When it comes to inclusion…people fall in one of three camps. Either they are totally against it, staunchly for it, or on the fence. It’s the people on the fence that you want to focus your time on.
-Gail Wilkins (friend and mentor)
“Fencers”
I love to talk to “fencers” (yeah…I just made that up). The best way to help someone see something from your perspective is to see something from their perspective (even if you disagree with the conclusion). There is a conservative talk show host in Los Angeles that I used to listen to (in my listening to political talk radio days – glad that part of my life is over) that used to say that he strove for “understanding rather than agreement” when he spoke with people with different views. Although I do not necessarily agree with Mr. Prager on his political stances…I certainly appreciate the sentiment and it has always stuck with me. This to me cuts to the core of the issue on such a controversial topic like inclusive education. There are many people whose presumptions of what that term really means are drastically different. So…when I talk to people on the fence…we talk philosophy.
What really is your philosophy? On education…on life…on humanity…on why we are here. I believe this drives what we do on a very practical level. The two presumptions that I am coming from are stated in my Start Here page…
- All human beings are created equal (you know the American way) and deserve to be treated as such.
- All human beings have a desire to belong in a community and live, thrive and have a sense of purpose.
But what does it look like?
Something that I run into when I am talking to “fencers” is what authentic inclusion really looks like. The problem is…I don’t think it “looks” the same for everyone. Just like a one-size-fits-all system does not work for general education…it does not work for special education. Forgot about the fact that if we melded the two together and pursued what was best for all students…it would be harder to distinguish between “our” kids or “those” kids. Doing what is best for all kids does not mean doing the same thing for all kids. But let’s just talk specifically those students who are labeled with a disability and receive services under special education.
Take for instance (hypothetically) a student in the 4th grade, who has some significant medical needs and intellectual disabilities. He requires assistance with all of his daily living skills. At the moment he is served in a self-contained (segregated) classroom for students with severe and profound disabilities along with other students with similar needs who are at all different grade levels. It is the teacher’s job to teach him…4th grade standards. This is usually the point where I hear…”why on earth do they expect you to teach them that” or “they should be learning life skills not multiplication tables” or other various statements (I will get back to this is a second). It is also the teacher’s job to take care of his medical and physical needs since he is completely dependent on an adult to assist in these areas. How is a teacher supposed to take care of all of a student’s medical and physical needs and teach the student 4th grade standards as well as 2 to 3 to 4 other grade levels in the classroom and expect it to be meaningful for the student or the classroom staff? Well…let me tell you. It is impossible. With this model…we teach in a vacuum. There may be monthly themes…lesson plans that differentiate between grade levels…curriculum maps…etc…but the end result is the same. Students who are in self-contained (segregated) classroom only get a fraction of the instruction that they deserve.
Ok…what if we did it like this. There is a student who is 4th grade, who has some very significant needs. He starts the day in a 4th grade classroom with his peers. He hears real 4th grade conversations, brushes up against real 4th grade boys and girls in the hustle and bustle of the classroom. He doesn’t miss any content. He doesn’t say a word…in fact he makes noises when he is excited and when the classroom teacher starts talking about the solar system…he starts to smile and laugh. It is past the first month of school so the kids are already used to the noise. They all call his name when he is brought in the room with his wheelchair. He has peer buddies that work on hands-on materials with him. He has a desk…a name tag…a place to be. He takes his photo with the 4th graders. He goes on all the field trips and the kids ask if they could help push his wheelchair. He does not eat anything by mouth and is g-tube fed but he sits with his friends at the lunch table and listens as they talk about what they are doing for the weekend. He is working on using a communication device to make choices with his hands and has access to it all day. He has to be assisted by an adult outside the classroom for some medical and physical needs but spends the majority of the day with 4th grade. How much more vibrant, robust, filled with rigor (common-core word drop), stimulating of a day will he have had in comparison to being in a self-contained classroom. Off the scale.
So why don’t we do it like this?
Well…numero uno…our presumptions are wrong. When we presume that our students are broken and need to be fixed we focus on deficits. We want our students to “catch up” with everyone else. We presume that students who have significant disabilities will not get anything out of being in a general education classroom…mostly because we are not able to receive the feedback we would like to from them. BUT if we presume competence we would realize that even if our hypothetical 4th grader only “got” a fraction of the content that was presented to him…it is still more than he would have gotten in a self-contained classroom. Not to mention he is a public school student who is entitled to access all of the general curriculum (just like everyone else). THIS is why we teach the standards…because our students deserve the opportunity to be exposed and even learn the content.
Okay…here is another reason why we don’t do it. We don’t know how to include some students. There are some students whose needs are so significant (behavior, sensory, medical or otherwise) that we spend most of the day trying to decipher what they need to feel comfortable in their own skin. This is usually a big reason for “non-believers” as to why they balk at full/authentic inclusion. I’ll be honest. I don’t have all the answers…I don’t know how to help everyone…yet. And I think that is the presumption I must make. I don’t know how to do it yet.
Where do you fit in?
So which camp are you in. The believer…the balker…or the fencer. I fell off the fence awhile ago…I think you may know which side I ended up on.
This is the second part of a series on the ins/outs of breaking out of the mold of the self-contained classroom. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Thank you for your time and attention. You can read the first part of this series here.
