In every school, students are labeled for a variety of reasons
Schools should always help students learn and make progress. To better serve students, labels are used to identify and consider the needs of the students and ultimately better meet their needs.
However, the labels may serve to ostracize, segregate, or otherwise provide a disservice to our students. We should carefully consider the use of labels. Do they actually help or potentially harm ?
Positive Effects
Labels allow educators the opportunity to better understand their students and provide extra support if needed. One of the positive effects of labeling students is that it may qualify them to have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This plan allows them to receive instruction at their current level of functioning and provides them with accommodations and specially designed instruction.
Labeling also qualifies students to receive services that they may not have otherwise been able to receive. For example, if a student is identified as having a learning disability in reading, the instruction can be specifically geared at a suitable level. Receiving instruction based on what students’ need is crucial in helping them excel and be successful in the future.
Negative Effects
First off, labels can affect expectations. Labels shape the expectations of parents, teachers, peers, and others. Imagine that you are a teacher. What would your thoughts be if another teacher told you they had Little Johnny last year and he was a total nightmare and behavior problem?
Labels can exaggerate a child’s actions in the eyes of parents, teachers, and others. Adults may overreact to the behavior of a labeled child that would be tolerated in another child.
Labeling a child can create assumptions about him or her based on the diagnosis, or the indiviudal’s (mis) understanding of the diagnosis. This can lead people to make decisions and judgments about the child based on the diagnosis rather than on the individual needs and characteristics of the child.
Research on teacher expectations has demonstrated that what teachers believe about student capability is directly related to student achievement. Thus, if a teacher lowers her expectations of a student due to a label such as low socio economic status, statistically speaking, that student will be less likely to perform at the level he or she could without the low SES label. If the teachers and parents do not believe in the student’s ability, then the student will not either. It can create a vicious cycle, which ultimately sets the student up for failure.
Parents and teachers should be careful not to lower their expectations for the student and instead offer positive encouragement.
Low Self-Esteem
Labeling students can create a sense of learned helplessness. The students may feel that since they are labeled they just cannot do well or that they are stupid. This can also cause the student’s self-esteem to be very low.
Peer Issues
A student who is labeled may experience peer issues. The student may be made fun of for their label. This can cause trouble with making friends and can cause bullying as well. The student then may become very isolated and withdrawn in the school setting and may begin to skip school.
Balancing the Pros and Cons
There is no question that there is a need to identify and label students in order to give them the educational and emotional tools they need to succeed. However, it is important to remember, a label does not take away a student’s value. Each person learns at a different pace and in a different manner.
There are no easy answers regarding if labels are helpful or harmful. Each circumstance surrounding a suspected or confirmed diagnosis will be unique; just like the child. They are not the label.
An easy way to remind yourself of this…Just because a person has a freckle does not mean they are a freckle. They are more than that. The freckle is just part of who they are.
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