Danielle Koluder

SED
Dr.Suppo
3-15-16
Catholic Social Teachings and Council for Exceptional
Children’s Paper
 The key Principles of Catholic Social Teaching and the key Principles of the Council for

Exceptional Children’s (CEC) have a lot of similarities and differences. Catholic Social teaching

is a set of principles for judgment to form our conscience, criteria for judgment to evaluate the

framework of society and directives for action (What is Catholic Social Teaching?). The Council

for Exceptional Children’s is professional ethical principles, practice standards, and professional

policies in ways that respect the diverse characteristics and needs of individuals with

exceptionalities and their families (Council for exceptional children special education

professional ethical principles, 2010). Both the Catholic Social Teaching and the CEC both have

many similarities.

One Similarity that the Catholic Social Teaching and the Council for Exceptional

Children’s have is that they both include principles of normalization, self-determination and

Independence. Another similarity is that all people have the right to participate. For the Catholic

Social Teaching this means that all people have the right to participate in the economy, political,

and cultural life that society has to offer. It says that it is a fundamental right that all people be

assured a minimum level of participation in the community. They also state that it is wrong to

exclude a member or group of people from doing something in society (Council for exceptional

children special education professional ethical principles, 2010)For the Council of Exceptional

Children’s, everyone having a right to participate means that no child with exceptional needs

should be left out of being with other kids without exceptional needs. This is an example of an

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA principle of zero reject. Zero reject entitles

that all students with disabilities to a public education no matter what the nature of severity of

the child’s disability (Friend, 2008). Everyone having the right to participate is an example of

normalization because it allows everyone the right to participate in “normal” activities.

 Another example of how Catholic Social Teaching and CEC are similar is that everyone

has the right to be protected. The Catholic Social Teaching states that if human rights are

protected and responsibilities are met then and only then can human dignity can be protected and

a healthy community can be achieved. It also says that everyone has a right to food, shelter,

employment, health care, education, and clothing (Key pricinciples of catholic social teaching ,

2012). The Council for exceptional children states that supporting and protecting the

psychological and physical safety of individuals with exceptionalities is a key principle in CEC

(Council for exceptional children special education professional ethical principles, 2010). This

can be very useful in education because if a child feels unsafe in the school setting then they

probably won’t be able to thrive in school.

Another similarity between Catholic Social Teaching and CEC are that they both talk

about maintaining a high level of professionalism when working with individuals. Catholic

social teaching states that the government should protect human right and build the common

good of the community. This is similar to Council for Exceptional Children’s because in CEC it

states that professional should work with integrity and exercise professional judgment to benefit

they student and their family. They both also say that professionals should work one-on-one with

individual so they can meet the specific needs of each individual (Key pricinciples of catholic

social teaching , 2012)This principle helps promote individuals to be independent and self-

determined.

Some differences between Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and the Council for the

Exceptional Children’s are that CST mostly deals with the individual and CEC deals with the

family and the individual. Catholic Social Teaching is mostly concerned with the individual and

their role in the community (Council for exceptional children special education professional
ethical principles, 2010) (Key pricinciples of catholic social teaching , 2012). Council for

Exceptional children deals with the student and their family because the family plays an

important role in the child’s life; also their opinion is important to help come up with a plan to

help the child succeed. Another difference is that Catholic Social Teaching deals with the

individual in the community and the Council for Exceptional Children’s talks mostly about the

individual in the education system. Also the CST is dealing with an individual who is already

entered the community and CEC talks about how the school can help the child develop skills to

thrive in the community. A principle in Council for Exceptional Children’s is that the

professional needs to maintain high expectations for an individual with exceptionalities to have

the best outcome for their life (Council for exceptional children special education professional

ethical principles, 2010). Another difference between Catholic Social Teaching and the Council

for Exceptional Children’s is CST talks about what the government should be doing to help the

well being of the individual and CEC talks about what a teach and school district should do to

help a child reach their full potential (Key pricinciples of catholic social teaching , 2012)

(Council for exceptional children special education professional ethical principles, 2010) (Friend,

2008).

There are a lot of similarities and differences between Catholic Social Teaching and the

Council for Exceptional Children’s. Some of the similarities include everyone being allowed to

participate in everything that the community or school has to offer, protection for individuals,

having mutual respect for individuals and families. Some differences are that Catholic Social

Teaching mostly talk about the individual where the CEC talks about the student and their

family. Another thing that is different is that CST talks about the individual in the community

and the CEC talks about the individual in education. Also CST talks about the individual who is
already in the community and CEC talks about the individual who is being prepare to be a

member of society. Finally, Catholic Social Teaching talks about how the government can help

the individual and the Council for Exceptional Children’s talks about teachers can help the

individual (Council for exceptional children special education professional ethical principles,

2010) (Key pricinciples of catholic social teaching , 2012).

Works Cited

Council for exceptional children special education professional ethical principles. (2010,

January).

Friend, M. (2008). Special educaation contemporary perspectives for school professionals . New

York City , New York : Pearson Education, Inc.

Key pricinciples of catholic social teaching . (2012, July). Catholic Charities Office for Social

Justice . St. Paul , MN.

What is Catholic Social Teaching? (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from Catholic Social

Teaching in Action: https://capp-usa.org/what_is_cst