Thread: inclusion questions

Although I am now an Early Childhood Special Educator, I worked previously in daycare, and in a Montessori preschool. We accepted any child and furthermore, didn't kick anyone out for misbehavior. I was shocked when I moved to rural MO where some daycare centers find that acceptable. Looking back at our Mont. preschool, we had at least three children who were extremely challenging (this was before the days of ECSE) and would have benefitted from some services. It was the attitude of our administrator that made it seem natural to work on behaviors and delayed areas and not think of the child as "different" - they were just one of the group who happened to need some extra attention. Even after nine years in this job, I am still occasionally shocked by attitudes of people/teachers. It is disheartening at times.... jan munster

I remember when inclusion first came to a school I was working in. Special education kids were mainstreamed back into their homeroom classes and the resource (inclusion) teachers were supposed to work with the resource kids in the classroom ... but things didn't work out that way.

For one thing - the resource kids were grouped for instruction when they went to the resource room - but when they were mainstreamed back into their homerooms - they were scattered among four or five classes.

It was not physically possible for the resource teachers to be in four or five places at once.

Since the resource kids were distributed, they didn't get the same level of attention they used to get. To make matters worse, the resource teachers worked with non-resource kids when they were in my room.

"Oh, we don't want your special students to feel as if we're singling them out," said the inclusion teachers.

I snickered.

The inclusion teachers knew who the resource kids were. I knew who the resource kids were. The students in my room knew who the resource kids were ... so who did the inclusion teachers think they were fooling?

(grumble)

David

Originally Posted by Dianndra

I'm not so sure I like the inclusion idea if it can't work the way it should. In theory, it sounds wonderful. In reality, I'm a little skeptical.

In reality I think that some personnel directors use "inclusion" as an excuse to not find or hire as many resource teachers as they actually need. All of the resource teachers I've ever known have always been over burdened with children ... and I suspect that some personnel directors have trimmed their budgets to the detriment of the children that we're supposed to be serving.

As a regular classroom teacher who has had several inclusion students - I have gone DAYS without seeing a resource teacher at all. That's NOT how the system is supposed to work ... but all too often resource teachers are forced to play "educational triage." They have to prioritize the needs of the children being serviced - and respond to those they can help the most in the least amount of time.

I agree with Dianndra. If the spirit of inclusion isn't going to be followed, then there's no point in having this system at all.

David

For several years we had math inclusion in first grade. I feel like we were as successful as most . We had 7 first grade classrooms at the time. The resource teacher would bring the first grade special education math students into my room. We ususally only had 5 or less.

I would teach/present the skill as I usually would. The resource teacher would sit at the reading table with the students that needed extra help to make sure they kept up and followed along.

When necessary the resource teacher could explain in more detail or provide extra instruction when the rest of the class was completing their workbook page on their own.


The students that sat at the reading table were not always the special ed students. We would always try to make sure the stronger resource students were seated in the large group setting.


Believe it or not the first graders thought sitting at the reading table with Mrs. B was a big deal. Sometimes we would let students sit at the table as a reward.


The payoff seemed to be that the weaker students in my classroom that didn't qualify for special ed classes could get the extra help in my classroom. By having the sp. ed teacher in my classroom daily, she got to know my students and was a great help in evaluating those weak students.

The down side was the other 6 first grades also had weak
students that didn't always qualify for resouce. They didn't get to come for the extra help.

We tried inclusion with Title I in first grade too. I really didn't like this at all. I'm not sure why. I just never felt like it went as smoothly.

At the present time, we have all pull out programs. Our system has increased the number of educational assitants in grades K-3 and this has seemed to help as much as anything else.

We did have some staff development on inclusion, but I don't feel it was all that helpful.

Hope this helps.

Glenda 1st TN

as a self contained language development teacher. I taught 5 year old with a lang. delay. I tried to use as much of the Kindergarten curr. as I could and also taught life skills like address and phone number. One year I had full day with only 6 kids. The next year I had morning and afternoon with 13 total = 4 of which had Downs Syndrome. My kids went to PE and other classes with reg. ed. kids and also had holiday parties with them. When I had a child who could do more, I sent him to the reg. ed. Kindergarten class to try it. I have to tell you that those kids learned more in my self contained classroom then they ever did in inclusion - How do I know? I had some of the same kids as a 2nd grade teacher in a reg. ed. classroom. I could tell they were moving to inclusion and decided to teach reg. ed.

I think the change in policy is due to lawsuits, not what works for kids.

I think the change in policy is due to lawsuits, not what works for kids.

What a sad admission!! And I have to agree with it.

Do things like this ruffle your feathers? Since when does the court system know what is best for kids? (Someone hand me the soapbox.)

One of my pet peeves is that society (pick a group -- any group) believes that teachers are not professionals and do [b]not[B] know what is best for their students. We graduated from college with a degree that, to them, means nothing. Hogwash!!!

Some of the very parents who start these meaningless lawsuits have sat in classrooms themselves under probably some of the best teachers in the profession, but because their child "doesn't measure up" or has legitimate learning problems, they want to sue the school system and/or teachers instead of trying to find out the cause of their child's problems. Articles are written as to "why Johnny can't read" that grate on my last nerve. (I realize that this is not the case in all situations, but it only takes one "crazy" lawsuit to tarnish our profession for a long time. It's almost as if the stupidity of these lawsuits is what people really want to believe.)

No doubt each of us were educated with lawyers, doctors, teachers, businessmen, etc. right in our high school graduating classes. One of my best friends is a lawyer; another is a chiropractor; and several teach in area schools around here where I live. Which professions get the most respect from society in general? Not the teachers. So sad!!

Here, David of Houston, take this soapbox back. I get upset and start rambling and don't make sense when I stand up on that thing.

Forgive me, please. I messed up the "bolding" on that last post. See what happens when I get flustered? hahaha

All I have to say is Amen sister!!!!

I agree 100%

(And I thought you looked good standing on that soapbox! Let's paint the recliner (Mo Power Chair) pink while David is gone!!!!) Ha ha

Boy (or should I say Girl!) that chair looks good in pink!

I teach in BC where inclusion has been the norm for quite awhile. We are starting to see it fall apart now because IMHO it wasn't done properly in most places. Children with special needs were placed into regular classrooms with little (if any!) training for the teacher, minimal support from resource teachers, and only an aide if the child needed toileting or was profoundly handicapped or violent. I have worked with many special needs children and believe that inclusion can be successful if done right (proper training and support is an absolute must). I am sorry to see "resource rooms" (special ed.) classes appearing again because it is more cost effective. I wish the powers that be would actually take the time to find out what is best for kids rather than make decisions based purely for financial reasons. In some cases inclusion is the best option for the child, in other cases it is not. As professionals we should be able to make the decision on an individual basis and not just assume that what is good for one special needs child is good for all.

I am now stepping down from the comfy pink recliner, anybody else want a turn?

Catherine