For decades, policymakers and educators have embarked on an elusive quest to formulate and implement schools reforms, which will culminate in the improvement of student achievement (Graham). In their individual works, The Light in Their Eyes and No Pity, People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, Sonia Nieto and Joseph Shapiro presented the underlying causes of the educational system's failure to provide quality education to students respectively. Although Shapiro also highlighted issues confronted by individuals with disabilities in many other settings, the discussion of this book will be confined to the school setting. Moreover, proposals for change at the individual, institutional and social levels were also identified. The remainder of this paper will outline and analyze the central arguments discussed in these works within the context of pedagogical approaches. Just as significantly, how these books have shaped my progress in teaching the whole child will also be considered.
In spite of the slight differences in their foci with Nieto focusing primarily on students from minority backgrounds and Shapiro on individuals with disabilities, both authors argued that schools and educators have marginalized students who are incompatible with the profile of the typical student to the periphery. Through various forms of discrimination that are manifested in unequal funding, segregation, cultural biases in the curriculum and the lack of teachers of colors (Nieto 20, 38-40), the educational system has been instrumental in creating an inequitable learning environment. Because traditional schools do not acknowledge the cultural differences of students from minority backgrounds, the differences in their perspectives and learning styles are often neglected. Only the provision of a multicultural education that integrates the diversity of the experiences of these students will ensure that they are able to learn in a...