Inclusion abuse

Great Britain
“The National Union of Teachers dramatically reversed decades of support for “inclusion” and demanded a halt to the closure of special schools. It called on the Government to carry out “an urgent review of inclusion in policy and practice”.

I am so happy that the word "abuse" has turned up in the Inclusion debate. But I think that “neglect” is a better word. Simply put; No one appears to have thought the school operations and wider social implications of equality of educational access (inclusion) through.

Re-enfranchising a portion of our society that has been discriminated against and sequestered in "other" facilities for hundreds of years because people in general did not see outside of their own experiences and their own (mostly false) beliefs is a big job. It will take some persons with clear and unfaltering vision to get the message across to all that the benefits of society are for everyone, not just those who fall into the normative curve.

Abuse is what we have been and are continuing to subject children with special needs to when we don't provide them with a flexible, continuum of services in which they are empowered to move outward as much as possible.

One trouble is that many educators see this continuum as one of “spaces and places” when it needs to be seen as one of "instructional models and specialized services”. Is anyone getting this message out? I have tried for twenty years and it’s been two steps forward and three steps back most of the way. Perhaps we have to sound the alarm. Abuse is occurring but what is the best way to deal with it?

For inclusion to be “implemented right” schools first have to come to grips with the veiled practice of “tracking” and the belief systems that many teachers, administrators and community members have that supports it. They believe that when student are grouped by ability they will achieve more. The believe that higher-level readers are higher-level thinkers and that lower level readers will catch up best by moving up the incremental steps dictated by basal readers and curriculum companies.

Most school officials will deny that tracking is used in their schools but a close examination of course offerings and students’ programs will un-veil the programmers and an unspoken school policy leading to “fast” and “slow” classes sometimes taught by “fast” and “slow” teachers. With this “unspoken practice” supported by the “unexamined belief” that children learn best when grouped by ability firmly in place it is no wonder that school communities do not grasp the feasibility of a concept like inclusion.

They can’t understand inclusion until they re-think the fundamental ways in which persons learn. Once they understand that academic achievement is a linear element that cannot be separated from equally important and influential social and personal development strands they may see that they are shaping a world of human beings, not just creating brains that can compete in world markets.

Inclusion requires the re-embracing of humanism in a world where human value is sharply decreasing. In Great Britain teachers are not complaining about having special learners in their rooms. They are complaining about the lack of appropriate supports to educate them. Find who is responsible for neglecting to follow the guidelines that educational research has drawn out to help all learners and you will find out who is guilty of this continuing discrimination, neglect and abuse.