author reveals that transferral may reflect factors such as teacher and school tolerance rather than pupil behaviour. Such findings question the whole transfer process and even the logic of separate schooling for pupils considered by some to be a problem, and a need is stressed for educational changes that will make school relevant to pupils' lives. A comparison is made of deviant pupils from a mainstream school with deviant pupils in a special unit and a historical account of the development of special education is provided.