Chapter 11: MI and Special Education

It was really cool to hear special needs reframed as a growth paradigm instead of a weakness. I hadn’t really thought about how intelligence difficulties besides linguistic and spatial aren’t regarded by the majority with the same severity as those two. The table 11.1, which emphasized translating the traditional views of special education to a growth paradigm, was really interesting. I particularly liked the part about maintaining the individual’s integrity. Figures 11.2 and 11.3 were really eye-catching and absolutely fascinating. The high achieving people were really amazing to think about, and the suggestions for dealing with difficulties in different fields by empowering different intelligences were really helpful. I really hope that knowing this will lead to fewer referrals to special education classrooms, because I feel that isolation, in most cases, is bad for everybody involved and self-esteem is vital.