Inclusion

After responding to Tonnette’s thoughts on the lack of education and training provided to general education teachers on the subject of applied behavior analysis, I find expanding on the topic of Inclusion as this topic is important when considering inclusion as well as a few others. Let’s begin with a definition of inclusion: a student with a disability receiving special education services being served in the general education environment. It is more and more prevalent, whether it is to find a loophole to NCLB or simply allow special education students exposure to typical peers in order to gain social skills with the added benefit of a more “real world” mixed environment that will likely exist after public education ends. It has had many benefits for all students, but there are some definite concerns when not implemented correctly or misused. I have worked in inclusion for almost five years now and the conflicts between the views and methods of general education teachers and special education teachers have been the most difficult part of my job. This first began when I assisted a young girl who was medically fragile. The general education teacher did not feel this student should be treated any different from her typical peers, that is did not see that this child, though included, still should have her needs met. Now at my current job, the general education teacher does not think that my student, in her words, needs to “get it,” i.e. learn. These conflicts create some difficult situations, mostly because the training a general educator receives and in fact often whole paradigm is much different from that of a special educator. Also, there are often just “too many cooks.” In my position as a special education aide I likely speak to five people each day that tell me what to do, some general ed, some special ed, and I am left to determine whose opinion has the most validity. Is it the child’s case manager who has followed the child from day one? Is it the general educator who spends most of her day with the student, observing him the most, but does not have the special education background or insight? I’m sure some of these questions arise in this type of position no matter what, but to me, if inclusion continues to be the direction of special education, there needs to be much more cohesion within education, training, and management of all educators involved in inclusion.