The Impact of Inclusive Education

Inclusive education is the attempt to give every child, regardless of any factor, the best education possible.  Inclusion is meant to help students that are at a disadvantage due to a variety of factors such as socioeconomic status, language, and mental or physical disability. It also can benefit the students in the classroom that are not at a disadvantage by exposing them to students that may be different. Examples of students that can benefit from an inclusive education include students who don’t speak English, students with physical disabilities, and students that have a mental impairment. Inclusive schools strive to create problem solving teams that work together to ensure that the student is receiving the best education possible for their unique situation. They also seek to create a sense of community that allows all students to feel respected and valuable. One way of doing this is to allow students to contribute more to the community by, for example, serving as a peer tutor or a peer mediator. This gives students a sense of ownership in the community of the school.

I believe that inclusion is vital to helping students become open minded, conscience citizens, especially in West Virginia. Our population is one of the most homogeneous in the nation. Students from families that don't have the financial resources to travel will rarely have the opportunity to experience other cultures, races, languages, or areas with a different socioeconomic status. In this type of scenario, it becomes very easy to become afraid of things that are different or things that you don't understand. Inclusion insures that we are not reinforcing this idea by segregating those that learn differently or speak a different language form the so called "normal" students. 

I’ve included a link to a twitter post from a radio DJ named Kankelfritz. His daughter, Abby Grace, has special needs. She is mainstreamed for part of the day. The picture he tweeted shows Abby Grace and a classmate Jace on their class graduation day. I chose this post because it shows the marked and positive effect that inclusion can have on both students with special needs and those without them.

Citation:

Klovemornings. (2012, June 5). Kankelfritz's Abby Grace with friend Jace. Jace's mom said Abby has really impacted Jace's life & sent this pic. pic.twitter.com/XapKPfMf [Twitter post]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/klovemornings/status/209985783103361027
Inos , R. H. (2012). Research review for inclusive practices. Retrieved from http://www.prel.org/products/Products/Inclusive-practices.htm