Professional Blog: Inclusion in the Classroom

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:

Kowalsky, Michelle and John Woodruff. “Inclusion starts with awareness.” Library Journal 15 Nov. 2015: General Reference Center GOLD. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. 
Rhonda Kraai. SPGN 251.