Let’s get back to the words we use every day. It is important that we understand their meaning as they affect how we think. There is no better example of this than the word “right”.
First read the following extracts from my book:
Prologue
Rights! My mind goes back to a lecture by Herbert Hart, the eminent Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford. He explained that there was not one single meaning for the word “right”. There could be five or more different meanings depending on how it was used. In addition “rights” are not always complementary to each other and they are rarely, if ever, absolute.
Sometimes one person’s “right” – say a UK citizen’s right to live in safety and not to be blown up by a propane gas bomb loaded with nails – or to have a fear of this – may conflict with the rights of migrants seeking to enter this country. You have to be very careful how you use the word “right”. You need fi ne judgment and, as Professor Hart argued, a sense of fair play in deciding when and how to assert it. It is just as well to remember that while human rights may enable lawyers pronouncing on them to enjoy the fruits of Utopia; they allow the rest of us only a partial glimpse of it. In Professor Hart’s own words human rights are “the prime philosophical inspiration of political and social reform”. Often they are no more than that.
So, when you talk about the “right” to Inclusive Education you should recognise that some will want to assert it and may succeed and thrive. Some may assert it but be disappointed and wish they hadn’t. Some may want to assert it but be denied it. Finally, some may not want to assert it at all but be forced to accept it with no other realistic choice available, and some may want to assert a different right altogether – the right to go to a special school. Remember that children without special needs have their rights too. This actually summarises how things are.
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For their part, Judges have ruled that children with special educational needs must receive education appropriate to those needs. All of this gives them legal protection and their legal rights – if they can exercise them. About 100 Special Schools have been closed since 1997. Parental choice? Legal rights? Tell that to the fairies.
Act One, Scene 6:
JOAN ERRINGTON And their needs are very clear
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Yes, to get more children into mainstream schools, saying they have a right to it.
JOAN ERRINGTON Some people think that rights grow on trees. Just pass a law and you’ve planted another tree.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Weeping willows, more like.
JOAN ERRINGTON Trees or people?
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Politicians are all for human rights, but when it comes to delivering them, ah that’s another matter. There are too many social engineers in politics. They think that all you have to do to change society is to pass another law. You know, human rights sometimes are just dreams, very beautiful dreams, but dreams.
JOAN ERRINGTON Yes, if only it was easy to turns those dreams into reality.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON And when you wake up from your dream, what do you find? Your social engineer has put square pegs into round holes with Epoxy glue.
JOAN ERRINGTON That is the nub of it. Some people just don’t realise that one person’s right can become another person’s restriction.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON That’s so true. They gave me no choice. They really didn’t. The Government wants schools like ours closed. They think it’ll save money which it won’t. They pass the buck to the local authorities to do their dirty work for them and the local authority passes the buck to me. God, what a lousy world.
Act Two, Scene 7
JUDITH FAWZI I really do wish someone would expose the lousy, stinking, hypocritical charade of those who put it about that they care. They say the rights of you kids are paramount. Words. Empty words. Holy Jesus, you just try to assert those rights today in a tribunal. It’s difficult enough as it is.
ANWAR FAWZI And not cheap.
JUDITH FAWZI No, not if you have to get a medical report. And now they’re trying to get rid of Statements altogether. Then you’ll have no rights at all. They’ll try to make out it’s in our interests, when it’s only in theirs. You know, all they do is play games with people’s lives – you kids are just little pawns in a gigantic game of chess.
I just want to make two simple points here.
While it may be “right” for children with special needs to go to a mainstream school they are not necessarily “wronged” if they are not. Human rights lawyers in particular please note.
Children without special needs have their rights too. Don’t imagine that there cannot be a clash of interest, and one resolved by fair play rather than by Equality.
What do you think?