The Benefits Of Full Inclusion

1626 Words4 Pages

Full Inclusion is sparking a huge debate in classrooms all across the United States. Many states are trying to make a giant leap into full inclusion classrooms. Full inclusion allows the dismantling of the special education classroom and moving all students with disabilities into general education courses at schools. For many students, special education classrooms offer something they can’t get anywhere else. Special education teachers and general education teachers believe full inclusion will cause more damage than success for lower functioning students. Yes, inclusion can be great in some settings, but instead of academic inclusion, schools should focus on social inclusion of students with disabilities. Full inclusion limits …show more content…

The special education system emerged precisely because of the non-adaptability of regular classrooms and that, since nothing has happened to make these general education classrooms any more adaptable, full inclusion will likely lead to the rediscovery the need for special education classroom (Skritic, p. 160). One of the goals of special education is to place students in the least restrictive environment for their needs. For example, you wouldn’t put a whale in a fish tank because you are restricting them to environment not able to meet the whale’s needs. The success stories seen, show one student with disabilities in a general classroom with a full-time helping teacher. It is great that the child’s learning was successful, but what happens when there are four children with multiple disabilities and the school lacks the money to pay another teacher to be with the students? Those who are against full inclusion believe that many or most students with disabilities are better served outside the mainstream classroom because special education curricula is appropriate for the students’ needs and individualization is most likely to occur in smaller classrooms with specialized teachers (Heubert). Full inclusion poses many confusing ideas. Are the high school students with a kindergarten reading level going to be kindergarten class? Are they going to be sat into a classroom where the levels are extremely higher than their own? Neither of these are appropriate nor do they support the growth of students with

Open Document