To Include or Seclude?

A resplendent morning at 9:05 am. A warm-up exercise sketched on the dry-erase board with the ambition to enlighten students and motivate them to suck the syrupy sugar of Algebra Level 2. The sketching of the lead tips are the only reverberations that can be heeded. Soon, after 15 minutes of silence, a piercing shriek echoes throughout the classroom, by an autistic student who can’t seem to comprehend the warm-up problems. He is taken by his assistant out of the room leaving the students taken aback by the unpredictable flare-up. It heats up the dispute made by many in the education system-is inclusion a good way to help kids with disabilities?

As our nation just came out of it’s British womb, informative services for immobilized people were unavailable. In the early 19th century, asylums came along, just to revitalize their minds to see the radiance of reality, and not educate them. Soon after the start of the 1900’s, special day schools came along that provided private intuition yet secluded students from interaction among those without certain malfunctions.

Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, various courts and legislatures were strained from parents of disabled children to modify the education system so it could provide gratis and suitable education for students regardless of disability. This wish was soon come true in 1975, hence The Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which also provided reserve rooms and self-reliant classrooms. It was soon modernized 16 years later by IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). In 1986, Madeleine Will, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the time, put forward that handicapped students should be in a regular classroom whom had no glitches in either mind or body. Furthermore, data calculated from the 1991-1992 school year via IDEA concluded that about 35% of disordered students are attending customary school classes, 36.3% attend a reserve room, and 23.5% in a room made exclusively for disabled students. Less than five percent go to the local institution, stay at home, or go to an isolated school.

After 23 years inclusion has helped boost self-respect, provide non-disabled friends, a sense of belonging, higher expectations, civil rights, identification, and a more diverse group of people to interact with (not to forget tolerance of those with disabilities for non-disabled people). All this success, yet inclusion is still one of the nationwide predicaments that face our society; that along with school dress codes to abortion to global warming. There are those who argue that inclusion’s days should cease due to the commotion and sometimes violence of the disabled students, the certain enhancements the teachers need in the classroom to teach those certain students, bullying, and the impatience of some teachers to deal with higgledy-piggledy students. The argument has become a huge topic of interest among all those working in the education system. Some speak for the wonderful effects of the tolerance, friendships, and self-respect that inclusion has endowed with. Yet there are some who fear the unpredictability of the students, lack of skills for the teachers, and the impatience that teachers tend to have with the students. It has ignited a blazing fire of debate that has existed since Madeline Will’s proposal. Still, there hasn’t been a constructive or bargaining extinguisher to the fire.

The one and only reason why there hasn’t been a both sides agreement is because there was never the discovery of a middle ground. In my philosophy, middle-grounds have always been seen as the most beneficial of choices. They leave both sides agreed and it eliminates criticism of all sorts. As for inclusion the middle-ground is simple and is as follows-put disabled students in a regular classroom, except for those with severe or multiple disabilities as they may have too much trouble getting through the subject being taught. Place them in a classroom made specifically for disabled students. If any disruption or violence comes along, put the student out of the classroom and take them for a walk around the school to teach them about their actions. Teach the teachers certain skills that will help the students succeed in the classroom. Provide resource rooms and learning strategies classes that provide extra help for the students for certain subjects such as math or science. Why would this work, one might ask? Because I’ve experienced it. It has provided me not only the friends, help, self-respect, and expectations for myself, but it can also be used as an example to be addressed during the topic of inclusion. It has also left a mark on inclusion so it can help with those students with similar disabilities in the future.