Inclusion has many different positive and negative looks in the general
classroom. I believe that inclusion is one of the best practices for most children with
a disability, if it is appropriate for that child. Also, children without disabilities do
benefit from inclusion as well.
Teachers are thinking about the different ways to teach a lesson when a child
with a disability is in the classroom so that they are able to understanding the lesson
and learning. While the teacher is doing this, they are helping the children without a
disability see it in many different situations as well. For instance, if a teacher is
teaching math, they may only teach it one way when a child without a disability is
not in the classroom. If they teach it many different ways, and even a bit slower
when the child with a disability is in the classroom, the others are able to take their
time and learn at the right speed as well. Not every child learns the same way,
therefore when a teacher is teaching a lesson many different ways because they
think they are only helping the child with a disability they are wrong. They are
helping many students.
In the classroom I interned with, all children truly benefited from the songs
we say. At the beginning of the one video SONG FOR ALL THE CHILDREN - Inclusion
for all the children there were teachers and students singing and walking in a circle.
We did this in the classroom and everyone loved it. The child with a disability struggled at first, but after a few days she was able to really enjoy it with her friends around her. They sang louder and louder every day, and wanted to start different songs if they were starting to get use to the old ones. The songs we sang were about the days of the week, or animals, or other different information that was guided towards learning. The children didn’t realize they were learning so much because
they focused on singing. We knew they understood the words in the song because
we would later have class and ask them the days of the week and they would sing
the song quietly and then tell us them.
Although I have seen the children in the classroom benefit from inclusion,
sometimes inclusion is not good for a child. If children are unable to learn to their
best ability in the inclusion classroom, then they should not be in the general
classroom. It is best for them to be in a different learning environment. The article
Inclusion: The Pros and Cons stated “after making the point quite clear that services
to the disabled, including various placement options besides the regular classroom,
are to be tailored to individual student need that the policy actually addresses
inclusion.” I truly enjoyed this statement from the article because not every child
with a disability is best in the general classroom. The staff and parents of the child
need to understand the child with the disability and fully understand what is the
best learning environment for them.
Megan, the quote in your last paragraph “after making the point quite clear that services to the disabled, including various placement options besides the regular classroom, are to be tailored to individual student" stuck a cord with me as well. We have to remember to meet the educational needs of students where they are. This may mean something totally different for each student. As professionals working within education we need to remember this. We need to remember how education for students with special needs has evolved over the last few decades. It's important to reflect on how students with disabilities used to be totally left out of educational settings. We have come a long way, but there is more headway that needs to be made. We need to have an openminded approach that provides education in a variety of settings. The key is to educate the student in the best way for that individual student - this could be through inclusion or not. But we need to remember to be open to specific needs.
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