Inclusion

Inclusion is a very important topic in today’s society. Many special education students are now included in normal classroom settings rather than being members of self-contained classrooms. I think that it is very important that teachers of inclusive classrooms receive the adequate training that they will need to be able to adequately teach the children with special needs while not neglecting their other students. I also think it is important that these teachers take behavior management classes in hopes of being able to lessen the frequency of certain outbursts.

Young children can be accepting of people who are different than themselves. Maybe if more children were exposed to children with disabilities at a young age there would be less discrimination against persons with disabilities later on. From my experience I have found that including special needs students in a mainstream classroom can not only benefit the special needs child, but also the other students in the class.

James was one of my classmates from middle school all through high school. James has Down syndrome but I never remember a time where he wasn’t accepted as a friend or as just a normal kid. I think that including James in some of our classes and all of our school activities it made every single student grow to be a more accepting, understandable person. I think that James being included in our school and community gave him a lot of confidence and a limit was not set on his potential. Senior year, James was my class’ homecoming king and at graduation when James got his diploma there was a standing ovation.

We have come a long way in a very short period of time. After much thought, I think that inclusion is a positive option for certain students with disabilities, but it may not be right for all students with disabilities.