ous. Classification is a social act that is used at times to cast deviants from the community..... (Reynolds and Birch, 1988, p. 37).
In fact, in some ancient societies, many infants were classified as handicapped for the least deformity. These infants were often left unattended and in remote places to die. By the same token, some individuals, by their intrinsic classification, became entitled to extraordinary interventions on their behalf (Reynolds and Birch, 1988, p. 37). This holds true today when dealing with mainstreaming in the public sector.
Under the current educational system, classification systems applied to exceptional students are rather anomalous. In the past, some of the categories of special children were used to keep students with unique needs out of the mainstream of education and society. However, under Public Law 94-142, children assigned to those same sets of categories are required to be included in the mainstream, and educators are charged with making that feasible (Reynolds and Birch, 1988).
Because of the very real danger of using classification in a negative manner, classification topics should be treated categorically and judged accordingly. For instance, hearing impairments, visual impairments, profound disabilities, giftedness, and speech and language impairments should not be treated in the same manner. Of course, treating the exceptional child in a broader-based category does not exempt the treatment from moving the process into the mainstream of the public school. Moreover, with respect to children in the milder categories, a regular school environment seems more productive for the child. Screening and assessment of students in the schools should probably be dimensional rather than categorical, even though the broader categories are used to delineate unique needs for special children. In terms of analysis, when measurements are continuous, they should not be segmented by category [a...