J. Piaget's theory of developmental epistemology; is used to raise questions about the conduct of special educaton, particularly in four areas: the predominant view of the nature of learning in handicapped children, emphasis on perceptual aspects in instruction, attempts to reduce or eliminate errors in the responses of handicapped learners, and the use of carefully controlled teaching sequences to impose structure. The notion that handicapped children learn in a fundamentally different way from normal children is challenged, and it is suggested that emphasizing empirical rather than reflexive abstraction often leads to misunderstanding and forgetting. Error is explained to be an integral part of the learning process. The fallacy of imposing structure externally rather than assisting the handicapped in developing their own organizational schemes is explored. (Author/CL)