Thread: Thesis- inclusion

Your poll is too complicated. One can't really create ordinals for eighteen choices.

From my point of view, as a first year middle-school teacher on the 'inclusive' team, inclusion is a failure. Inclusion is just an excuse to move a special ed kid into a cheaper environment. In the special ed room, there might be an eight to one ratio with curriculum prepared to the special ed kids' needs. Instead, they send them into my room with 35 students. I have no training in inclusive ed; I have serious behavioral problems in my classes; and the large class size seems to prohibit any special attention to the inclusive kids. There is essentially no support (no TA, special ed assistant, or parent volunteer) except that the special ed teacher comes by once or twice a week to ask me to fill out a form or two. The child is unable to participate in classroom discussion and is failing. I have no resources to teach any level lower than the state mandated standards. It is a complete waste of my student's time and energy, and destructive to his morale. I'm not a fan of inclusion but perhaps I will learn more and appreciate it more over time.

Inclusion is just an excuse to move a special ed kid into a cheaper environment.

It's not meant to be that, though, IMO. That this is true in some schools is not a failure of inclusion, but of the administration. If we keep segregating our different learners, some of our kids are going to continue to believe these students are "too different" to be part of the adult population, too. Our classrooms should reflect our communities, IMO, and these students are in your community.

You should have help in your classroom, and we should all have some inclusive ed training in our teaching internships (a bit too late to help you now, I know). Perhaps you can find a few minutes a day (yeah, right!) to do a little continuing self-education on inclusive ed? Just a thought.

I don't know the policy or routines for your district, but can you not go up the ladder and seek help? Speak to the SPED teacher first and request an aide or two...then go to the next level if you get no remedy there, then to the next... Is there any way to properly include the parents? Surely many of them want to see their children succeed?

Good luck with this! Inclusion is beneficial for all of us, and can work, but you seriously need to be given some help in that overcrowded classroom, and I sure hope, for everyone's sake, that you get it!

Deb

deb, on paper many things sound really good. In practice, it becomes a living nightmare.

True, some kids with special learning needs can function fully in a classroom and be successful. The problem is that many who can NOT function in a regular classroom are being placed there to the detriment of the entire process.

Case in point.....

I have a particular class that is composed of about half very bright students and half of very low level students. There is a serious problem here. I cannot teach to the higher level and leave the lower ones out. I can't teach to the lower level and bore the upper level kids. If I teach in the middle, I've lost everyone. There is NO way to properly meet the needs of all my students, or even a majority of them. It isn't fair to any of these kids to be melded together in hodge-podge classrooms. It's like asking lawyers to have social gatherings with construction workers.

In society, we are segregated according to profession. It is a VOLUNTARY segregation based on the "birds of a feather" clause. When these kids are pushed out of the nest, they will flock together with others of similar abilities, interests, and intellects. It is NORMAL to yearn acquaintance from those whose thoughts and ideals closely mirror your own.

A select few can frolick with the masses, moving from social circle to social circle with remarkable ease. For most, this is just not possible. If we are trying to replicate "real" life in the classroom, this is not really doing it.

All that said, I'll continue to do the best I can. I'll continue to learn different approaches and seek new ways to accomplish my goals. I'm eternally optimistic, but have yet to find a good argument for inclusion.

You are correct that there's a difference between theory and practice, I must agree.

However, I disagree that operating in different social or occupational circles constitutes "segregation" to the point that removing students with learning differences from mainstream classes does. And when you remove students from your classroom, it's hardly "voluntary" on their parts. Your post assumed that lawyers and construction workers have little or nothing in common. I respectfully submit that's a fallacious and harmful assumption. Myself, I'm a 46-year-old former waitress with an IQ of 140, who has a learning difference in math. Wonder if we have anything in common, or exactly in which "level" of learning you'd think I belong?

Your original post concerned "special education" students. These students usually have more serious learning differences, and I think it would be a rare mainstream classroom in which fully half the students were of this type.

Are you saying that the "low-level" learners in your specifically cited class should be removed and placed in a separate, non-mainstream, special-education setting? Is this because you don't know how to teach to multiple levels of ability? Or are you speaking of their intelligence, which I'd have to question how you gauge, and by what criteria you measure?

I'm also unclear as to what you mean by a student who cannot function in a regular classroom. I'd need you to define "regular," first of all, as it's a highly abstract term. Then I'd need to know what you mean by "function." Some students can't learn what other students can, it's true. But all students can learn. Perhaps if you didn't try comparing them to one another and expecting consistent results from a naturally diverse group?

I don't mean to sound like a smart-a**, but it's very rare for any teachers to have classrooms filled with only one level of learner, in any discipline. Usually, only AP classes have all high-level learners, and even then, the type of intelligences will differ (see Gardener). Students of any level of ability are always a mixed-bag, and there ARE ways to teach to them successfully.

Good luck!

Deb

Hey, Bobbsledr, didn't mean to forget you!

I also don't think I can respond to your poll on a 1-18 scale, but I can do it on agree/disagree variants. Shall I try, and hope you can use the info? Or is it already too late to respond?

Job Title: Education student, secondary language arts, in Colorado.


___I believe that we will need open minds to make inclusion
work. strongly agree

___I am concerned with the workability of inclusion. The
regular classroom teacher is already overworked. somewhat agree

___The idea of inclusion is vital to the development of the
special education student, as well as the regular student. strongly agree

___Inclusion can play a very important role in the
intellectual, social, and emotional development of all
children. strongly agree

___It seems to me that if the special education student is
not integrated into the regular classroom environment
he/she will have a hard time adapting to the real world.
agree (I find the wording on this one a little iffy.
I think "he/she might have a more difficult time" more
accurately states how I feel about it, and in that case,
I'd say "strongly agree.")


___I am afraid that regular teachers are going to be left
to deal with this alone without the support of parents,
special education teachers, and school administrators.
somewhat agree


___Inclusion will work if we work together.
strongly agree


___Administrators do not have a clue about what really goes
on in my classroom. neither agree nor disagree

___Inclusion can work if we have a great deal of attitude
change and training for everyone involved. somewhat agree
(I have problems with "a great deal," because not everyone is going to
need a great deal of either, but most are going to need some of both)

___Inclusion will cause frustration and anxiety for the
child with disabilities because they will experience
failure in the regular classroom disagree

___Children with disabilities do not learn as much in the
regular classrooms. disagree

___We should be able to refuse to accept children with
disabilities in our classroom if it detrimental to our
classroom. cannot respond--wording too vague

___Inclusion will take too much time and it may even
dangerous for special education students who need special
attention and care. disagree

___Why should we spend extra time on one student who is not
going to achieve as well as "normal students?" strongly disagree

___I think inclusion is a waste of time and a disruption of
the classroom strongly disagree

___Inclusion is just another phase of education that is
destined to fail. If we do it for a while, it will go away
and then they will leave us alone and let us get back to
teaching. strongly disagree

___I feel with inclusion we are finally going back where we
should have stayed years ago. We should have left all
education in the regular classroom. No pull out programs. agree

___We should face reality and teach these students survival
skills instead of placing them in the regular classroom
environment . After all, an ostrich will never learn to
fly.strongly disagree

Deb, what I'm saying is not necessarily that the kids should be placed in a "special education" class (commonly called local curriculum here), but there is a need to service the kids that are at the upper end as well. If the classes were more homogeneous, I would be able to accomplish much more. I'm not saying that I need only average kids, or only honor kids, or only special ed kids. What I'm saying is that I need these groups to be homogeneous. If I had a group that was composed of completely low-level learners, I would have the freedom to repeat information over and over so that they would be able to learn it. If I had only high-level kids together, I could take them to the moon. If I had only average kids, I could move at the regular pace and bring them to the next level. The way that things are going, we're not serving anyone.

You are not yet in the classroom. When you get there, you will realize that it IS entirely possible to have half the class with IEP's. People who think alike can help each other. People who think very differently have much difficulty communicating. This is true even with students.

I am NOT trained to deal with these special needs kids and I do devote a great deal of time in trying to learn how to best help them. I am constantly in search of the best way to help each and every one of them. That is the quality that makes me a professional. I plan to never know it all. Even after 30 years in this profession, there will still be much to learn. This is one of the reasons that I chose it (or it chose me).

I hope that you find the magic answer that can enlighten the world on how to make inclusion work for the good of ALL. If you do, I hope you'll share the secret, so the world can benefit. Until then, I'll not give up my quest to build the better mousetrap, and I'll not be silent about my observations and how the learning environment can be improved.

As for the student that cannot function in a regular classroom, I was referring to those who have behavior issues that keep them and others in the room from learning. These students need to be removed immediately. I am there to teach ALL of them, and if one is preventing the others from learning, that one needs to be elsewhere.

As some already know, I've been working on my master's in administration, emphasis on differentiated learning for special needs. It's been enlightening reading through the survey and the responses. My guess, the one person that answered the survey was a relatively new teacher or a student of education.

There are 23 people in my MS class, I'd say the average age is around 48. The average teaching experience over 20 years. We've been through a lot of theory, are well aware that education needs to clean up its act regarding 'research studies.'

Tracking works, but it's out of favor for the time being, which is one of the problems in education in general. Too many swings, with too much repetition of theories that don't work. Inclusion for some students is a godsend, for others a crime.

It can work when a student has a deficit in a particular area that can be met with corrective measures or compensated for within IEP modification and the teacher and student have support. The inclusion students need to have the intellectual abilities of the rest of the class. It can be a crime against the inclusion students, but moreso for all the others in the class, that are being held back, so that all attempts are made. This happens when a student's disabilities are so severe that they interfere with the orderly procession of material or presentation of such.

The move towards inclusion that coincided with the cuts in gifted education have created a huge problem for the regular classroom teacher. Differentiation can help to an extent, but nearly impossible if you have both gifted and inclusion, without adequate prep time.