Sean was a young boy who had Down syndrome. He had spent seven years in Ridge school and was later transferred to a regular school in Baltimore. Sean’s mother fought hard to ensure that inclusion was observed in the school as she joined other parents of disabled children to form a case to the Office of Civil Rights at the US Department of Education (Keifer & Kraft, 2003). After this petition, the schools in Baltimore were allowed to enroll disabled children into regular classrooms. Many issues were evident from the new changes in enrollment, since educators were not well trained in teaching disabled students, they were not quick to accept inclusion. Moreover, most teachers felt that inclusion was dragging their classes behind for the sake of few slow learning students.
The students’ parents had to deal with teachers’ bad attitudes towards the disabled students’ learning capabilities. For instance, the Principal of Ridge School told Sean’s mother that kids like Sean were not meant to leave Ridge School, something that made her determined to enroll him in a regular school. The Ridge School teachers did not want to start teaching the kids ABC on the pretense that the kids were not ready yet (Keifer & Kraft, 2003). In addition, the parents of disabled children had to tolerate bad comments about their children not being able to engage in activities that normal kids engage in. The Gym teacher at the regular school told Sean’s mother that children like hers were taking too much time from the other children.
Conversely, the school environment could have been improved to be better in many areas, including providing classrooms with equipment to support the disabled students learning. The regular classrooms were not meant for such children as Sean as the facilities were not tailored to be used by disabled students (Keifer & Kraft, 2003). The government needed to avail schools with learning-enhancing equipment to be used by teachers to teach the students with challenges and ensure the classrooms were inclusive. Another issue that needed to be looked at is training teachers on how to deal with disabled students. This is the case as many teachers kept complaining about Sean and how hard it was for them to teach him since they were not trained to familiarize students with disabilities (Keifer & Kraft, 2003). The situation could have also been improved if the teachers, government, and parents worked together to ensure disabled students received the same quality education as other, normal, students.
The impacts of inclusion of handicapped students in the regular classroom may include the following: society would become an all-inclusive place where all children got the same quality education. This would reduce discrimination and improve the community (Keifer & Kraft, 2003). For the students with disabilities, inclusion could enable them to become better people, in terms of socialization, improved intelligence, and personal growth. They also would have a chance to learn more about life and acquire life skills that would help them in the future. The rest of the students would benefit from this inclusion positively as they could make friends with the challenged students, which, in turn, would increase their social responsibilities and also lead to personal growth. Early Childhood Educators could advocate for children with challenges in their care in the following ways: by always ensuring that they encourage these children and make sure that the disabled kids understand what is being taught (Keifer & Kraft, 2003). Another way of advocating for them could be encouraging parents to take their disabled children to regular classrooms, advising the government on the things that needed to be done for the inclusion idea to work perfectly.
Reference
Keifer-Boyd, K., & Kraft, L. M. (2003). Inclusion policy in practice. Art Education, 56(6), 46-53.