Jun 18 2008
All children benefit from the needs of others.
including-special-needs-into-regular-classrooms.mp3
All children should be included in regular classrooms, regardless of their special needs. This classroom should be a democratic environment where teachers and children are accepting of the needs of others.
The exclusion of special needs children from this normal environment only adds focus to their disability and promotes further segregation among their peers.
When children are taught that we are all in this together they learn that not only will they be supported when they are achieving high marks, but that when they need extra support they can seek it out without discrimination.
Being that all kids achieve at different levels, it is beneficial for all of the kids in a classroom to include as much as possible those who have special needs.
Finding a learning environment that will include your child with autism is important not only for their development, but for the development of the other children in the classroom.
I agree with you, but there need to be many changes to the educational system before this can happen in a beneficial way. Teachers need training and support (which they often don’t get even in handling the needs of their typical students). If an adult teacher doesn’t have a clear understanding of how to best assist their disabled students, they can’t model appropriate behavior for the other students, which can lead to all sorts of abuses toward the disabled students. Just look at the case of Alex Barton.
Even things like class sizes and a move toward accommodating different learning styles need to come into play, but thanks to mandates like No Child Left Behind, teachers have lost a lot of the flexibility to make their classrooms accessible to students of all types. It’s a pretty sad sitaution all around.