Special Education

All teachers are, or soon will be, teaching in classrooms that include students with disabilities. It is becoming increasingly unacceptable to limit the number of teachers in a school who have the skills to teach disabled students to only a few special education teachers. Regular teachers too must know how to teach such students to read, write, communicate and achieve to the highest educational standards. Excellent education is education that is excellent for all. Children come from all racial, ethnic, and national origins and all economic backgrounds and in all this mix there are some children that have disabilities. If our education system is to be excellent, it must be based on the premise that every student can learn. By implementing inclusion into schools, children learn to accept individual differences. The best way to help children overcome their misconceptions about kids who have disabilities is to bring them together in integrated settings. Inclusion remains a controversial topic in education because it relates to educational and social values, as well as to our sense of individual worth. There are advocates on both sides of the issue. James Kauffman of the University of Virginia views inclusion as a policy driven by an unrealistic expectation that money will be saved. Furthermore, he argues that trying to force all students into the inclusion mold is just as coercive and discriminatory as trying to force all students into the mold of a special education class or residential institution (Stout, 2001). On the other side are those who believe that all students belong in the regular education classroom, and that "good" teachers are those who can meet the needs of all the students, regardless of what those needs may be. Between the two ends are large groups of educators and parents who are confused by the concept itself. They wonder whether inclusion is legally required and wonder what is best for children. They also question what it is that schools and

References: Hammeken, P.A. (2000). Inclusion: 450 Strategies for Success. Minnesota. Peytral Publications, Inc. Lapp, D., Flood, J., Fisher,D., Sax,C. & Pumpian, I. (1996.) From Instruction to Inclusion: Myths and Realities in out schools. The Reading Teacher, 49, 580-584. Lombardi, T.P. (1999).Inclusion Policy and Practice. Indiana. Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation. Stout, K.S.(2001). Special Education Inclusion. Retrieved June 20, 2007 from http://www.weac.org/june97/speced.htm Wade, S.E. (2000). Inclusive Education. New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.