The Challenges of Inclusion
The article discusses the challenges that schools, administrations, and parents face for inclusion of students. The article begins by discussing a specific case of Bill Hutchinson, a student with Downs syndrome and ADHD, whom has physically hurt teachers at his school. The school has decided to take action again Bill by issuing a court order to have him removed from the classroom for a certain length of time because there seemed to be no other action that could be taken to reasonably removed Bill from the classroom. The argument for taking such extreme action and the ultimate desire for the school district is to place Bill in a school that can accommodate all of his specific needs that the school feels that it cannot do. The parents think that Bill needs to be on a more directed plan for his needs. This issue is important because it shows the conflicts that schools go through to balance the needs of individual children while at the same time maintaining the structure of the school.
Inclusion in schools has been beneficial to a large number of students and there are only a few occasional cases that potential give inclusion a bad name…… but, as the paper argues, inclusion only works well or at all when the schools have the correct systems in place. Often that means for the more troubling students a concept described as “responsible inclusion”, which would separate some students from full inclusion to partial inclusion so that they can get their individual health needs met. There is not a model of inclusion that will fit all students, and there needs to be individual factors that help all students with learning disabilities.
What schools can do to “create a safe environment”?
As listed in the article,
Adopt the right attitude – Students with LD have the ability to perform at a high level, don’t follow stereotypes.
Have information at hand – Give access to teachers about students
Keep everyone in the loop – Have all teachers give ideas on ways to help the students.
Have a plan and review it – Have periodic meetings to refocus teachers on students.
Invest in training and resources – Help younger teachers help their students.
Review teacher assignments – Make sure teachers get the support to help students.
What this has to do with our discussion?
I felt with a topic like learning disabilities it would be important to research the effect of inclusion or LD students on mainstream teacher. I think that generally as partially discussed in this article, the struggle of inclusion, is a lack of knowledge, supervision and practice by teachers. Clearly there is much that school systems need to do to meet the requirements of IDEA as well as create an open and safe environment for all students to succeed.
Information taken from the article
Caralee Adams (2006, June). The Challenges of Inclusion. Scholastic Administr@tor, 5(8), 49-50,52. Retrieved July 22, 2007, from ProQuest Education Journals database. (Document ID: 1047713741).
created by George Hughes-Strange