Curriculum: One Size Does Not Fit All

There are many instances where selected students should not and cannot receive the same educational opportunities as their peers. For instance, some students have no choice but to enroll in a special education program where they can take classes geared to their needs. This allows them to travel at a pace they can be successful at and get individualized help as needed. Disabilities that require the child to take special education classes can range from mental retardation to blindness. At the other end of the spectrum, students that are "gifted" can take advanced classes that cover more material at a faster pace. Still other students who wish to pursue a trade can enroll in a vocational education program where selected academic courses are replaced with trade courses such as automotive, electrical, welding, horticulture and the like. 21st Century schools should be able to adapt to every child's specific needs.

The approach schools take regarding special, gifted, and vocational education differs from school to school and country to country. In Italy, integrating special needs students into mainstream classrooms became a national policy in the 1970s. All Italians take this policy to heart in school and in the workforce today. This is unlike the United States where many students are still segregated into special education classes so that they can receive "specialized" care and do not disrupt the mainstream classes.

Dr. Smith describes in her notes on her trip to Italy how the school's staff would help children with disabilities. "If a student in a wheelchair had class on the second floor, then the staff would carry them up the stairs. Integration was further enhanced by the national workweek limit for teachers. Teachers work 24-hour weeks, while the students are in school all day. Consequently, an elementary school class will have two teachers who teach alone for part of the day and together for the rest. In addition, special education teachers (sosteno) provide up to 20 hours per week of services and support in the classroom working alongside the regular teacher." (Smith). Italians take this integration process for granted and work closely at the local level to make it work.

China is passing laws to address the needs of special needs students as well. "The 1985 National Conference on Education . . . recognized the importance of special education, in the form of programs for gifted children and for slow learners. Gifted children were allowed to skip grades. Slow learners were encouraged to reach minimum standards, although those who did not maintain the pace seldom reached the next stage. For the most part, children with severe learning problems and those with handicaps and psychological needs were the responsibilities of their families." (Development) They also have a vocational program in place to help these students learn a trade that will allow them to earn a living and live independently. This program is very limited in scope, however. In the most general sense, it teaches students with hearing impairments how to paint, students with visual impairments how to weave or become a masseuse, and students who are mentally retarded how to sew. However, these skill sets are not very useful, especially in rural areas. Vocational skills like farming, raising livestock, and other handcraft work would be more useful and will hopefully be explored.

Each country's approach to gifted and talented education differs as well. For instance, in Italy, gifted/talented programs are managed at the local level as was their special needs programs. Students can either be nominated by a teacher, a parent, someone in the community, or by themselves. Of course, nominees are then selected by a committee for enrollment, but the "neighborhood involvement" in the selection process is certainly there.

Not much information is available on China's approach to gifted/talented education, however they do participate in the Gifted Education Programme (GEP). The GEP is an international program meant to tend to the needs of gifted children and help them realize their full potential. Children in the top 1% of their class are usually classified as gifted. Recognizing a gifted child's full potential may require that they enroll in specialized classes in vocational schools rather than classes they could normally take in their regular schools.

China passed the Vocational Education Law in 1996. This law mandated that the country's technical institutes must service the needs of its special needs and gifted/talented students. By 2005, the country had were over 3,500 full time technical institutes with one third of those servicing students who were primarily disabled.

Italy has also been putting a lot of effort into building up their vocational education program. "Around 70 % of students obtain the State diploma (maturità). The majority obtain[s] it by following the vocational stream" (Vocational). Several laws were passed in the late 90s to increase Italy's focus on and support for vocational education. China and Italy seem to share an increasing interest in fostering vocational education.

Education in the 21st century must service the needs of every single child. Special needs students should be receiving all the attention they need to learn and succeed. Gifted and talented students need to be working at a pace they feel is right for them. More vocational schools need to be built for students who want to learn a trade and head right into the workforce. To ensure this happens, we have to recognize and improve the social standing of our teachers, improve the quality of their training, develop better assessment tools to diagnose students with learning disabilities, and develop ways to encourage schools to work more closely with the families of disabled children. Only then can we hope to ensure that every child's educational needs will be met in the new millennium.