Inclusion or not: the great debate

By Alyssa Schneyman
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
October , 2010

Today’s class was interesting, and I enjoyed the film “It Can Be Difficult” a great deal. From watching the film, I was better able to understand what students with a learning disability experience everyday. While I considered myself fairly knowledge about children with special needs, I know that there is still more that I can learn about what is needed to teach these students. My knowledge, while will be useful, is more on the basis of working with them in more of a social setting, as I have worked with children with special needs in an after school program as well as summer camp.

I feel that students with special needs should be included in classrooms, if this is the best learning environment for them. Having been in an inclusion class and interacted with children with special needs due to the fact that my mom runs an after school program for children with special needs, I have come to realize what these children can teach others. In many cases, mainstreaming students with special needs is beneficial for students with special needs and typically developing students. Typically developing students can learn patience and empathy from being in a classroom with students with special needs. They can also learn to accept that there are people in society who are different than themselves. Meanwhile, students with special needs can benefit from having role models who can model appropriate behaviors and skills for them.

Overall, I feel that if it is the best learning environment for students with special needs that they should be mainstreamed as despite the challenges, that there are many benefits to be found. Personally, I think that I might feel this way, because of my interactions and comfort level with people with special needs. I have never really felt strange around people with special needs, perhaps that’s because since I was younger, I have been around these population. I mean, I remember when I would not have school or have a half day and would have to go to work with my mom, my sister and I would end up hanging out in her afterschool program. I feel that you can not really being to judge this segment of the population without getting to know them.