Welcome back
everyone, today I am going to talk about inclusion in classrooms, the benefits it
will have on both the disabled children and the able bodied children, and also
the issues it may cause if we rush too quickly into the process. I hope you
enjoy and find this topic as fascinating and important as I do.
Inclusion
is the idea that all disabled students will be put into General Education
classes, and all students will learn the same material as one another. This
idea can be very beneficial to a classroom. Think about your own school
experience; do you remember seeing or being involved with many disabled kids?
Do you remember having them in your classrooms growing up? The answer is
generally no, because often times the special education classrooms are hidden
away as to not disturb the general education classrooms, and all students are
in specific classrooms with their special education teachers the whole day.
However, with inclusion, the students would go between classes just as the
general population of students would on a day to day basis. When inclusion is
implemented from the beginning stages of schooling, able bodied students would
learn to accept others differences, and learn more about disabilities through
being surrounded by them. The disabled students would also learn better social
skills and how to act in a classroom, instead of being in a special education
classroom and feeding off of other bad behaviors. The disabled students would
also get a feel for what it may be like in the real world after schooling, many
parents do not want their children to be babied as though they are less, but
challenged so the student will push themselves to greater lengths to succeed. Another
benefit to inclusion that many schools would enjoy, is the saving of money, not
paying separate teachers full time to teach a special education classroom would
cut costs, and they could more focus on teacher training overall for students. Especially
parents believe that the special education classroom is holding their children
back, that they are almost being caged up just because they have a disability,
and with full inclusion students will get that freedom that is desired.
Although there are some great benefits to inclusion in schools, like everything
come concerns that will hold us back and make us weary of decision making.
With
inclusion there may be some concerns or misconceptions of how the idea would be
placed within schools, or even how it would all work in the classroom. Some
common concerns that people have would be that the disabled students would
distract others, there would be teasing or bullying in the classrooms, or that
the disabled student would simply fail because they may not be able to learn
the same material as other children their age. It could occur where the
disabled kids do not learn, and therefore will just drop out and then depend on
their families for their lives, which often happens even with special education
classrooms. The argument is often made that special education classrooms are
there for a very particular reason, and that they do not need to learn the
topics that general students would need to learn such as calculus or
Shakespearean sonnets, because they simply will not need to use it in their
lifetime.
Special Education classrooms are meant specifically to tailor to the
needs of the disabled student to give them the tools they need to succeed in
life at what they are able to do. There may even be concern that if the
disabled student is put into a general education classroom, there would not be
accessibility available for that student to succeed in the area such as gym
class or even going to the library to research (Kowalsky). To fully prepare for
the inclusion of all children, we must make sure to assess all types of
disabilities, those both able to be seen and those unseen (Kowalsky). We must
also make sure that there is extensive training for teachers to teach all types
of learners, as teachers may only be teaching to one learning style or type of
student.
Everyone
is welcome to their own opinion on the topic of inclusion and whether or not it
should be implemented into schools. I personally believe that we should have
inclusion, but only partial inclusion. I believe that students do need the time
to socialize with the general student population, to learn to hold a
conversation and work with others without disabilities, and to begin to
recognize how to act in certain situations that they will face throughout their
lives. I also believe the time in the special education classroom is important
because it allows them to get more focused time in certain areas, and learn
skills such as counting money or telling time that normal classrooms may not
cover in higher grade levels. Inclusion is coming and it will be put into
schools soon, we can begin to see it today with programs such as LINKS like my
school had where students would mentor a student with disabilities in a general
education classroom. Before inclusion is implemented there needs to be a lot of
consideration taken to certain disabilities and whether they can handle a
normal classroom setting, and teachers need to be given the training to teach
all students not just able bodied students.
I hope you found this
blog interesting and thought provoking on the topic of inclusion in the
classroom. Think about if you had a child with disabilities, what would you
want them to do for their schooling? Until I see you here next time, goodbye!
Sources:
Rhonda Kraai. SPGN 251.
