Every day, we wonder if students who have disabilities are getting treating with fairness. Do they get same treatment as students who do not have disabilities when it comes to education, life, resources and everything in general? For me, it depends on the level of the student’s with disabilities. How severity is the disabilities of the students? If students who has language impaired and visual impaired might be able to feel fit in but students who have autism to cerebral palsy then they might not be able to feel fit in. In this essay I will be talking about what is my definition and thoughts of fairness for students with disabilities and the ways that I would promote fairness for students with disabilities.
What is fairness for students
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Because of lack of awareness it can lead to school having normal students bullying students with disabilities. For example, in our class discussion, there was a student who mentions an incident that happened to her and the class that she was helping in. She said that at the school site that she was at, the students with disabilities could not play at the playground and when they usually do the yard duty staffs tend to pick on the students with disabilities saying that they were bothering the other students. This yard duty staff was an adult and this person just assumes that the student was bothering but did not ask why he or she was bothering. The yard duty staff did not know that that student has high-level autism. This shows that there is no fairness or lack of knowledge of the student’s condition. Teachers, school administrations and any staff who works in a school environment need to have some knowledge about students …show more content…
The first thing that I would promote fairness is starting in the classroom because that is where I as a teacher would start first. Besides, teachers are suppose to be advocator for students, so what better place to promote fairness than at school. Being a teacher is the best way to promote fairness for students with disabilities especially a special education teacher. However, for me, I would let my students know that it is our responsibilities to treat our classmates with respect no matter if they have disabilities. We should treat them like they are our friends. They should have been able to join in the class with us. Students with disabilities are the same as us. There was a site that I observe which was a school that was only for students with disabilities. During my observation, I ask the teacher about the school and I notice that there was another school next to it. This school was for students who were behavioral were bad. I found that it was unusual to but those students next to students with disabilities. However, the teacher said that it was a good thing. I ask him why and he said that during Halloween, the school usually hosts a harvest festival for the students and they would ask the “bad” students to come and help out. Surprise, the students were more than happy to help out but before they can help out with the harvest festival, the students have to
It is essential that all students have access to a quality education and an inclusive education system should meet their diverse needs. The Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [DEECD] (2014) stipulates that education providers must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support students with disabilities to comply with the standard. Graduate teachers should also demonstrate an understanding of legislative requirements and be able to identify teaching strategies that support the involvement and learning of students with disabilities (AITSL, 2014). They should understand the importance of focusing on what a student with a disability can do and work with the student’s strengths. A graduate teacher should know what resources, agencies and assistive technologies are available to support the learning needs of a student with a disability.
A longstanding national issue that continues to concern the public is the disproportionate representation of children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in special education. The fact is that the proportion of minority students in the population of school-age children has risen dramatically to over 35%, which is increasing the diversity of students in many public schools throughout the nation. This makes the phenomenon of disproportionality especially troubling. With a growing population of minority children comprising a greater percentage of public school students, we must be responsive to the growing needs of an increasingly diverse society. The overrepresentation of minority students in special education has been posed as an issue for more than 3 decades, but it is worth asking whether the efforts of legislative actions, educational reforms and legal challenges have really made improvements to this issue. More importantly, disproportionality should be examined as a correlation to underlying conditions that can pose a great effect upon not only the quality of a child’s education, but also ______.
The school system should educate the students about disability acceptance in the community by involving people with special needs on the school activities. III. Satisfaction A. Do buddy clubs. This will help start friendships and connections. Know disable people better.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for children with disabilities in a Least Restrictive Environment to not have their needs met adequately. Some parents think that teachers do not have the proper skills to help their child with disabilities flourish in the classroom. Two concerns/challenges are that typical developing students will imitate inappropriate behaviors made by students with disabilities and students with disabilities could potentially get teased about their disabilities and inappropriate behaviors. As said by Virginia Buysse and Donal B. Baily, Jr. (1993) “… the opportunities for young children with disabilities to interact with peers in integrated settings must be carefully
“The 1% of US students with labels of severe disabilities including mental retardation have been historically excluded from ‘inclusive’ education” (Bentley, 2008, p. 543). Laws such as PL 94-142 and “No Child Left Behind” (as cited in Bentley), say that ‘public school students with all types of disabilities be educated in the least restrictive environment—‘to the maximum extent possible…with children who do not have disabilities’ the majority of these students with special education labels, such as, mental retardation and multiple disabilities are still isolated in special education classrooms (Bentley, 2008, p. 545). Wehmeyer (as cited in Bentley), points out that mere access does not promote authentic participation (Bentley, 2008, p. 546). Burkowski et al (as cited in Webster and Cater), “Friendship has been defined as a bond between two individuals that is stable across time and involves mutual affection, mutual preference and having fun together” (Webster and Carter, 2007, p. 201). It is up to parents, teachers and other paraprofessionals to seek ways to facilitate and encourage the types of positive interactions that will foster these types of friendships. If done successfully all students will benefit and there will be true inclusion.
I have experienced firsthand some of the positives and negatives. One of the most important aspects of inclusion is the social development gained by students with disabilities. One of the negatives is the danger of a student with a disability not being able to differentiate when they are in real danger of getting hurt. Often students with disabilities appear to be normal among the other students and not given the latitude of having a disability that may impede there judgement. As a special education teacher, I have learned standing in the doorway to prevent a child from leaving the classroom constitutes seclusion. I had to testify in a civil case in 2016 were a child with a disability tried to leave the classroom and the substitute teacher stood in the doorway and tried to prevent her from leaving. Preventing the incident could have transpired if there had been proactive measures taken rather reactive measures. It has become necessary to provide all personal involved within the school system the education needed to support inclusion and children with disabilities. I am a true believer in Least Restrictive Environment. Throughout my teaching career, I have watched a student with an IQ of 51 participate in co-taught or mainstream classes. Now, this particular student’s social skills were better than most people I know. In his freshman year, the doctor diagnosed him with cancer and given one year to live. He never stopped smiling. He pulled through and is currently finishing a program at the Vo-tech, where he maintained his grades and attendance with very few accommodations. He is happy, healthy, and I can see him ending up making more money a year than most people I know. I do understand not all cases will be like this one. However, I am sure that if the parents of this particular student had not stood their ground and refused to allow their child be
Richard Lavoie’s definition of fairness (1989), as “receiving what he or she needs, not receiving the same”, is an accurate definition of this concept. The main point of this definition is that students with learning disabilities, or any other disabilities, simply have different educational needs that their classmates who are regular students. For the student with disabilities, there are some tasks that are difficult to achieve, and some skills that are difficult to learn; for this reason, the school experience is very important to facilitate the learning process of students with disabilities. It is of great importance that the teacher, who is in direct contact with the student, knows the student, and is able to modify and adapt the curriculum to better support the student. This support is ...
Schools in today’s society are rapidly changing and growing striving to implement the best practices in their schools. Nonetheless, before a school can implement a program in their school, they need reliable evidence that the new program will work. A new program that schools are aiming to implement is inclusion in the classroom because of the benefits inclusion could bring. The implementation of inclusion is strongly connected by people’s attitudes whether they are positive or negative. However, while inclusion is being widely implemented, there is comparatively little data on its effectiveness. It may be that inclusion benefits some areas such as reading and social skills, more than it does others.
The majority of students with disabilities should be in an inclusive setting. These students are generally placed based on the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). Furthermore, the majority of these students are able to keep up academically with their peers, even
The main obstacle faced by students with disabilities in the attempt to achieve educational equality is the continuing debate over the In...
Children with disabilities are more in the public eye than years ago, although they are still treated differently. Our society treats them differently from lack of education on special needs. The society labels them and make their lives more difficult than it has to be becau...
I was working at a camp and got into a conversation with a friend who has Asperger Syndrome about his experience with special education. He told me how long it took him to get into a program and how much those teachers had helped him to become the person that he was. The teachers were able to help him understand what he was learning as well as life lessons. He and other children with special needs at the camp I have worked at for the past few summers have instilled in me a stronger need to reach out to those in both special and general education classes. This was again enforced in the class “Intro to Special Education.” I was taught even more that school is not just about learning the information, but learning about yourself and how to grow in yourself. Each student is different and therefore each student must be seen as
When teaching students with disabilities it is important to know and understand the needs of all the students in the classroom. Ultimately, the goal for any educator is to educate all of the students in the classroom and ensure that appropriate accommodations are being made for students with disabilities. By utilizing these skills in reading, writing, and classroom management, an educator will be able to help all students be successful.
Whether born from ignorance, fear, misunderstanding, or hate, society’s attitudes limit people from experiencing and appreciating the full potential a person with a disability can achieve. This treatment is unfair, unnecessary, and against the law (Purdie). Discrimination against people with disabilities is one of the greatest social injustices in the country today. Essential changes are needed in society’s basic outlook in order for people with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to succeed in life. To begin with, full inclusion in the education system for people with disabilities should be the first of many steps that are needed to correct the social injustices that people with disabilities currently face.
The right to have access to education is a concern for people with disabilities. They were treated poorly and often desegregated from society. The response to the concerns of parents and educators over the exclusion of children with disabilities created the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The public law “guaranteed a free, appropriate public education to each child with a disability in every state and locality across the country”. In the 1970's children with disabilities entered schools and over the years, the number of students in special education has grown dramatically, from 4.3 million students in 1990 to 6.9 million students in 2003 (The Council of Chief State School Officers , 2007).