With IEP season upon us (at least for us), I thought it would be worthwhile to re-post this, which I originally posted last August. The text has been altered slightly based on Joe’s recommendations to the original.
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As a young Army officer, I read Sun Tzu’s Art of War
The Art of War can also be applied to many other common activities, such as the IEP. You can pull from many quotes, but here is my favorite:
Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.
Of course, this may need some translation* into more relevant wording. Such as:
Know the district administration and their stated (and unstated) goals and resources, and know your rights and what is best for your child; in a hundred IEP meetings you will never fail to get what you need.When you are ignorant of what the district’s goals or resources are, but know your rights and your child’s needs, your chances of getting what you need in the IEP are 50/50.
If you are ignorant of both the district’s goals/resources and your rights and needs of your child, you are certain in every IEP meeting to get what you get, and probably not what you really need.
Of course, this important piece of advice can just as easily be translated into the school district perspective, I’ll leave that exercise to you.
Based on my personal experience, conversations with other parents, and conversations in the blogosphere, my guess is that most people (from both sides) go into IEP meetings knowing themselves, but not their “enemy.” As a result, we often see winners and losers in the outcomes of IEPs, the result of hard fought battles that leave everyone bitter and exhausted.
What would happen if both sides heeded this advice and came in knowing themselves and the “enemy”? According to Sun Tzu, both should expect to win. But both sides can’t “win”, can they?
To that I answer a resounding, “Yes, of course both sides can win.” Wouldn’t that be a nice change?
* (If you are interested in some thoughts on translation within a language, check out my post Knowledge in Translation on my No Straight Lines blog.)
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no straight lines 
Great. We are nearing our IEP time here as well. This was perfect!
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Ah Sun Tzu and Machiavelli as your bedside reading, how can you go wrong? Unless of course you meet with the Spanish Inquistion and there indetermate number of secret weapons.
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