I would like to know your opinion...

[nemerteia]

Hello everyone! =)
I have just joined your message board with a very specific reason…
I am form Latvia (Baltics) and I am currently studying for my Master degree at the University. My specialty is “Educational treatment of diversity”. I am a first year student, so I everything is new to me, but nevertheless interesting and sometimes shocking.

anyway =) One of the many tasks I have is to find people from America (any countries on these continents) and to ask their opinion in inclusive education.
I would really appreciate if you could help… It would be really great if you could share your experience and express your point of view on inclusion: advantages and disadvantages.
Thank you in advance!!!!

==================================

In case there are any teachers from Latin America… I have another task: to contact someone from Latin America and consult on the inclusive education in general… how it works, government’s involvement, social involvement, difference between mainstream schools and specialized schools, if there are inclusive schools, advantages, disadvantages, your personal opinion… just anything you can share =)

I am sorry to bother you… but I have no idea how to complete this task without bothering strange people =))
Sincerely,
Violet

 

[Katzndogz]

No discussion of diversity in schools is complete without the Kansas City failure.

Money And School Performance: Lessons from the Kansas City Desegregation Experiment

Inclusive education doesn't work. It is made to work by the simple expedient of lowering the standards, grade inflation and social promotion from grade to grade.

 

[Kiki Cannoli]

Hello violet. Please explain "inclusive education" so that we may work from the same definition.

 

[Mr. H.]

In this country if students can't pass an exam, the exam is re-written to accommodate inclusion.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Hello everyone! =)
I have just joined your message board with a very specific reason…
I am form Latvia (Baltics) and I am currently studying for my Master degree at the University. My specialty is “Educational treatment of diversity”. I am a first year student, so I everything is new to me, but nevertheless interesting and sometimes shocking.

anyway =) One of the many tasks I have is to find people from America (any countries on these continents) and to ask their opinion in inclusive education.
I would really appreciate if you could help… It would be really great if you could share your experience and express your point of view on inclusion: advantages and disadvantages.
Thank you in advance!!!!

==================================

In case there are any teachers from Latin America… I have another task: to contact someone from Latin America and consult on the inclusive education in general… how it works, government’s involvement, social involvement, difference between mainstream schools and specialized schools, if there are inclusive schools, advantages, disadvantages, your personal opinion… just anything you can share =)

I am sorry to bother you… but I have no idea how to complete this task without bothering strange people =))
Sincerely,
Violet

.pǝuǝddɐɥ ɹǝʌǝ ʇɐɥʇ ƃuıɥʇ ʇsǝq ʇɐɥʇ sı uoıʇɐɔnpǝ ǝʌısnlɔuI

 

[konradv]

Hello everyone! =)
I have just joined your message board with a very specific reason…
I am form Latvia (Baltics) and I am currently studying for my Master degree at the University. My specialty is “Educational treatment of diversity”. I am a first year student, so I everything is new to me, but nevertheless interesting and sometimes shocking.

anyway =) One of the many tasks I have is to find people from America (any countries on these continents) and to ask their opinion in inclusive education.
I would really appreciate if you could help… It would be really great if you could share your experience and express your point of view on inclusion: advantages and disadvantages.
Thank you in advance!!!!

==================================

In case there are any teachers from Latin America… I have another task: to contact someone from Latin America and consult on the inclusive education in general… how it works, government’s involvement, social involvement, difference between mainstream schools and specialized schools, if there are inclusive schools, advantages, disadvantages, your personal opinion… just anything you can share =)

I am sorry to bother you… but I have no idea how to complete this task without bothering strange people =))
Sincerely,
Violet

.pǝuǝddɐɥ ɹǝʌǝ ʇɐɥʇ ƃuıɥʇ ʇsǝq ʇɐɥʇ sı uoıʇɐɔnpǝ ǝʌısnlɔuI

You misspelled 'the'!

 

[nemerteia2]

Hello violet. Please explain "inclusive education" so that we may work from the same definition.

Hello everyone =)
i am sorry to write form a different account, but for some reason I cannot login...
anyway ) What I mean by inclusion is when children with special needs are included into regular classes. As far as I understand, for such practice there have to be several professionals working in the class and special curriculum adapted... however, I would really like to know, how it works in reality... and of course what advantages and disadvantages you see in such education... It would really help me in my assignment...

Thank you in advance!

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Hello everyone! =)
I have just joined your message board with a very specific reason…
I am form Latvia (Baltics) and I am currently studying for my Master degree at the University. My specialty is “Educational treatment of diversity”. I am a first year student, so I everything is new to me, but nevertheless interesting and sometimes shocking.

anyway =) One of the many tasks I have is to find people from America (any countries on these continents) and to ask their opinion in inclusive education.
I would really appreciate if you could help… It would be really great if you could share your experience and express your point of view on inclusion: advantages and disadvantages.
Thank you in advance!!!!

==================================

In case there are any teachers from Latin America… I have another task: to contact someone from Latin America and consult on the inclusive education in general… how it works, government’s involvement, social involvement, difference between mainstream schools and specialized schools, if there are inclusive schools, advantages, disadvantages, your personal opinion… just anything you can share =)

I am sorry to bother you… but I have no idea how to complete this task without bothering strange people =))
Sincerely,
Violet

run away while you still can. diversity is the last thing people here want.

the world wide web produces ghettos -- self selecting ghettos. It's a freedom in a democracy.

 

[nemerteia2]

run away while you still can. diversity is the last thing people here want. the world wide web produces ghettos -- self selecting ghettos. It's a freedom in a democracy.

Thank you for your opinion =) Please don't scare me... I am already scared to be here )) I just want to know your opinion, even if it is a negative one...

 

[emilynghiem]

Hello violet. Please explain "inclusive education" so that we may work from the same definition.

Hello everyone =)
i am sorry to write form a different account, but for some reason I cannot login...
anyway ) What I mean by inclusion is when children with special needs are included into regular classes. As far as I understand, for such practice there have to be several professionals working in the class and special curriculum adapted... however, I would really like to know, how it works in reality... and of course what advantages and disadvantages you see in such education... It would really help me in my assignment...

Thank you in advance!

Dear Nemerteia: This inclusion can be done if the teachers/students/parents are prepared to accommodate the special students. If not, it can be disastrous, depending on the students.

After I had a class of 6th graders, where the boys teamed up and teased a girl student to tears, even when she had a peer to partner with, I would have recommended to have SEGREGATED classes, where integrated students are paired or placed in same-gender classes to reduce the risk of distractions in learning from this kind of peer pressure.

So it depends on the grade level and the maturity/training level of the students and teachers.

To be safe, I would recommend SMALLER classrooms where the other students are screened to make sure these conflicts or disruptions don't happen, or SAME-GENDER in the case of 6 graders who are still going through emotional reactions to boys vs. girls.

Once students have succeeded in smaller more controlled settings,
after that, they could be integrated into regular classrooms from there.

In general, the same methods that work for special students are better for ALL students: More INDIVIDUALIZED attention and instruction, lower ratios of students to teachers, and matching students more carefully to teachers and peers they can work with well.

 

[emilynghiem]

run away while you still can. diversity is the last thing people here want. the world wide web produces ghettos -- self selecting ghettos. It's a freedom in a democracy.

Thank you for your opinion =) Please don't scare me... I am already scared to be here )) I just want to know your opinion, even if it is a negative one...

Dear N: Don't let anyone scare you. The internet forums are like "group therapy" where the clients and counselors are thrown together, in an "inclusive" environment (ha ha), developing their skills by "practicing" on each other.

People bring their own fears with them and project them onto other people, like a funhouse of mirrors. It's either comedy at its best, or horror at its worst! It is whatever YOU make of it.

If you like to learn, then you will have fun and will enjoy the challenges people present.

So N, if you come in sincere, you will get find sincerity in return.
People who come here to slam, get slammed back.
We are all here to learn that we get what we give, so constructive corrections works better!

Any conflicts or clashes in the meantime are just part of the human learning curve, just like in school where students learn by trial, error and experience, and correcting mistakes.

Please don't worry, and thank you for reaching out and posting. I hope you will interact more in the future, as this helps diversity and inclusion by just BEING diverse and inclusive!

If people are afraid of new ideas or changing how they think, that's their problem not yours. Don't apologize; it's good for all us of to hear new things from new people. Thank you!

Kindness is a more powerful force. So as long as you bring that with you, you will always be welcome wherever you go. Take care and much success in your studies and teaching!

Yours truly,
Emily

Here's a good resource you might find inspiring:
Rachel's Challenge
It's a reminder to let our love be greater than our fear, and that small acts of kindness can change the world, one relation at a time.

 

[emilynghiem]

In this country if students can't pass an exam, the exam is re-written to accommodate inclusion.

Sounds like what's happening with our govt not passing Constitutional standards!

 

[emilynghiem]

No discussion of diversity in schools is complete without the Kansas City failure.

Money And School Performance: Lessons from the Kansas City Desegregation Experiment

Inclusive education doesn't work. It is made to work by the simple expedient of lowering the standards, grade inflation and social promotion from grade to grade.

No Educational policy works if it is dictated from the top down, instead of being developed from community based support.
Bureaucracy will kill anything, especially good ideas that require democratic participation on the ground level of the people.

 

[nemerteia2]

Dear Emilynghiem,
I really appreciate your answer and your support! You are a very nice and positive person =) In case there is anything else you would like to add, I would love to know more...

To others: If you feel strongly FOR or AGAINST, can you please explain why? There must be reasons for your positive or negative attitude, right?
As far as I see, there are both - advantages and disadvantages to this idea... As was mentioned before - if society (regular students, teachers) are not ready to accept students with special needs, it will only harm such children... But if they are, in my opinion, it might bring all the best in people, developing understanding, support... promoting equality... I know that it is still very unlikely, that all of a sudden people start caring about someone else, besides themselves, but do you believe that inclusive education is for the better future? Or do you think that it will only harm regular students?

 

[Rozman]

In this country if students can't pass an exam, the exam is re-written to accommodate inclusion.

If a group of civil servants go to take a test for advancement, a promotion and some of them
study real hard and some spend out of their own pocket for a tutor.And then they all take the test and a certain group of people in that group don't do well at all...

Well the test is deemed invalid and the ones who studied and worked hard and went for tutoring well they don't get promoted.The promotion is pulled back...

That's the kind of country we are.

 

[Grandma]

It depends on what the special needs are here. If a kid has near-feral ADD and is nothing but a disruptor, then no, that kid goes into the special ed class. If the kid is a para- or quadruplegic there usually aren't any problems with that child going to a mainstream class.

 

[eots]

I would like to know your opinion...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCF1K-3ICbg]What I Think....The Eots - YouTube[/ame]

 

[nemerteia2]

I am sorry, how is it helpful exactly? =)

PS. Not allowed to post web-links yet....

 

[squeeze berry]

so much depends on the academic level of the student.

most of the students I have in my self-contained high school sped (mr/autism) class would learn less in an inclusion setting because the material would be too demanding. I can madify the same material , history for example, to teach world history 1 to their level. You can not do that with algrbra and geometry, well on a limited basis you could. but algebra is not what they need.

There would need to be parellel teaching in an inclusion class. Regular ed teachers heads would be spinning wondering what to do with them.

The other side of the coin is that the student would benefit from being with same age peers of higher academic and social abilities.

Inclusion = social skills for lack of better terminology.

IMO, Someone with a 2nd grade reading or math level would not thrive in a HS compostion or algebra course.

Also some of the students in my self contianed class would be too disruptive in a general education setting. Stakes are high. Many general ed students want a fair chance to excel and get into the college of their choice or even a scholarship.

Next year a student will be coming up from the middle school. He/she is Down syndrome with the academic level of 2nd grade.
The parents insist he/she be in all gen ed classes for social reasons. The student has zero chance of passing the state exams. The parent does not care.

He will fail, but is getting an IEP diploma.



It seems to me that the ID/autism students fall farther behind their same age peers every year.

in this law suit, yes special ed is rife with litigation, the parents contend that the county did not do enough to give a student 100
5 inclusion.

the courts did not agree and ststed the county did meet the spirit od IDEA.


Mark Hartmann v. Loudoun Co. Sch. Bd., 118 F.3d. 996 (4th Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 118 S. Ct. 688 (1998) - Wrightslaw.com


this is easier to read

http://www.alivecontroversy.com/easternloudountimes.html

 

[editec]

Hello violet. Please explain "inclusive education" so that we may work from the same definition.

Hello everyone =)
i am sorry to write form a different account, but for some reason I cannot login...
anyway ) What I mean by inclusion is when children with special needs are included into regular classes. As far as I understand, for such practice there have to be several professionals working in the class and special curriculum adapted... however, I would really like to know, how it works in reality... and of course what advantages and disadvantages you see in such education... It would really help me in my assignment...

Thank you in advance!

Depends on which special needs you're including.

One of the things I think you need to realize is that the USA does not have ONE edicational system...we have over 15,000 school systems that are mostly locally funded and controlled by local school boards

School boards are not necessarily manned by professional educators. Members are elected such that often the board members have nothing whatever to do with education EXCEPT get to decide how that system actually works, is funded, etc.


Those municipal systems answer to STATE education departments, but their fiscal independence gives them enormous leeway to operate according to the gestalt of the local school board mandates as long as they follow some relatively minor dictates set by the STATE Depts of Ed.

So you go back to your professor and explain to him that asking his students to GENERALIZE about the US educational system is sending them on a fools errand.