I thought you might be interested in the following. I am a School
Governor, and last year we were sent a small booklet entitled "What Does
it Mean? - A glossary for school governors", produced by our local
Governor support Team.
Amongst the explained words such as "learning difficulty" and "Emotional
and Behavioural Difficulties" which I expected to see, I found
"Educationally Sub-Normal" (in large bold type) The description (in
very small type) stated: "obsolete term originally used to describe
children with a low IQ. Now replaced by the more general term -
children with special educational needs. Specifically includes those
experiencing both moderate and severe learning difficulties.
I was both surprised and concerned that this term should even be
included, so I rang up the department concerned to complain, pointing
out that if they thought it was fine to include such an "obselete"
label, surely they should also be including "mentally handicapped" and
other obsolete terms! My feeling was that it should not have been
included at all, as some Governors might flip through and not
necessarily read all the descriptions, and assume that it was OK to use
such labels. As I say, if you are going to list "obsolete terms" then
you need to list them all in one place, and explain reasons why they are
unacceptable - which I felt would be far more useful to Governors and
maybe help them to understand the kind of acceptable language to use
within their role. (As I still find people who constantly talk about
"handicap" etc.)
When I phoned I was referred to a member of the Team, who it turned out
had devised the Glossary! She seemed totally surprised about my
concern, and couldn't understand why I should feel so strongly about it.
Anyway, no further glossary appears to have been printed (probably due
to cuts) but I still wonder if the current one is being issued to new
Governors.
Janet Iles
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