Manorfire

Should disabled children and young people learn in special schools or receive their education in a mainstream environment?

On the one hand, supporters of special schools claim such schools provide better teaching - a better educational experience for disabled children with tailor-made services to help with their disabilities. There's talk of a generally supportive atmosphere where children meet others with similar impairments to themselves and learn from this shared experience. There is even something of an 'esprit de corps'. Special schools often get very good academic results, and are also better placed to educate children with more complex needs, such as some children with autism and severe learning disabilities.

On the other hand, it is claimed that including disabled children in mainstream schools provides them with a better education for life because it integrates them into the real world, a world where disabled and non-disabled people mix together. Such schools are more local, too. There is no need to take a disabled child and transport them miles away from their family and friends. And the inclusive approach is often more cost-effective. Finally, the idea of integration "chimes with the times". It makes up part of the disability rights agenda, and many parents want to see their disabled children go to the same school as their brothers and sisters.

What do you think? Any experiences? Is the system where you live working?

maleficent

There's a friend of my family who has a daughter who's now 19 years old... The child has Cerebral Palsy...When she was 2ish - the parents were told their best bet for any kind of life for this child would be to institutionalize her where she might learn to walk and perhaps talk.

The parents passed on that advice and with a lot of patience the girl learned to walk and to communicate - sometimes verbally, sometmes with sign language. When she reached school age, she was mainstreamed, with some special classes in her school day - and the spending time with other children who didn't have her disabilities was good for her -and I also believe it was good for he other children as it taught them some patience and that not everyone was like them.

As this child got older, and classes got harder, she was moved to special ed classes only because it was too frustrating for her to deal with some harder math classes...

At a young age, I think it's a benefit to disabled children to be with non-disabld children - and i think the non-disabled also get a benefit - as they get older, i'm not sure the same is true..

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shakran

In many of these supposedly "integrated" school the disabled kids just happen to be in the same building. They're in separate classrooms, with separate teachers, and never really have contact with the rest of the students except maybe lunch time. If that's how you're gonna do it, then it doesn't really matter if you get a separate building or not - do whatever the economics dictate.

If you truly integrate them - have the mentally retarded kids in the same classroom and being taught by the same teacher as the "normal" kids, then you're doing a severe disservice to the "normal" kids. The teacher has to devote a lot of time to special ed, which means not enough time to the rest of the classroom.

I think kids should be grouped by ability, and that's not just talking about the lower end of the spectrum. Gifted kids should not be forced to sit in the same classroom as the regular kids. Not only are we not giving them the learning they really want, but we're boring them by forcing them to plod along with the average kids. It's no coincidence that many kids who are very bright end up being little bastards in the classroom - -they're bored as hell and want something to do.

fresnelly

I agree with Mal that integration early on is important. At the same time, many teachers are overtaxed with large class sizes and few resources, so adding special needs students to the mix can be overwhelming and everyone suffers. In the older grades, special needs students should only be added if the special support is available, which of course, it should be.

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Brewmaniac

As a person with a severe physical disability, I think it depends on the type of disability your talking about. I can't use my legs or arms but have full mental capabilities(my wife might disagree some days) I was injured as a young adult and took classes at a local college and got all A's.
As far as small children go I think grouping them by their needs is ideal because they can benefit from having specialized teachers trained in their area of disability. I do think having all children in the same building would be good for them and in some way have the disabled and the non-disabled interact some how, this where I get stuck.
It is very important for the non-disabled to see people that struggle, so they can learn empathy and tolerance, opposed to ignorance. I've had people come up to me an say the stupidest things as if because I'm in a power wheelchair I must be retarded. One time we were at a restaurant and the waitress took my wife and daughters order and then said what will he have, my wife said, I don't know ask him, he can speak and he doesn't bite.
When I was in my twenty's and was more of a wise-ass, if someone stared at me I'd say do know got like this, I stared at a guy in a wheelchair!

It's important for kids and their parents to learn that being disabled doesn't make you any less human.

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josie

I think that's probably the most beneficial aspect of having kids with disabilities (of any sort) mixing with those who don't, in school. I think it can be a tremendous opportunity for kids who otherwise would have no exposure, to gain knowledge of and empathy for those who are faced with physical or mental challenges- because noone ever knows what life might hold in store. I'm sure Brewmaniac never pictured himself in a wheelchair as he grew up, and his situation just reinforces the message that it can happen to any one of us at any time. So it's good to have some understanding of what it might mean in a life.

Unfortunately, I don't think the kids with special needs (especially learning disabilities that affect their mental and intellectual functioning) are served as well educationally as they should be in mainstreamed settings. If they're in a regular classroom, the teacher often resents their presence, not least because they haven't been adequately trained to work with these students. And socially - I think it can be very, very lonely and difficult. It's very rarely the utopia we would like to hope for - that the person who is different in any way is just loved and accepted as one of the gang. Hell - kids are ostracized for having too much acne or a bad haircut in highschool- get the picture?
If I had a child with special needs and I could afford it, I'd send them to a specialized school with staff and faculty who are trained to meet their specific needs and a student body that understood (personally) what they were dealing with and knew what it meant to be who they were. I think educationally and socially, that would be the kinder choice.

What about you Manorfire? Do you see any benefit to mainstreaming that you may have missed out on?

Manorfire

Brewmaniac: L2 complete sat here. More importantly, I also brew my own beer! Pleased to meet you.

Josie: I had a friend with similar disability who went to the local school, while I went to the local special school (25km away). It would have been nice to have had the choice, but it was never offered to us. That felt a little rejecting. There were other things, but generally, I prospered well at the school. It was probably the right place for me to be.

I had both disabled and non-disabled kids to play with out of school. Fortunately, my mum was a teacher and my dad a GP, so they were both well placed to take care of various needs.

The school, which was one of the best in the country, closed in 2000. Parents and kids are having the option of where to go removed from them. That's never a good thing. I feel it comes down to where the child will get the best holistic education, which obviously is going to vary on a case to case basis. When mainstream works, it's the best thing all around. It's just a vision that's not a reality enough of the time.

Everybody else: Some very interesting thoughts, thanks for adding them. I will have to come back and comment some more.

Lizra

That is the absolute truth. My 22 year old, mildly mentally handicapped child (IQ 62) had this exact schooling situation. The special ed class was the place she felt safe. Being mentally handicapped means lonliness. It's pretty much a fountain of sorrow as far as I can see.

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Wilkerson

Okay, here's the deal. I have a neuromuscular disease (it falls under the umbrella of Muscular Dystrophy) and went through 12 years of public school. Well, 13 if you include Kindergarten. The school told my parents that I should be placed in a specialized school. This was the old days; before mainstreaming was commonplace and most children with any handicap were tossed aside and shoved into stark holes filled with children who never were properly educated.

My handicap limited me from certain activities; however I was able to perform for the basic educational requirements. I could read and write and even walk to the chalkboard. In those days I was completely ambulatory, these days it is not the case. The school administration was not thrilled, but as long as I could manage to enter and leave the school unassisted their hands were tied. I took part in class plays, in spelling bees and even grade school graduation....although in all these situations when going up on stage I had to lean against the wall and push myself up the stairs...there was no handrail. The only activity I was not part of that all other students were, was gym/physical education class. For that, the school allowed me a medical excuse as they did for the children who had heart ailments or other illness which precluded them from exerting excessive physical energies such as would have been needed for basketball playing, running, etc. In the 7th grade I sat on the floor in the corner and then a student would help me back to my feet after class. It was a double period, approximately 110 minutes and rather a humiliating ordeal for a 12 year old. The following year I was given a chair except when a chair was not readily available (and that seemed to happen a lot) and then I stood in the corner for the 110 minutes. In High School I was excused from even having to go to the gymnasium but there was the mandatory visit each term, for 8 terms (4 years) to the PhysEd office where the chair of the department would make disparaging remarks. It sucked but it was life and in the long run made me mentally stronger to face the world.


Yes, mainstreaming has its downside...and it's often painful as it happens...but it also has an advantage as it prepares the child and then the young adult for life in the real world.

My inlaws have a child with C.P. and he has been mainstreamed even though he is using a walker...well it's sort of a walker...it's a combination walker/cart. I had neighbor for a while who had a son in a wheelchair and the child was mainstreamed and graduated #3 in his high school class out of more than 400 students, he went on to a top university on the west coast and recently earned a Phd. in some science. Where would he be if he had been summarily dismissed as unable to learn because he was in a wheelchair?




Added to my dilemma in learning was partial deafness in one ear (60% lost through ear infection). Again, the school saw this as a disaster, my parents however made clear I could hear just fine with the other ear. I graduated high school on time...in fact I was 17 at the time, so I was ahead of time...and with decent grades. Nothing stunning, a B average at the end and that was due in large part to my being lazy and not applying myself to my studies. (I rarely did homework, since I saw no reason for it.).


These days, school and society in general are more open to mainstreaming children. Also, placing a child who has physical limitations in with the other students, helps other children...and the teachers...see the handicapped child as a regular human being. Handicapped children are the same as non-handicapped. They can throw tantrums, they can act up...or they can be angelic in behaviour. Some do all their classwork and homework, others are lazy and do basic minimal amounts to get through with a barely passing grade. Handicapped and non-handicapped exactly the same. As they age, both groups go through the teen angst years, both go through the puppylove phases...mainstream them it's the only way to go.

Lizra

Physical limitations are ok. I have watched kids with physical disabilities yet normal intelligence do fine in the mainstream classroom. The "normal" kids seem very good with it! It's the mental handicaps that freak the normal kids out.

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josie

I agree Lzra and I think that's an important distinction. When talking about educating, those who have issues that affect their ability to be educated, are less well-served in a regular classroom where regular teaching methodologies are in place for regular students. A physical disability doesn't impact a person's ability to learn. A learning disability does- so unless there are modifications in terms of what is taught or how it's presented, these kids often are not learning much at all.
As an aside, I think the parents of children with disabilities are often the unsung heroes. At the end of the day teachers get to go home and relax. Parents/caregivers are never off duty.