History, Politics, and the General Education Initiative: Sleeter's Reinterpretation of Learning Disabilities as a Case Study

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Abstract
A general education initiative has recently been suggested as a solution for problems related to special education eligibility and management of mildly handicapped students. This approach treats mildly handicapped students as failures of regular education to be dealt with by more effective instructional procedures delivered through regular education. The general education initiative, however, ignores the essential nature of mildly handicapping conditions, which is well illustrated in Sleeter's (1986) reinterpretation of the history of learning disabilities. Sleeter suggested that beginning in the late 1950s, school reform increased school failure, and that the category of learning disabilities was created to explain the failure of white middle class children. It is argued here that this interpretation is fallacious and that the category of learning disability is best viewed as the culmination of a long series of events resulting in service arrangements for particular children. It is also argued that Sleeter's suggestion that the learning disability category was established to discriminate against minorities is incorrect since the presumed ethnic imbalance of early classes for learning disabled students is of little consequence and the concurrently developing compensatory education programs represented a substantial investment in the school prablems of minority children. It is concluded that the fundamental problems of the field of learning disabilities and, by extension, other mildly handicapping conditions, are the consequence of their politicization and not of political pressures for their establishment.