The great debate: Inclusion

I personally think that inclusion is a bad idea and below are my reasons.

First, it gives the regular classroom teacher more work. Teachers have enough to do with the regular students. Adding more paperwork and more individual time for a few students does not help the situation at all. Teachers already have enough paperwork without IEPs!

Second, inclusion slows students down-both those with and without disabilities. No matter what, in a classroom that practices inclusion, someone is going to have to wait. Either the regular students are going to have to wait until the teacher is finished with the student(s) with disabilities or the student(s) with disabilities will have to wait until the teacher is finished with the regular students. The situation can be very frustrating for either group of students. I think it would be even worse if there are some advanced students in the same class as student(s) with disabilities. The advanced students would lose interest quickly when the teacher has to slow down to assist the student(s) with disabilities.

Last, it seems to me that the class as a whole would suffer from a “watered down” education. The teacher will have to take a little from the regular students and a little from the student(s) with disabilities; I don’t think anything should compromise a student’s education. The regular students and the students with disabilities should both get the attention and complete education they need and deserve. (Ruben Rincon, Jr.)

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As far as the inclusion part goes, I am not all about it. I think that maybe the student will end up getting confused. The question is: If there is only one learning disability student in the class, why should all the rest of the class be held back to cater to him/her? Also, the student may feel bad with having an inclusion teacher hovering over them. They may feel even more labeled and out of place. I really wish we could have had that debate, I would like to know what other peoples opinion on it would be. (Vero Gene Frady)

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What are my thoughts on Inclusion? It is a very delicate subject for me since I had a niece that passed away last year that had special needs. As a relative of someone with special needs I can tell you that Inclusion is something we have to embrace, something we as futures educators have to be prepare for in order to better help our student deal with.

However, as I future teacher, I do not agree with it, I believe that we have enough in our plates already, having to deal with school curricula and testing we are going to be left with very little time to teach the way and the things we really believe in. Now lets add Inclusion to the equation, are we going to be fair to our students? I do not think so, we are going to slow down in order to teacher the rest of the group about the special needs that special child in our classroom has.

In the perfect world, everyone would get along and there would be no prejudice and no discrimination; however we live in the real world, we need to make the commitment to our students to teach them and prepare them for the real world. (Yolanda Bodden)

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Individuals with disabilities education act (IDEA) sounds like a great law to give proper and fair education to students with special needs. And full inclusion is the practice of eliminating pullout programs to avoid the unconstitutional doctrine of separate but equal (Brown v. Board of Education). I believe that full inclusion violates individual privacy.

In full inclusion teachers should have special trainings to keep special needs students in regular classrooms. This concept assumes that the super teacher must develop each student a lesson plan or specific instructions to simultaneously implement the needed teaching method to approach each student. And if the regular class consists of 22 students hopefully the teacher can arrange group of students with similar learning styles. Then the teacher is required to have good classroom management and give instruction with a normal flow. How in the world can a miracle happen? The Education budgets do not provide for a teacher aid to each regular class, perhaps in the pre-k and kinder levels, but what about the others.

I was a five-week substitute teacher last year, and I am eager to learn the formula on how to accomplish all the needed methods to teach. I had a class of 21 students and one was a special needs. The other class had 23 students and three were different levels of special needs. I found out that even adjusting to their learning styles, for example one needed less written instruction more hands-on, the other was fine, but she was a slow-learner and the other had a combination of both, except that he did not retain the information for long periods of time. Well, as an unexperienced teacher, I knew that confidentiality was needed, but I learned that the other students are clever and they want to be treated equal. Some nondisabled students did not want to perform work as capable students or they wanted to read less or write less.

I feel that the special needs students' privacy is broken with this full inclusion because when they belong to a special group they still interact with nondisabled students in the school campus, yet everyone will see them as competent children. While in full inclusion their privacy is violated because clever students find out each others' learning deficiency and treat them different. Overall the teacher could be a super teacher and beat the system by implementing the needed instruction, but if it takes 12 years to a new program to work; the first students during this 12 years will be the ones who will suffer (Irene).

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On the topic of Inclusion I am pretty moderate. I understand the reasoning behind the idea, but the reality is whether those children are able to really keep up with other students. I know that it is important to the students’ self esteem to try and make them a part of the school and include in as many student activities as possible. Yet, with Inclusion, is it right to say that the method may hurt more than help? Students with special needs will have to have the class modified for them and the class will have to be watered down. I know we are trying to help these students but what about the class as a whole. Are the regular students getting the bad end of the deal because now they are the ones who are not being used to their full advantage?

I feel that with this Inclusion method someone is going to lose out on their education experience. A student that has special needs will have to work a little bit more to keep up with the regular students than going at their own pace if they were in a class designed for them. The regular students may lose out in learning more material because the special needs student can’t keep up and the teacher needs to make sure that the entire class is at the same level. All in all with this Inclusion method you have to take the good with the bad. (Luis Carmona)

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I think that inclusion is a good idea that we include students with inclusion into the mainstream classroom if he or she is able to learn without being a very notable distraction. Some kids are classified as inclusive because that have a harder that other kids learning and because they are labeled as inclusion students people automatically look at them a certain way. I think that we say the word inclusion just about everybody thinks that we are referring to a student with mental retardation or other multiple disorders and that is not the case. Being labeled as an inclusion student just means that the student might need extra supervision to make sure that he or she understand the material that is being taught they might need to be told several times before they understand.

When I worked at Rio Hondo Middle School last year there were a couple kids that were considered inclusion students and the teacher aide that used to work with them had a very bad attitude with those kids. She would always complain to other teachers in front of the students as if they could not understand what she was saying. These are the type of people that we need to remove out of our school districts. I got the chance to work with these students alone and they told me that the aide did not like them because she was always very mean to them. I started a conversation with them and then transitioned into what the teacher had assigned them to do and I had no problem with them understanding the material. I feel that the aide was having a hard time with those kids because of the way she treated them. (Crespin Gonzalez)

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I support inclusion because it allows the student to explore all subjects, which will help teachers analyze what the student may or may not be able to excel in. Many times teachers will assume that a student with a learning disability will have difficulty in all subjects. In my experience with middle school band students, those with a learning disability grasp on to the musical concepts just the same as those without learning disabilities. However, if a student needs a little extra attention on a matter then I will be instructed to pull him out and work with him on a one on one basis.

I believe that I am very well prepared to handle any type of student. Every year when there is a student who needs help with anything I am usually the one who they turn to because I have a certain approach to the situation. My tactics on how to teach children is to get to know them on a slightly personal level. I find out what kind of support system they have at home and what set of mind that student is in. If they, the student, are willing to learn, then I will make it a personal goal of mine to show others that he or she is a great student. (Lisa Avalos)

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In today’s class the following question was brought up: Do you agree or disagree with inclusion? I feel that inclusion is a good method of having a child being transition to a regular classroom. I feel that children with special needs have to be mainstreamed into a regular classroom.

One reason is that the child can adjust to a regular classroom. We have to be realistic that one day this child has to be independent at one time and we have to help them in a long term goal. I feel that the child will take time but they would have to learn life skills, socialize and become independent. Another reason is so that the other children learn to accept the other child as different. The regular children have to learn that everybody is different and that some people might have different needs. The regular children also learn not to criticize them for being different.

I work with autistic children in Morningside Elementary in a Structure For Life Unit. My children go to a regular classroom. They are sent mostly for socialization. They go into the regular classroom when the teacher is giving a lecture. They learn to interact with regular children and the regular children also learn from them. The regular students are eager to help the children with special needs because they realize that they are different. The children with special needs learn to ask questions and to socialize with the regular children. I feel that both children benefit in the long run. (Noelia Jimenez)

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As a teacher’s assistant I have had the ability to work with inclusion students for the past two years. I like the fact that students with certain disabilities whether they be physical or have to deal with the way they learn are able to be in a classroom with students who are classified as normal.

I fully support the inclusion of special students in the classroom as an educator and as a parent. I believe students can benefit from each other by being able to help one another. For example, two years ago I had an autistic student in my reading class, and for those of you who have never dealt with an autistic student they are very capable of doing all the work a regular student can however they just need a little more time and are often very intelligent in one specific subject. This student I had was very smart and new everything there was about math. Students would often help him read words that he did not understand and in return sometimes he would help students in their math studies. The reason I say sometimes is because with some autistic children there are ones who keep to themselves while others want to be involved in everything.

As a teacher I know it will be more work for me to have inclusion students in my classroom, but I fully support inclusion and can’t wait to be able to teach a wide variety of students. (Stephanie Huerta)

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I think that inclusion is a good way of making special students feeling included and part of a group but I think it is a very difficult task for a teacher. Personally I would feel challenged if I was to include a special student into my classroom, I do not feel prepared and because of that I would have to do research about the student’s disability in order to make him feel more comfortable in the classroom. I would also try to set a nice familiar environment in the classroom and teach my students to treat everyone the same and to include everyone in the group.

I think it is the teacher’s responsibility to make inclusion work correctly in the classroom without letting others feeling excluded, and also the students can be helpful if they participate and form part of that inclusion. (Kesia Martinez)

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I strongly support inclusion because I fell it is wrong to separate children due to the fact that they learn differently. I don’t agree with a few students in class saying that the other students get behind because of one who needs the extra help. The way we, as adults in college, learn by interacting with our peers, children are just the same. They are able to help one another. I think that a teacher should put that much more effort in help their students succeed. Isn’t that the reason why we’re going into teaching, so that we can make a difference in our student’s lives?

I think that the best way to approach inclusion is by setting up workstations where the students are paired up, and are assigned a workstation for a few minutes and then they trade workstation according to their group color. The students that are more advanced will be paired off with a student who is having difficulties. This way they can help each other out and no one will be falling behind. Plus no one will be singled out. If there is a group of students having difficulties with the same thing during the workshops you as the teacher can focus more on those who need more explaining.

I truly think that out in the real world you become exposed to many different types of people with their own disabilities. Why not expose the students to all types of people instead of separating them. (Annabel Esparza)

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I feel very strongly about that because in my opinion a teacher can make or break an inclusion situation. I feel regular education teachers should be trained to work better with special education students and need to learn more about the disability of their students. Inclusion can be a wonderful experience for the student with the disability and the regular education students as well. It can teacher regular education students to accept students with disabilities and realize that everyone should be treated equal no matter what the disability is. Students with disabilities can break out of their shell and not feel isolated and different from everyone in their school.

The only concern I do have with the inclusion program is when teachers don’t put in their part. I’ve observed a classroom where a teacher was doing an activity with partners and paired up everyone except for the student with the disability. She decided to partner the student with his teacher aid. Instead of mixing him in with the regular class, with every group activity she singled him out with his teacher’s aid. I personally think this can only hurt the student. Teachers need to be educated in how to work with special education teachers as well. (Patricia Amador)