SPED Blog Post 3 - Inclusion, a Contemporary Challenge - What is your Perspective? - Raymond Marks

We are aware that everyone learns in different ways – Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences is taught to future teachers across the country - but we seem to have difficulty integrating that knowledge in the classroom as it relates to students with disabilities. Great strides have been made in the inclusion of special needs students in the schools, as evidenced by the laws we have enacted, notably PL 94-142 and IDEA. These laws have enabled more and more children to be educated with their peers as much as is possible but there seems to still be resistance to inclusion in schools. One way this resistance presents itself is illustrated in the film “Including Samuel,” presented by Pinehurst Pictures. Describing her experience with Inclusion, Carol King, a teacher at Pembroke Academy, says to us “How am I going to reach the valedictorian and reach Alana (an inclusion student) at the same time? I'm not even sure if I reached the middle of the road this year.” Many non-Special Education teachers feel untrained and perhaps even unsupported in the inclusion classroom, and this can manifest itself as frustration and resistance to inclusion in the classroom.

My experience, as I have mentioned in previous posts, has been somewhat different. Because of the relationship between providers (administration and teachers) and stakeholders (parents and students), many of the support issues are minimized: because we are a small, tightly-knit community, we are involved in each others' lives - enrollment is more or less generational, and many of our students are inter-related, so a child with a disability is fairly well-known to many in the school community. Students in the classroom know each other (mostly) by name, not as "that autistic kid," or "that kid that acts funny." Students are encouraged to participate in the life of the school, to the best of their ability, whatever that ability might be, including extracurricular activities such as sports. As an example, as the Head Coach of the Boys' Lacrosse team, I give everyone the opportunity to try out for the team. This is not as difficult as it sounds: since there is no feeder system for lacrosse in this area, all new potential players come to the game with the same skill level. Some are more athletic than others, but all are new to the game. Last year, we had a student with musculo-skeletal problems try out. He could not run as fast as the other boys, and he had some difficulty at first with the mechanics of the game. After meeting with his parents and discussing our individual concerns, he became a part of the team. During practice, the other players would encourage him and also would run with him, even after their own reps were done. He played most every game in the season, and was an integral member of the defense on our JV team. I anticipate he will advance to varsity, as long as he maintains the gains he's made. In addition, I can look at just about any of our activities and find students who are identified as special needs, from sports to band to speech, all students are encouraged, and many participate.


Our school has only recently had special education specialists inside the walls of the school. There are many new programs implemented in the school this year designed to enhance inclusion, and while the administration is doing its best to get us the training we need, formal inclusion is still a work in progress. Before this year, students with IEPs would take tests and supplemental instruction in a trailer installed outside of the school building in order to receive additional instruction. Now, we have special education teachers who come into the classroom to help students in situ, which can create some friction with teachers who might not be used to team teaching. New items, such as Mastery percentages, confuse teachers and can further frustrate them.

In conclusion, while I can (and do) point with pride to our successes in inclusion, built primarily on the relationships we foster with our students, their parents, and families, we are not 100 percent successful. I don't think that we can be, as long as we continue to define these students by their disabilities, rather than the abilities they bring to the table.