graduate degree in Special Education and a buddy of mine
getting his degree in elementary education told me that
his father, a school principal, said that I probably
shouldn't waste my time getting a masters in Special
Education. He said that Special Education would be
eventually fading out of public education. I was almost
done with my masters at this point so I figured I would
have to take my chances with it, besides what other
choice did I have anyways at that point?
I got a Special Education job and taught for about 10
year. There were a lot of ups and downs over those 10
years, and eventually I decided that I wanted a change so
I got certified and switched over to high school history.
At this point in my career I remembered what my friend
had said a decade ago and wondered if I was ahead of the
curve on schools no longer needing special education
teachers, even though it was 10 years later. I wondered
if my job was now safe in my new-found home in the
history department.
Well, I loved teaching history, but life has its own
funny ways that aren't aligned to us and what we want, so
after a decade of teaching history I personally got a
first class education on budget cuts and my job was
eliminated. Thankfully, I landed on my feet back in
Special Education, believe it or not.
It had been more than two decades since my old graduate
school buddy told me that the need for special education
teachers was disappearing. During the previous two
decades my friend had gone from graduate school to
elementary school teacher to assistant principal to
principal, just like his father had done. I had gone from
graduate school to special education teacher to history
teacher to back to special education teacher, like nobody
else that I know had done. And believe it or not there
was still a bunch of special education jobs available
when I landed there for a second time. As a matter of
fact, there was actually plenty of jobs there because
there is a shortage of special education teachers in 49
out of our 50 states. Imagine that... Two decades after I
was told that Special Education was going away, and I
find that they still can't seem to get enough special
education teachers.
Fast-forward a few more years to today and there is a new
and interesting twist affecting Special Education called
full inclusion. Now inclusion isn't a new thing to our
schools. As a matter of fact inclusion has a long
interesting history in our schools.
Six decades ago there was the Supreme Court Case of Brown
v. Board of Education. In 1954 the new law of the land
became integrated schools for all races. Four decades ago
the ground-breaking law of Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) began to take effect and help ensure
that more than six million students with disabilities
have the right to a free and appropriate education, which
means they too get to be included in with the general
education population.
To help this happen schools create a Planning and
Placement Team (PPT) that meet and discuss a student's
Individual Education Program (IEP) and then place the
student in the appropriate educational setting based on
the student's needs and the law. The placement also needs
to be the least restrictive environment (LRE). I can
still remember my college professor describing the least
restrictive environment in a short story that one would
not bring a machine gun to take care of a fly. Rather,
one would just bring a fly-swatter to take care of a fly.
In other words, if a kid's disability can be dealt with
in the neighborhood school, then the kid doesn't have to
be sent across town or even to another town's special
school.
Today, many schools are trying to improve on this
inclusion model and least restrictive environment by
going from a partial to a full-inclusion model. Schools
in the Los Angeles School District have moved a vast
majority of their students out of their special education
centers within the last three years and into neighborhood
schools where they are fully integrated into elective
classes like physical education, gardening and cooking.
They are also integrated into regular main stream
academic classes as well, but it's usually not to the
same degree as electives.
Michigan schools say that want to break down the walls
between general education and Special Education creating
a system in which students will get more help when they
need it, and that support doesn't need to be in a
separate special education classroom.
Some school districts in Portland, Oregon are a little
further along than the Los Angeles schools that are just
bringing special education students back from special
schools and Michigan schools that are just beginning to
try full integration of its students and eliminating most
of the special education classrooms.
Being a little further along in the process Portland
makes an interesting case study. Many of the parents who
initially supported the idea of integrating special
education students into regular education classrooms in
Portland are now worried about how the Portland Public
School System is doing it. Portland is aiming for full-
inclusion by the year 2020. However, some of the teachers
in Portland are saying, "Obviously the special education
students are going to fail and they are going to act out
because we are not meeting their needs... If there's not
the right support there, that's not acceptable, not only
for the child, but for the general education teacher as
well."
A Portland parent said, "I would rather have my child
feel successful than for them to be 'college-ready'." She
further states, "I want my children to be good, well-
rounded human beings that make the world a better place.
I don't think they necessarily need to go to college to
do that. I think that children are individuals, and when
we stop treating them as individuals, there's a problem."
Sadly, many parents and teachers have left the Portland
School District, and many more are fantasizing about it
because they feel the full-inclusion model isn't working
there how they pictured it would.
How much should schools integrate the special education
students is the burning question of the hour. In my
personal experience some integration is not only
possible, but it's a must. With some support many of the
special education students can be in the regular
education classrooms.
A few years ago I even had a non-speaking paraplegic boy
in a wheel chair who was on a breathing respirator
sitting in my regular education social studies class.
Every day his para professional and his nurse rolled him
into and sat with him. He always smiled at the tales I
told of Alexander the Great marching across 11,000 miles
of territory and conquering much of the known world at
that time. By the way, Alexander the Great also practiced
his own model of inclusion by encouraging kindness to the
conquered and encouraging his soldiers to marry the
captured territory's women in order to create a lasting
peace.
Other important factors to consider in special education
inclusion is the much needed socialization and the saving
of money integration offers. Kids learn from other kids
and money not spent on Special Education could be spent
on general education, right? Hmm...
If you noticed, I said a little bit earlier that many
special education students could be integrated, but I did
not say all or even most should be integrated. There are
just some students that are going to take away too much
of the teacher's time and attention from other students,
such as, in the case of students with severe behavior
problems. When we put severe behavior problems in regular
education classes it's just outright unfair to all of the
other children in there. Similar cases could be made for
other severe disabilities too that demand too much of the
main stream teacher's individual time and attention.
Hey, I'm not saying to never try out a kid with a severe
disability in a general education setting. But what I am
saying is that schools need to have a better system of
monitoring these placements and be able to quickly remove
students that aren't working out, and are taking precious
learning time away from other students. Furthermore,
schools need to do this without shaming the teacher
because the teacher complained that the student wasn't a
good fit and was disrupting the educational learning
process of the other students. Leaving a kid in an
inappropriate placement isn't good for any of the parties
involved. Period.
Over the last two decades I have worked with more special
education students than I can remember as a special
education teacher and a regular education teacher
teaching inclusion classes. I have learned to become
extremely flexible and patient and thus have had some of
the toughest and most needy kids placed in my classes. I
have worked miracles with these kids over the years and I
know that I am not the only teacher out there doing this.
There are many more out there just like me. But, what I
worry about is that because teachers are so dedicated and
pulling off daily miracles in the classroom, districts,
community leaders, and politician may be pushing too hard
for the full-inclusion model thinking that the teachers
will just have to figure it out. Setting up teachers and
students for failure is never a good idea.
Furthermore, I hope it's just not the money that they are
trying to save while pushing this full-inclusion model
forward because what we should really be trying to save
is our children. As Fredrick Douglas said, "It is easier
to build strong children than to repair broken men."
Regardless of how the financial educational pie is
sliced, the bottom line is that the pie is just too small
and our special education teachers and our special
education students shouldn't be made to pay for this.
In addition, I have been a teacher for too long to not be
at least a little skeptical when I hear the bosses say
that the reason they are pushing for the full-inclusion
model is because socialization is so important. I know
it's important. But, I also know that too many people are
hanging their hats on that socialization excuse rather
than education our special needs students and providing
them what they really need. I have seen special education
students whose abilities only let them draw pictures
sitting in honors classes. There is no real socialization
taking place here. It just doesn't make sense.
Well, finally coming full circle. It will be interesting
to see where this full inclusion thing goes. The wise
ones won't let their special education teachers go, or
get rid of their classrooms. And for the school districts
that do, I imagine that it won't take long before they
realize the mistake they made and start hiring special
education teachers back. To my friend and his now ex-
principal father from all those years ago who thought
special education was going away, well, we're not there
yet, and to tell you the truth, I don't think we ever
will be.
Inner city special education teacher and award-winning
author and speaker Dan Blanchard wants everyone to fully
consider what the full-inclusion model really means and
to realize that special education isn't going away. To
learn more about Dan please visit his website at:
http://www.GranddaddysSecrets.com. Thanks.
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