Hello! 
I have just joined your message board because of one reason.
My name is Inna and I am from Latvia (The Baltic States). Now I am studying in the University of Latvia. I am 1st year student in the Master program “Educational treatment of diversity”. Everything what is connected to disabilities, special needs, special education, inclusive education is very new for me. It is very interesting and sometimes mind-blowing.
Now I have an activity. I need to find group of people from America and to know their opinion on inclusive education in their countries.
Maybe you have had some experience in inclusive education? Maybe you know what could be advantages / disadvantages of this kind of education? What is current situation with inclusive education in your country? What is your personal attitude to the inclusive education?
Thank you in advance!!!
Oh, one more thing…
In case there are any teachers or professionals from education field 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 would be very grateful if you could share your opinions with me.
Sincerely Yours,
Inna
P.S. Inclusive education - is when children with special needs are included into mainstream schools, regular classes.
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It depends on what kind of population you’re talking about. For LD and ADD and other high incidence disabilities, yes its a good thing. Do those kids ever go to Harvard? Rarely, but at least they have basic literacy and functional academic skills.
It’s also good that kids who are “just wheelchair/walker/crutch” users aren’t banned from going to their local neighborhood school, the way they were before schools became accessible.
Low incidence kids however tend to get the short end of the stick. There was a thing on facebook that said that autistic kids weren’t seeing a huge leap in inclusion, the way the experts thought.
Deaf and hard of hearing kids, blind/low vision kids and other low incidence kids tend to suffer the disadvantages of mainstream education. It’s too one size fits all. Specialized teachers aren’t generally available. Most mainstream sped teachers do not get a lot of training on how to teach low incidence kids. So even bright kids are sent to “resource room” and when they don’t respond to minimal accomondations approach, they get told that they’re never going to college or get a job or whatever.
Inclusion should be an option, but it should be very carefully done…Also, it seems like most kids do OK in elementary school and then start struggling. There’s also the fact that social-emotional development is really neglected with low incidence kids. That’s a really important part of school…school’s not just about plopping a kid in a normal classroom and learning about tin deposists or WWII.
I also want to say that I’m expecting any day now to hear about a mother sueing a school because her wittle mentally handicapped Smashley, isn’t in AP classes.
Our educational system has changed drasticly from a mix of college prep and blue collar, to ALL college prep. Kids who aren’t headed off to college miss out. Why not replace high school, for mentally handicapped kids with something like life skills prep school, where they’d go off and live at a campus while learning functional academics and how to live on their own academicly.
In addition, it does seem like a lot of the pro inclusionist parents are all secretly thinking " YAY! My kid is NORMAL! and doesn’t have to go to deaf/blind/MR/fill in the blank with whatever disability classes/school."
A lot of kids fall through the cracks and miss out on a lot of stuff…
Hello, AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet!
Thanks a lot for your thoughts!
Are there any special groups or teams or organizations which help teachers to cope with inclusive classes? because in our country there are no such organizations and teachers have to invest their own money to get additional education connected with inclusive one… It’ s a pity…
In our country it feels a bit weird, cause most of the parents are totally against the inclusion process… They say that it would disturb the teaching process for their “normal” child… What do the most of the parents think in your country?
Oh, and also, when the child is enrolled into the school, if parents does not want it, nobody would know the diagnose or the problems the child has… and then the teacher faces terrible problems… :eek: How is it possible? Do you have the same situation?
Do you see the people with motor, visual, audial disabilities, Down syndrome, etc. in the streets, working? How they are usually treated?
I can’t answer the education question with anything other than my own opinion, but I can talk about the adult part.
Disabled (or “differently-abled”) adults with physical disabilities are seen often in society and the workplace. Most businesses are required by law to hire people with a disability if that person can do the work needed with minimal adjustment.
Mental disabilities are harder, because there are fewer and fewer mainstream jobs that are suitable for people with very limited intelligence or who have emotional disturbances. Still, there are organizations and companies that provide jobs for them also - they just aren’t as noticeable day-to-day.
Goodwill is a notable one - they are a chain of thrift stores (sell second-hand clothing and items for very low prices) and part of their mission is to hire and train handicapped and disabled people and train them to work, so that hopefully the person can then be hired by other places and be more independent.
Edited to add: I don’t think that most normal people are shocked to see someone with a disability in public - it’s fairly common to see people in wheelchairs, with canes, or children with Downs out and about. Some people may be uncomfortable because they don’t have personal experience with a person with a particular disability, but I have never heard anyone seriously suggest that people with disabilities should be hidden or kept at home. That’s a very old-fashioned and incorrect viewpoint here, so if anyone did feel that way, they would certainly not be likely to say so in public.
My experience is very limited and at the university level. I have had two nearly blind students and an autistic one. The nearly blind students asked me to say out loud everything I wrote on the blackboard. That is sometimes hard with equations, but I did it. The first time was a long time ago (around 1960) when I wrote exams on the board and he asked for a handwritten copy of each exam, which I provided, in large script. He used a small telescope to see the board. The second one was relatively recent and I was asked to provide a copy of the exam in large print, which is easy with computers. I think I gave him a 20 point copy of the exam. But the disabled student office administered it and gave him 4 hours to do a 3 hour exam. Was that reasonable? Perhaps. I felt that he really didn’t need extra time, but I could be mistaken.
Ah, the autistic student. He actually gave me no problem whatever in class (and earned a good A), but any interaction with him was painful. He spoke at only one volume, max, and spoke in disconnected syllables. Very painful. Some years later, I met his mother who told me that he had a job as a computer programmer, but she didn’t know what he could have done if it hadn’t been for computers or some other job where his interaction with people was minimal.
So all in all, my experience has been extremely limited but positive. Needless to say, mentally retarded people don’t get to university and most physical disabilities are no problem at all. When I was at the University of Illinois in the mid 60s, almost every building had been retrofitted with whatever was needed to make them accessible. There were also special buses with wheelchair lifts and clearly lots of handicapped students. I never actually taught one, but it would have made no difference at all.
Hello, everyone!
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience and opinion!
I would appreciate if there would be any other thoughts on this matter!
Thanks!
Inna
I have some experience with special needs children, but I work with prek students. It’s hard to get a child an IEP in prek. You can in really severe cases, though.
I also wanted to add in my school, a lot of special needs children have one on one aides. Do they do that in your country?
Hi, RockytheflyingS!
Thanks for sharing you thoughts!
No, in Latvia we do not have any aides for children with special needs nor in schools, nor in kindergartens. If parents want their child with disabilities to study in mainstream schools (which is very very rare) they pay for aides privately, but it costs a lot of money. Our government does not support those families, actually… Parents are forced to create different organizations to fight for the rights of their children and search for additional financing and support from private entrepreneurs and international organizations. Unfortunately…
In my personal opinion today Latvia starts it’s inclusive education process. 10 years ago there were no disabled people in the streets or working or studying (at least they were segregated and isolated from the society) and most of the Latvian people are afraid of them and families are ashamed of those children. Now this topic becomes more and more popular… Hope in the nearest future we also would have positive attitude to disabled people and treat them like an important part of our society.
I had one 30 years ago in EI preschool. I also know dhh preschool kids who have IEPS.
Hi!
Can I ask you what do you mean by:
IEPS and dhh.
English is my third language, so probably I do not know all the abbreviations yet.
What’s your personal attitude to inclusion? Do you think it is possible?
Thanks!
Inna