While working on our group project, I stopped to reflect on how far education of students with disabilities ( or varied abilities as I like to refer to it) has come, I had to think about those that helped to path the way. There were some early court cases that played such an important part in the development of the laws that have shaped special education as we know it today. Cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvannia, and Mills v. Board of Education directly influenced the development of
PL 94-142 in 1975. Free appropriate education for all students became an expectation in education but there have been many bumps in the road and changes along the way on the journey called education for all. In my twenty plus years of teaching students with special needs I have seen first hand how new laws have influenced such things as inclusion in the classroom. I firmly believe all children have the potential to learn and I feel that there continues to be a need for a continuum of placement options for students with varied abilities. I feel that having one set of standards for all students is a step away from the individualized education approach to education that many of the laws have fought so hard to change.
Inclusion to me is not just placing students in the regular education classroom, but rather is including students with varied abilities at the level that will allow them to engage in learning that is meaningful and serves to help these students reach for the potential in life. I see the value in the education of ALL students. Aren"t they all SPECIAL and don't they ALL deserve a great opportunity to learn?
I agree with you, and I think that inclusion is one of those things that actually can be beneficial for all children. I like to think of inclusion very broadly, I guess. Yes, there are children, like the children you work with, who are better served in a specialized setting. But, I firmly believe that we can include children, all children, in multiple ways. Maybe they can't be in the gen ed room, but we can make it a point to include them in some other activity that will benefit them socially. Maybe we can find a way to include children in the community, which will also benefit the public. I think we need to look at inclusion through a variety of lenses, implementing it in a variety of places, and all people will benefit--special needs students, students who don't have disabilities, teachers, parents, the public. The sky really is kind of the limit when you look at it that way. We shouldn't take inclusion and try to make children fit the mold. We should take inclusion and make it a blanket that can cover everyone in some way.
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