Inclusion
Inclusion is a very controversial idea because
it relates to educational and
social values, as well as our sense of
individual worth. Inclusion is the
assignment of students with disabilities
to regular classrooms in neighborhood
schools for the entire school day.
These children participate in all the regular
school activities. It involves
bringing the support services to the child rather
than moving the child to
the services, and requires only that the child will
benefit from being in the
class rather than having to keep up with the other
students. Physical
accommodations, sufficient personnel, staff development and
technical
assistance, and technical collaboration are all brought into the
classroom to
assist the special needs child in a regular classroom. Those who
are for
inclusion claim that segregated programs are detrimental to students and
do
not meet the original goals for special education. Recent meta-analyses
show
a small to moderate beneficial effect of inclusion education on the
academic and
social outcome of special needs children. Those who support
inclusion believe
that the child always should begin in the regular
environment and only be
removed only when appropriate services cannot be
provided in the regular
classroom. Another study assessing the effectiveness
of inclusion was done at
John Hopkins University. In a school-wide
restructuring program called, Success
for All, student achievement was
measured and several positive changes were
noticed: a reduced fear of human
differences accompanied by increases comfort
and awareness, growth in social
cognition, improvement in self- concept of
non-disabled students, development
of personal principles and ability to assume
an advocacy role toward their
peers and friends with disabilities, and warm and
caring friendships.
However, for inclusion to be successful, adequate
supplementary aids and
support services must be present. The teacher needs to
prepare students to be
accepting of the special needs students by being honest
about the nature of
the child’s disability and/or behavior difficulty.
Although inclusion
seems like a great idea that should be of some form of
benefit for all
involved, if not handled properly it can become a very stressful
situation.
As an elementary school student, I remember being in my classroom
about
mid-semester and the teacher announcing that we would be having
and
additional student joining us. She went on to explain that this
particular boy
had had difficulty in his previous school due to behavioral
problems but that
she was going to try to work with him. She asked that if he
ever acted out
towards us, that we not retaliate but instead go to her or the
principle and
tell them. She also asked that we be friendly and not treat him
indifferently
because of his behavioral problem, but to instead understand
that he could not
help but be this way. Although the teacher probably felt
that by arming us with
this knowledge we would be able to handle encounters
with this boy better, we
were in no way prepared to deal with the disruptive
and sometimes abusive nature
of this boy. The rest of that school year was
very hard for all of us. The boy
had no ability to concentrate, sit still or
be quiet. The teacher would try to
teach the lesson over his outbursts but
needless to say, not much was learned
for the rest of the year. I believe
that inclusion is a good idea when all the
proper facilities, services, aids
and proper disciplinary strategies are
present. However, if the
teacher/classroom/school, are not well equipped to
handle inclusion, it can
become a very stressful hardship for all involved. The
regular students will
become distracted by the constant disruptions, they can
even resort to acting
out themselves because they are seeing the inclusion
student is not being
disciplined. The teacher can become frustrated with the
chaos in his/her
classroom and feel unable to regain control or not able to
effectively teach
the class with constant disruptions occurring. In my opinion,
the best way to
deal with children with behavioral problems or learning
disabilities is early
intervention. The greatest debate over inclusion versus
special education for
children with these kind of problems is that their
academic performance is
below those of their agemates. However, many of these
students could have
succeeded in school in the first place if they had had
effective prevention
and early intervention programs. There is strong evidence
that a substantial
portion of students who are now in the special education
system could have
been kept out if they had had effective early intervention.
Studies of
high quality early childhood programs such as the Perry Preschool,
the
Abecedarian Project, and the Milwaukee Project all showed
substantial
reductions in special education placements for students with
learning
disabilities and mild mental retardation. The program, Success for
All, which
combines effective early childhood programs, curriculum reform,
and one-to-one
tutoring, has reduced special education placement by more than
half. These
findings suggest that special-education services could be greatly
reduced if
prevention and early intervention programs were implemented.
Ultimately, the key
to the child’s success lay in the hands of the educators.
It is their duty to
provide proper assistance and instruction for these
children in order for full
inclusion to be successful.