On Monday 10 Oct 2005 00:59, Kathleen Salkin wrote:
> That's a good point, Bobby, as the only interaction I had with other
> disabled people were at school.  My parents raised me to be
> independent, and I think they saw the schools for people with
> disabilities at the time as not fostering independence so they sent
> me to regular schools after I left elementary school.  My mother,
> particularly, felt that other parents tended to treat their children
> as babies, not as maturing kids.  (which as I recall, wasn't too far
> off in a lot of cases)
>
> I think it's absolutely vital for disabled children to go to school
> with able-bodied kids and learn to interact with everyone, not just
> other disabled people.  Otherwise how will they learn to function
> well at school or work?
>
>
>
> Kat
>

Hi Kat,

Sorry I have to disagree here, you make a good point about the importance of
education for children with disabilities, but I fail to see why its so
important to "mix" with able-bodied kids. Are you argueing that somehow
mixing with non disabled people is better than mixing with the disabled, that
a disabled kid can learn more by mixing with the able bodied?

I would have thought that the important issue is whether it is a good school,
not whether it contains able bodied kids. Usually a better education can be
found in small class sizes, with dedicated teachers, using approprate
assistive technologies, these are more often the norm in special education
schools than the main stream.

I sometimes think the panacea of "inclusion" in education is primarily
advantageous for the taxpayer (its much cheaper to shove a few ramps into a
local high school and hire a few extra "teaching assistants" than pay for a
kid to board at a purpose built school with class sizes of 7 or 8).
Secondarily it may have an advantage for the non disabled (they may learn its
rude to stare!!). But where is there an advantage for the disabled kid?

There seems to be a presumption that if you do not put disabled kids in
"regular" schools they won't learn the necessary social skills for life after
school. This doesn't stack up either, since its reinforcing a misconception
that the interactions which occur within a large group of disabled kids is
somehow not as good as interacting with a similar sized group of non disabled
kids. Of course, integration with the rest of society is a worthy goal, and
good Special Ed schools should address that, but it should not become the
only focus.

I would posit that the yard stick for measuring success in the field of
disabled education, should be less based on whether "little willy" goes to
the local high school, but more on whether "little willy" has received the
best education for him to reach his full potential.

Of course, in my case, the best Special Ed money (the State) could buy, didn't
stop me becoming an opinionated lunatic!!!

Cheers

Deri