Yesterday in my Education Core Studies class our topic was inclusion. Within the inclusion topic we focused on inclusion of disabled students. Some schools have included the NLD students with disabled students, however not every school has. Why is that? Not every teacher agrees about including disabled students within a classroom, whether it is because they do not know how to teach them, or they don’t fully understand how to alter their lesson plans for these students. I found out in the ECS class that studies have proven that NLD students actually absorb more information with programs that work with disabled students. These studies further show that there are no excuses to not have a completed inclusion based classroom.
Furthermore, in the ECS class our guest speaker showed us a YouTube video that really supports the idea of inclusion in the classroom. In the video a girl named Amanda shows us how she learns. This video not only inspired me, but taught me how you cannot judge someone’s learning abilities. Every student learns in a different way, and there is no right way to learn. Amanda is an autistic person who is a very kinesthetic learner. She explains that most people, teachers included, assume she cannot learn but after watching the whole video you start to realize that she is an extremely intelligent learner. Why should students like Amanda be included in a classroom? I can’t think of a reason why not.
Inclusion in a Classroom March 16, 2010
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Alex,
Wow. I must say that this was a very eye-opening experience. I have had students in my classroom over the years who were labeled as LD, but not to the degree that Amanda experiences. It never bothered me. I must say that as I watched Amanda I wondered how I would have handled her inclusion in my classroom and I didn’t have an answer. That was a tough awareness as I have always seen myself as inclusive and assumed I could find a solution to any situation.
I must admit that I was floored by the depth and complexity of her understanding of herself and the clarity with which she communicated it. The articulation of her identity was beautiful. But the question still remains.
In many schools we organize students by their ability to do one thing, communicate in a given language. In the US and Canada, by their ability to speak English. The better you can speak the sanctioned language, the better chance you have of being “mainstream.” My question to you is this, how would you see Amanda being included in a “regular” classroom? Should students that speak a “foreign” language be parceled out until they can speak the language? If not, how do you facilitate learning in a room full of various known and unknown languages?
Thanks for sharing this and challenging me to think in new avenues.
- Greg