Inclusion
Perspectives on Parenting©
by Nancy Lambert Davenport
Nancy Davenport's Column:
For Richardson News 08-08-99
Copyright Nancy Lambert Davenport 1999
"Kids Need Peers of All Stripes"
It used to be that the feel of fall in the air was a good signal that school was about to begin. That is clearly not the case any more. Hot as it is, we are gearing up for a new year. School parking lots are showing signs of teachers being on site. Bushes around schools are freshly trimmed, new signs are posted, school supplies are stacked neatly in stores, bus drivers are practicing their routes. The whole cycle is beginning again.
All of us at our house are out of that loop now, and I have to admit I miss it. I know without being there though that the beginning of a school year is filled with hope and anticipation for some and anxiety and dread for others.
One mother called yesterday on the verge of tears. Although her eighth grade son who has Down syndrome has much going for him - good social skills, good attention span, good motivation to learn - the school (not in our Richardson ISD) insists it would be best for him to be in a self-contained classroom. They seem only to focus on his deficit of mild mental retardation.
Actually what I think they are looking at is what they see is their ticket to an easier ride for them. When a school wants to put a student in isolation who has many assets as he does, they have only their own very short-sighted self- interest in mind. They do not want to take the trouble to teach him anything new. And they will succeed.
By putting him in a classroom only with other students with disabilities, he will learn to be a very good student with disabilities who never learns to compensate for those deficits. Then he will grow up to be an adult with disabilities who never has learned to compensate for his deficits or who can live in a world of people with many ability levels.
Parents and educators, I plead with you. Do not fall for the myth that kids with disabilities learn better together only with their disabled peers or pulled out in isolation. I can tell you from personal experience, not only of my own child but many of his peers that everyone, kids of all ability levels, learn better together with everyone else. The most important thing kids with disabilities learn in school is their social skills. They need to learn it from other "regular kids"-like it or not On the other hand, one of the most important thing kids without disabilities could learn in school is to care about other people who are not just like them. It's a good match in a fully inclusive classroom.
Parents and educators, I also tell you this. IT IS THE LAW. Our children MUST be educated in their LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT. Don't succumb to pleas for safety or pleas of "he would learn better in a smaller group." Our children need to learn with their peers.
In addition, our children's teachers have the right to have appropriate professional support and training when they have a child with disabilities in their regular classroom. There should be no "dumping" of kids with disabilities into a regular class. Teachers must be prepared and supported.
If you are skeptical, look around our district. After school starts, call RISD and ask to observe a successful classroom setting where inclusion is being done. They love to toot their horns when good things like that are happening, and they should. Two sites I know of are at Lake Highlands Freshman Center and Lake Highlands High school. I would like to hear of others myself. Contact me at the Richardson News if you have a good full- inclusion program. I'll toot your horn with and for you.
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Nancy Lambert Davenport
EMAIL: ndavenport@ticnet.com
URL: http://www.nancyldavenport.com