Ever since the advent of IDEA educators cannot lawfully deny a student with a disability their right to a fair, public education. This law not only protects disabled students’ rights, but it puts educators in the right moral and ethical mindset. However, the problem is in the execution of a fair education. The problem is not whether they want to educate students with disabilities, but how to properly teach them. All students require a degree of individual attention, because not all students learn in the same manner. Sometimes this attention can be subtle, such as referring to the student first not the disability. The difference in the voicing of “an epileptic student” and a “student with epilepsy” can mean a lot to a student, and increase their …show more content…
Experienced teachers know that information can be the difference in whether a student will be successful or not in their classroom. However, no one can expect one single teacher to act in a vacuum to help a student’s educational needs, so teachers need to become a support team that surrounds the child. Luckily, educators have created a format to accomplish this and it is known as an Individual Education Plan, or IEP. An IEP can give a teacher a wealth of knowledge that can affect a teacher’s instructional approaches. In the discipline of music education an IEP can inform an educator that a student’s disability hampers them from doing activities that utilize tactile approaches, such as playing with mini maracas. This knowledge would inform the teacher that they would have to make either an adaptation or …show more content…
Luckily, when epilepsy is given regular treatment with anti-convulsant medications the afflicted students have an easier time fully participating in school, so the educator does not have to overtly use a student’s IEP. However, the real problems that students with epilepsy run into are isolation from other students, lo self-esteem, and a lower level of achievement. Ironically, the solution to this dilemma resides in the group activities they get excluded from because of their epilepsy, such as music. By giving them a place to fit in these students lose their isolation and gain self-esteem, which can directly influence their achievement in a positive correlation. Also, the sensitivity of the teacher, as aforementioned, can give the student an escape from being a label. This label can be a struggle for students, but having a prime example of a successful person with epilepsy can elevate them. A great example is Prince, who gave an interview in 2009 about his struggle with epilepsy in his childhood, and like a lot of students it followed him to school. In the interview Prince said, “From that point on, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of things, getting teased a lot in school. And early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy as I could and as noisy as I