Anonymous wrote:It's a problem when kids ask each other "Are you sped?" or say stuff like "That's so sped" or "[insert name here] is so sped". In those cases the term is used as an insult. It's become a substitute for the r-word which is not used much anymore in teen vocabulary. In a professional setting, people write "SPED" as an abbreviation for "special education". I am a special education teacher and would never use the word "sped" as a descriptive for an individual person.

yeah thats whats happening in the school im in. They do this with "autistic" and "gay" too. I'm autistic, and it seems like I am an insult to them. :/ so that's just great

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband about fell out of his chair in an IEP meeting in Arlington when the teachers were liberally using the term "sped class" and "sped students."

Yes. Because it's a descriptive. It's like the stupid parsing of Black, African-American, Native American, American Indian, etc. At some point, people need to stop trying to virtue signal that they're not discriminating and just use the words.

People who are not members of the group do not get to decide what words are slurs toward that group and what are not. That is not to say that all members of the group will agree, but it isn’t virtue signaling for outsiders to use or avoid words as preferred by most insiders.

It does Zero harm to you to stop using certain words; conversely you may cause harm, even if unintentional, by stubbornly sticking with them. There are SO MANY WORDS in the English language. You can find a better one.

I grew up with SPED as a general slur for being dumb. I didn’t even know what it stood for until middle school or so. It’s the abbreviation that turns it from a descriptive term to an insult, at least where I grew up.

Context changes over time. I think it's a derogatory expression today, like - "He's a SPED kid. He takes the short bus." It's generally not meant kindly. Kids can be cruel. Should probably find a different expression. Maybe not neurotypical or neurodivergent. It seems a little more neutral and suggests the possibility of superpowers.

From Marilynne Robinson, Of Puritans and Prigs
"Our zealots adopt what are in effect class markers. Recently I saw a woman correct a man in public - an older man whom she did not know well - for a remark of his she chose to interpret as ethnocentric. What he said could easily have been defended, but he accepted the rebuke and was saddened and embarrassed. This was not a scene from some guerrilla war against unenlightened thinking. The woman had simply made a demonstration of the fact that her education was more recent, more fashionable and more extensive than his, with the implication, which he seemed to accept, that right thinking was a property or attainment of hers in a way it never could be of his. To be able to defend magnanimity while asserting class advantage! And with an audience already entirely persuaded of the evils of ethnocentricity, therefore more than ready to admire! This is why the true prig so often has a spring in his step. Morality could never offer such heady satisfactions.

The woman's objection was a quibble, of course. In six months the language she provided in place of his will no doubt be objectionable - no doubt in certain quarters it is already. And that is the genius of it. In six months she will know the new language, while he is still reminding himself to use the words she told him he must prefer. To insist that thinking worthy of respect can be transmitted in a special verbal code only is to claim it for the class that can concern itself with inventing and acquiring these codes and is so situated in life as to be able or compelled to learn them..."

Anonymous wrote:My husband about fell out of his chair in an IEP meeting in Arlington when the teachers were liberally using the term "sped class" and "sped students."

well what does your husband think they should say instead?

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry for sounding dumb, I am sorry for saying that word, but my school is still saying it, but I just saw a 22 year old teacher on TIKTOK Saying that we should not use that word anymore.


What is the new word we should use? Is your school using it?

There is your problem. Don't take life advice from wannabe influencers.

Anything can be a slur if you try hard enough.

SPED means Special Education. Use it when you are talking about special education, and you have a good reason to be talking about it.

Good: The sped kids at Pyle MS love the sped teacher.

Bad: That kid is so dumb. Is he in sped?

Anonymous wrote:This is how the cycle goes. A word is used. People use the word as intended. Word develops a negative connotation because it refers to something that is, frankly, negative. People get offended. People find new word. New word is used as intended. Word develops a negative connotation because it refers to something that is, frankly, negative. People get offended. People find new word. And so on and so on and so on.

It’s this. The connotation changes over time. My kid hated hearing special education or sped right now. He’s okay with any type of talk in medical terms, but nothing with the words special ed.

Think of the word queer. It had such a negative connotation for me when I was younger and now it is embraced and proudly proclaimed by many. I am still getting used to using it and it’s hard for me.

The feelings towards words change over time.

It's a problem when kids ask each other "Are you sped?" or say stuff like "That's so sped" or "[insert name here] is so sped". In those cases the term is used as an insult. It's become a substitute for the r-word which is not used much anymore in teen vocabulary. In a professional setting, people write "SPED" as an abbreviation for "special education". I am a special education teacher and would never use the word "sped" as a descriptive for an individual person.

I've never heard that it's a problem, including in my very liberal professional online groups! My department is the sped department, we have sped teachers, a variety or sped and inclusion classes...

Anonymous wrote:My husband about fell out of his chair in an IEP meeting in Arlington when the teachers were liberally using the term "sped class" and "sped students."

Yes. Because it's a descriptive. It's like the stupid parsing of Black, African-American, Native American, American Indian, etc. At some point, people need to stop trying to virtue signal that they're not discriminating and just use the words.

My husband about fell out of his chair in an IEP meeting in Arlington when the teachers were liberally using the term "sped class" and "sped students."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students have used it as a slur for at least a few decades. I have worked in multiple school systems over many years and don't know any school staff that doesn't say it out "Special Ed", probably for that reason.

This was a derogatory slur when I was in ES in the 1960s. Hard to believe that people don’t know this.

Because there's no actual reason for a lot of "slur" words to be slurs. That's just one group of people deciding it's a slur. For other groups that weren't in the area at the same time, maybe they don't know.

If it's inappropriate to call kids sped kids or say they are in special ed is it also inappropriate to call the teachers sped teachers or say they teach special ed? That's what most schools do call them, that's what they call each other, that's what everybody calls them, if you look on school websites you will find the sped or special ed department listed and the sped or special ed teachers and administrators listed there.

Anonymous wrote:Students have used it as a slur for at least a few decades. I have worked in multiple school systems over many years and don't know any school staff that doesn't say it out "Special Ed", probably for that reason.

This was a derogatory slur when I was in ES in the 1960s. Hard to believe that people don’t know this.