Learning Disability: The Imaginary Disease

LD is an ill-conceived, but well-intentioned, movement that has run amok and is placing millions of youth on a disabling trajectory toward failure and low self-esteem. There is no generally accepted definition of LD and no evidence that LD programs help students. The central theme of this book is that all children are capable of learning. It is the trappings of educational practice–the labeling, testing, segregation by exceptionality, poor instruction, and committee-generated curricula–that have caused children to be condemned to the second-class status of LD. Good teaching is what leads to learning. Finlan offers suggestions to parents of what to do to avoid having their children labeled, to take charge of their own children’s education and not leave it entirely up to the so-called experts.