Blog 2- Social Integration By: Amanda Barbone

There are many things, teachers, parents and other support people in the lives of children that have exceptional learning needs (ELN) can do to help support and promote acceptance of social integration in our schools, communities, and our society.  Over the years, schools have tried to make students with disabilities fit in but it all changed when it was the parents that then began fighting for their children.  Once the parents were hear the federal legislator set laws to help promote social integration for the students with disabilities.

In 1972, The Principle of Normalization in Human Services was published, and created this principle of normalization to fight for the development of community-based and schools to help students with ELN.  According to Education For All by T. Jimenez and V. Graf they expressed on page 40 their belief that everyone has a right to as a normal life as possible, with the right to take part in public education with their peers, and be involved within the community.  They had thought mainstreaming these ELN students within the regular classroom would be a good step in promoting an equal education for all students.  Moving to the 1980’s federal legislation had a large initiative to have shared accountability for educating students with and without disabilities.  In 1997 when Individuals with Disabilities Act passed it now allowed parents at an IEP meeting to determine if their child would be placed in an inclusion classroom setting. 

Through my years of experience teaching and working in a variety of schools, I have seen some good and some not so good things occur with students with exceptional learning needs.  Most award assemblies at many schools it appears to be the same kids being called up for awards for the good grades and good behavior.  At a charter school I taught at for three years, each teacher needed to make sure that all students in his/her class got an award.  If there were students that did not make honor, or perfect attendance, the teachers would create a unique award for the students that would not have received a reward.  This to me shows and promotes that all children regardless of their learning needs are being treated equal. 

            Some social integration that can happen and that I have seen first-hand within multiple schools outside of the classroom is to provide everyone the opportunity to participate in sports, before and after school activities, clubs (chess, music, art, bead etc.), or any other extracurricular activities with the school.  This is not limited to just school, but in the community as well, such as church youth groups.  A good example of this is in the you tube videos that were sent to us titled, “Jason McElwain Autistic Basketball Player” and “Autistic Jason McElwain Scores 20 Points in 4 Mins”.   This shows a boy who loved the sport of basketball. Jason practiced hours upon hours to one day hope to play in a basketball game instead of just being the student manager.  This boy was looked over and passed due to his exceptional learning needs.  During the last game of his senior year with four minutes to go, the coach put him in the game.  Within those four minutes, he scored twenty points for the team to win the game.  Had the coach tried him earlier in the season, Jason may have had the opportunity to play more.

            Overall, with a few federal laws and examples discussed within the years, has shown that over the years and in first-hand experience in the schools along with the videos of Jason has shown us today that our society has gotten better with trying to include all children and provide them with an equal opportunity within the classroom, outside of the classroom and our society.