Blog Post #2-Sandra Zeman

I feel that it is the responsibility of educators to encourage social interaction between disabled and nondisabled peers.  Doing this is a process and must be continually nurtured.  I have found that the best way to achieve this is introducing this interaction at an early age.  If students learn early on in their school years that everyone is different and to respect those differences; they begin to see all classmates as equals regardless of whether they are disabled or nondisabled.

The school district I work for has an early learning center that promotes this goal.  There is a preschool that children attend between the ages of 3-6.  The classes are made up of a mixture of students both disabled and nondisabled.  Students are taught from an early age that everyone in the class is just as important as every other student.  They are taught that although the students may not all be the same, they are still people and should be treated equal.  It goes past the point of teaching tolerance, it teaches the children that they are all friends.  Once students experience this at an early age, they become very comfortable with socially interacting with each other regardless of being disabled or nondisabled.  They are just seen as people and the class tends to forget about labels or placement.  I have talked to many parents of students that attend the preschool as both a typical and atypical student.  They have both shared that the program is beneficial.  I personally had my own daughters attend this preschool as nondisabled students.  I have found that my daughter went to school and was a very compassionate and understanding student.  She is now in the fifth grade.  I have had her in inclusion setting classrooms every year since kindergarten.  She tells me she enjoys being in a diverse class and the classmates really help each other.  She happens to be a gifted student and still learns from her disabled peers.  She not only enjoys helping her disabled peers learn but also enjoys socially interacting with them.

I think another great strategy to help encourage this interaction is to look at disabled students strengths and finding something they can contribute to.  I often feel that educators "find somewhere" to plop a disabled student just to say they have contributed to the students social development.  Instead of doing this, an educator should look at where the student fits in and can contribute to the cause.  Not thinking only how can we help this student, but how can this student help others.  I feel that in the YouTube video with Jason this was well illustrated.