In this paper I will present and discuss an expanded and changed understanding of education for pupils regarded as intellectually disabled, and of their opportunities for knowledge acquisition. This issue carries important aspects of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and its articles on children´s rights to, in and through education.  In Sweden schooling for these children is organised in a special form of school called Särskolan, divided into two departments, training school and compulsory särskola. In the compulsory särskola pupils should be offered almost the same subjects as are offered in an ordinary compulsory school. Children who are not expected to manage the teaching provided in the compulsory särskola attend the training school. Concerning the pedagogical work undertaken in Särskolan it has been considered as something special – something unique and important for pupils with intellectual disability. However, what this special is has not previously been explored and neither what kind of education is offered to this group of pupils.   One training school classroom (grades 2-5) and one compulsory särskola classroom (K-4) were studied during a school year (Berthén, 2007). Classroom observations and staff interviews were used for data production. The data were analysed from an activity theoretical perspective (Engeström, 1987, 2005; Leontiev, 1986. What is special about särskolan´s pedagogical work? What are teacher’s motives and goals? What are they trying to achieve in their pedagogical work? What knowledge is considered possible for the pupils to learn in Särskolan?   The results give us incentive to seriously begin to problematise motives, goals and means as perceived by the teachers (Daniels, 2004; Eriksson, 2006). The main issue is whether or if such motives and perceptions concerning intellectually disabled pupils’ learning as observed in the studied classrooms are a reflection of what we actually know about these pupils’ capabilities for learning or if they originate from the historical roots of Särskolan (cf. Gindis, 1999). The paper will elaborate this in the perspective of the fact that children´s rights may be discussed in terms of diverse educational rights for diverse children and childhoods.