Although the ideas and reasons for inclusive education are very noble and can have a positive effect on many disabled students, mandating inclusion for all disabled students denies some the opportunity to appropriately learn in the least restrictive environment (LRE) as required by law. The fight for inclusive education has made enormous gains from when the National Association of Retarded Children was established in 1950 to 1990 when the public law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), P.L. 94-142, was revised. Educational systems have moved from not providing education at all for the disabled to providing schools for the disabled separate from non-disabled students. Recently “normal” schools have been practicing inclusion and have free rein to determine exactly how. The problem facing policy makers today is whether or not all disabled children should be inclusioned. If the policy makers would just observe the disabled students being inclusioned and ignore all the rhetoric being presented to them, they will find that not all disabled children benefit from inclusion. On July 13,1996, Omer Zak compiled several articles the deaf and professionals who work with the deaf had submitted to him and presented them on the Internet under the title Deaf Persons and Experts Speak Out Against Inclusion.
One of the writings submitted was entitled “Interpreter Isn’t Enough!” written by Leah Hager Cohen. The author is an interpreter for an eleventh grade deaf student that is being inclusioned in a regular school. Cohen explains how the deaf student will sit quietly by herself before class begins while the rest of the students are socializing and interacting with each other. The piece goes on to explain how the deaf student must look at the interpreter during class in order to receive the lesson being presented by the teacher. When the student looks takes her eyes off the interpreter to write in her notes the interpreter must stop signing. When the student looks back to the interpreter she begins signing again. The more often the student stops to write in her notes the farther behind the teacher the interpreter gets. As the interpreter falls behind she must try to catch up causing a loss of information. If the teacher adds a visual aid such as a map or a chart, the student must concentrate on three things causing her to fall even farther behind. The deaf student rarely has the opportunity to be the one to answer a question asked by the teacher due to the delay caused by using an interpreter.
The Term Paper on Over Representation of African American Students in the Special Education System.
Introduction My current school has special education roster of 32 students in self contain with over 90% of the students being African-American. This paper will address the large number African-American students in the special education system. Attention will be focus on the social economic roles that play a part in placement. When done properly and in appropriate perspective, special education is ...
Before the interpreter even gets the question signed another student has answered it. Cohen also explains that while a teacher will ask her how the student is doing many teachers will decline an invitation to ask the student herself via the interpreter. That declination has a tendency to alienate the Joe Murray also contributed an article to Zak. Murray is a deaf person who was fully “inclusioned” throughout his academic career up and including college. Murray was by most standards a very successful student. He participated in sports and other extra curricular activities along with going to Europe as an exchange student. Murray explains how in the mist of all his success he felt he was not living up to his potential and could not do so out side the deaf community. Murray had to make a concentrated effort at everything he did where as if he was in an environment with his deaf peers the flow of information and activity would have One of the biggest argument supporters of full inclusion try to present is the fact that disabled students and non-disabled students will have the opportunity to socially interact with each other. It is hoped that this interaction will break down the prejudices and misconceptions people have about the disabled. In the case of a deaf student the opposite holds true. In a school for the deaf the students can communicate and interact freely without any restrictions. When a deaf child is placed in a school for the hearing that child is isolated from the rest of her classmates. In order for successful learning to take place a student must feel valued and comfortable in the classroom (Ormrod).
The Essay on Language development with deaf children
Erik Drasgow discussed in his article how important early exposure is for deaf children (Drasgow 1998). Unlike hearing children who are exposed to language early in the womb, deaf children get their exposure to language at birth (Drasgow 1998). Drasgow explains that studies show the earlier language is developed the higher children excel in language skills (Drasgow 1998). Deaf children born to ...
If a deaf child is isolated from her classmates due to the lack of communication she will never gain the feeling of being The information processing abilities of students must be taken into consideration when placing them in any academic situation. Students need time to be able to think about and draw conclusions on what is being taught (Ormrod).
If a deaf student and her interpreter are having problems keeping up with the classroom instruction the deaf student will miss the opportunities given by the teacher to properly think about and process the information and grasp the true concepts of the lesson. By not having the opportunity to perform the information processing stage of classroom instruction the deaf students rights to learn in the least restrictive environment as stated in P.L. 94-142, are clearly being violated. If the teacher does slow the pace of instruction down in order to allow the deaf student to keep up, others in the class will become bored and loose interest which infringes on their right to learn in the least restrictive environment. As mentioned above, the rights of the non-disabled student can be violated by having students with certain disabilities in a normal classroom session. For example, a severely autistic child can be very difficult to control and can quickly turn a classroom into a chaotic mess (Mejia).
Autistic children need to have a structured environment with very little disturbances. When a disturbance does occur such as an announcement over the P.A. system or a fire drill the autistic child will most often experience a form of a panic attack and causing them to become very disruptive and difficult to manage. As a result, valuable lesson time is wasted on calming the autistic child down. This is not only disturbing to the other students in the classroom but can be dangerous to them as well. An autistic child will often get violent during an tantrum and may throw something or do something that will injure other students. If a tantrum occurs during a fire alarm the autistic child could prevent the rest of the class from safely exiting the building. The infringement on regular students rights does not stop with a possible disturbance in the classroom. In February of 1995 a behavior disordered (BD) student who was being fully inclusioned was convicted of the rape and murder of one of his classmates (Schlafly).
Student Achievement Education Spending School
Equality in School Finance In The Story of the Education Dollar, Odden, Monk, Nakib and Picus describe some basic facts about education spending in the United States to facilitate an understanding of the level and uses of the federal government's policies on education funding. The purpose of the authors' discussion is to argue that public education facilities need to change their focus on the ...
The BD student used to be part of a supervised program in the most controlled environment for BD students. As a result of the new policy at McCluer North High School about full inclusion, the BD student was transferred into a regular classroom setting. Shortly after his transfer he raped and murdered a 15 year-old freshman named Christine Smetzer. Are the average American students being overlooked in this whole process of inclusion? One quick look at the change in public school budgets will answer that question. In 1967 at least 80% of public school budgets where devoted to “regular education” while in 1996 that percentage rate dropped to 58.6% (Ratnesar).
The 22% decrease is a result of absorbing the cost for special education and inclusion. The extra attention given to a severely disabled child that is inclusioned into a regular classroom is drawing away the resources and efforts of the teachers that would normally be directed to the average student. What a waste of precious resources when a child’s disability is so severe that they can not truly benefit from Supporters of full inclusion claim that the biggest obstacle they face is the attitudes of those involved (Mejia).
There are schools that are very successful at applying inclusion practices. What enabled the success of these schools was the attitudes of the staff. Likewise, many of the failures of inclusion can be attributed to poor attitudes. Tim McConnell has been quoted for saying “the key to successful inclusion is deciding to make inclusion successful.” When administrators change their negative attitudes toward inclusion and begin to follow the proper procedures for implementing inclusion it will be successful. By law an individualized education program (IEP) must be developed for each student that has been identified as having a disability. If a specialist is required by the IEP than one must be provided for the student. Had this policy been properly implemented in the past maybe students such as Joe Murray would have felt as if he was achieving his full potential. If a proper staff was assigned to Michael Taylor would that have been enough to prevent the rape and murder of Christine Smetzer? There is no definite answer to the above question but supporters of full inclusion would have you believe that “yes” these things could have been prevented if inclusion was implemented properly. When proper implementation of inclusion occurs more positive examples will come forth. The more positive examples that are presented the more apt people are to take a positive attitude toward full inclusion enabling for more and more successful Those who support inclusion for the deaf claim “the average sixteen year old-deaf student can only read at the level of a hearing eight year-old” (The Disabled).
The Essay on Primary Education and School Children
The Government of India in 2001 launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a nationwide programme to provide universal primary education, thereby encouraging secondary education also. The Center passed The Right to Education Act in 1 April 2010, which guarantees free and compulsory education to every child in the 6-14 age groups. But, the lack of awareness on the requirement of pre-school education ...
If a deaf student can be placed in a regular classroom setting early in his education and given the proper support there should be no reason why he could not read and write at the same level of his hearing peers. Deaf children growing up in segregated schools are most often taught American Sign Language (ASL).
ASL is an entirely different language than English just as Spanish or French is. The problem is that if the deaf person lives in America everything from instructions to the closed captions on TV are written in English and not in ASL. Teaching the deaf to read and write proper English will help them to function in the community more freely. The same holds true with autistic children as well. Teach them young enough how to function in a normal classroom setting and they will behave According to the Authors of Listening To Their Voices inclusive practices benefit the average student as well. The book provides a reliable chart of how much is learned in different situations. The chart states that people learn: 10% of what they read 20% of what they hear 30% of what they see 50% of what they see & hear 70% of what they discuss w/others 80%of what they experience Non disabled students who have disabled students participating in their classes have the opportunity to help the disabled student learn. As a result the non disabled student has a higher chance of retaining what is being taught. A teacher can still teach a lesson if the learning goals of the students in the class vary.
The Essay on Education Reform Children School Dewey
December 8, 2004 Education Reform Education reform means to make education better by removing faults and defects. True educators are always thinking of more effective ways to enhance and democratize the way children learn. With the continuous change of growing population, economics, culture, family, and global communication, there has to be continuous educational reforms to keep the society ...
It is the variance that allows students to help other students creating an atmosphere for more positive The question still remains as to whether or not inclusion should be practiced as full inclusion. The answer is quite simple really, follow the law! Learning must take place in the least restrictive environment. In order to adhere to that section of the law both segregated schools and non-segregated schools must be made available to the disabled. Then the due process of the law must be followed. Each individual that is suspected to have a disability must be evaluated by fair and impartial hearing conducted by a multidisciplinary team. These teams consist of the parents, the regular classroom teacher, one or more specialist and the school principal. It is at this time that parents can determine if they feel their child would benefit from regular classroom instruction or segregated classroom instruction. Where the law gets fuzzy is if inclusion should be mandated or not. Logic should dictate in this situation and recognize that the parents are ultimately responsible for the education their child receives. Therefore the parents should have the right to research the school their child would be attending and make a determination as to whether or not that school can meet their child?s needs.
If the parents feel that their child would be better served in a segregated school where the instruction is geared solely toward that child?s disability, then that school should be available to that child and her /his parents. Zak, Omer. ?Deaf Persons and Experts Speak Out Against Inclusion.? 13 Jul. 1996. Internet posting. 3 Oct. 1998. Available WWW: htp://www.weiz mann.ac.il/deaf-info/inclusion.html. Cohen, Leah Hager. ?Interpreter Isn?t Enough!.? The New York Times. 22 Feb. 1994. ?Deaf Persons and Experts Speak Out Against Inclusion.? 13 Jul. 1996. Internet posting. 3 Oct. 1998. Available WWW: htp://www.weiz mann.ac.il/deaf-info/inclusion.html. Murray, Joe. ?Mainstreaming Leads to Isolation – a Testimonial. 27 Feb. 1995 ?Deaf Persons and Experts Speak Out Against Inclusion.? 13 Jul. 1996. Internet posting. 3 Oct. 1998. Available WWW: htp://www.weiz mann.ac.il/deaf-info/inclusion.html. Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. Educational Psychology : Developing Learners. New Jersey: Mejia, Tammy. Personal interview. 6 Oct. 1998. Schlafly, Phyllis. ?Full Inclusion Student is Convicted of Murder.? Education Ratnesar, Romesh. ?Lost in the Middle.? Time 14 Sep. 1998: 60 – 64. The Disabled. Greenhaven Press, 1997 Grosel, Laura, et al. ?Listen to Their Voices.? Thes. Ashland College, 1997.
The Essay on Condoms vs Abstinence for Public School Children
Rush Limbaugh’s article, “Condoms: The New Diploma,” berates the common practice of distributing condoms to school children. The iconic conservative talk show host, who is blessed with “talent on loan from God,” uses forceful, colloquial arguments and analogies to warn against the messages and possible dire consequences that public school condom distribution can impart on America’s children. He ...
Bibliography:
Works Cited Zak, Omer. ?Deaf Persons and Experts Speak Out Against Inclusion.? 13 Jul. 1996. Internet posting. 3 Oct. 1998. Available WWW: htp://www.weiz mann.ac.il/deaf-info/inclusion.html. Cohen, Leah Hager. ?Interpreter Isn?t Enough!.? The New York Times. 22 Feb. 1994. ?Deaf Persons and Experts Speak Out Against Inclusion.? 13 Jul. 1996. Internet posting. 3 Oct. 1998. Available WWW: htp://www.weiz mann.ac.il/deaf-info/inclusion.html. Murray, Joe. ?Mainstreaming Leads to Isolation – a Testimonial. 27 Feb. 1995 ?Deaf Persons and Experts Speak Out Against Inclusion.? 13 Jul. 1996. Internet posting. 3 Oct. 1998. Available WWW: htp://www.weiz mann.ac.il/deaf-info/inclusion.html. Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. Educational Psychology : Developing Learners. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1995. Mejia, Tammy. Personal interview. 6 Oct. 1998. Schlafly, Phyllis. ?Full Inclusion Student is Convicted of Murder.? Education Reporter. May 1998 Ratnesar, Romesh. ?Lost in the Middle.? Time 14 Sep. 1998: 60 – 64. The Disabled. Greenhaven Press, 1997 Grosel, Laura, et al. ?Listen to Their Voices.? Thes. Ashland College, 1997.
