Learning to Advocate and the Realities and Philosophy of Inclusion

A friend recently emailed me and said that she was speaking at a university to a class of teachers.  Their questions to her were;

1. Where/How did you learn to advocate for your child?
2. What are the realities on inclusion?
3. What is my philosophy on inclusion?

What follows is my attempt to answer their questions.

Learning to Advocate

I  learned to advocate for my child, first and foremost from my mother and my sister. I grew up watching Mom advocate for my sister; constantly trying to convince the schools that they should expect more out of Lori. I watched her demand that the bus come and get her, even if it broke down. She had a right to go to school too (this was before 1975). My mother taught me about dignity for Lori in everything she did.  And Lori taught me to advocate for her when the frustration became too much that she couldn’t get her intentions across with her body language, partial words, and emotions.  My son taught me to advocate for him with every skill he struggled to learn, every new skill achieved,  and every poor decision I allowed him the dignity to make.

As a sibling, I chose the field of exceptional education for a career. No, really,  it chose me.  It became my passion growing up.  Prior to the birth of my son, I went back to school for a Master's degree from Syracuse University where I learned to ask questions from leaders in the field like Wolf Wolfensberger, Frank Laski, Jan Nisbet, Michael Callahan, Ernie Goldstein, and Doug Biklen. To complete my Master's program,  I interned in D.C. at the government relations office of TASH. 


I realized I knew just enough to know that there was a lot I didn't know, but enough to speak confidently about what I spoke.

The Realities and MY Philosophy of Inclusion. 

The realities are that we live in an imperfect world.  That people come from different experiences and different walks of life.  Our children, both those with and those without disabilities have to make their way in this imperfect world.  It is from this truth that we begin the journey of education for all of our children.  Education is more than reading and math.  It is accessing opportunities and methodologies with which to learn and learning from our experiences of the world around us to become our best selves.

Inclusion begins with dignity and expectations. Failure is nothing if not the opportunity to risk and learn with dignity. Failure is no longer the opportunity to learn, but has become the end of learning.  We know from the ‘Pygmalion effect’ that children will rise or fall according to our expectations of them.  Once a child is labeled with deficits, instead of building on strengths to learn, we begin to expect less of their abilities and we teach instead to their weaknesses.  As much as we acknowledge that all children learn differently, we still to teach to one cookie cutter approach.  Differential instruction is a wonderful theory, but useless unless put into practice.  Accommodations and modifications are rarely something that a teacher knows how to assess the need for or to use, let alone identify and plan for a lesson. We have so many strategies and technologies available to learners and teachers, but strategies and technologies are worthless without training. 

It has been my experience that unless the parent can provide the type, style, and model of accommodations or modifications necessary for a student to succeed alongside their same age peers in the general education classroom or is willing and able to take the district to court, success for their child is more miss than hit.  I thought 94-142 (IDEA) was passed in  1975.  Is this really 2012, 37 years later? How is it that a child with a disability still does not have access to a free and appropriate public education?

Can inclusion happen? Clearly, yes.  Is it occurring in Florida schools? Yes, in the occasional classroom, in the occasional school.  Is there sufficient and systemic leadership at the state, district and school levels? Not by a long shot.  Students with cognitive disabilities, whether striving for a general education diploma or a special diploma are falling by the wayside while we ‘raise’ our Florida Sunshine State Standards, and force our students with disabilities out of our general education classrooms in the name of grading our ‘highly qualified’ teachers.

                                                                                                                                                                            

With that said, all children have the right and the ability to be educated with their same-age peers and accessing the rich academic curriculum and gifted teachers that we have available in our public education system. It is not until this becomes the expectation rather than the exception that we will realize the wealth of potential yet to be tapped.