I can see both sides of this argument, and while I think the idea of mainstreaming kids is great in theory, it sometimes fails in practice. I don't think the kids always benefit from being mainstreamed; they may be ridiculed/bullied by their peers because of their disabilities, and if they are disruptive in class they may be shunned. Kids are mean, and may become hostile towards classmates who are seen as attention seeking or "different". For example, if "Marcus" has an ASD but is high functioning, and is mainstreamed in a classroom with kids who don't know what ASDs are, they may see his stereotyped hand-flapping as strange/humorous and mock him for it. Or, if Marcus has routines that he strictly follows, his peers may not understand why he gets upset when his routines are interrupted, whether by the lesson or by one of his classmates. At this point, Marcus' self-imposed structure has been thrown off. His classmates may assume Marcus is throwing a tantrum for attention, when really he's having an outburst born out of stress, frustration, and a lack of communication/understanding between himself and his teacher.
On the teaching side of this prompt, I feel like the argument that mainstreaming kids "mak[es] the teacher's lives more difficult" is missing the point-- it flips the focus of the discussion from the kids to the teachers, and it shouldn't. Certainly, public school teachers have a lot on their plate already, but I think the portrayal of teaching developmentally disabled students as an inconvenience is harmful! With an attitude such as this, mainstreamed kids may not benefit if they're seen as a burden on their teachers because have different needs and require a different set of teaching skills. Typically, developmentally disabled students should have an IEP, or Individualized Learning Program which outlines their strengths, weaknesses, unique needs, educational goals, and strategies to best teach them. IEPs are designed to help teachers give developmentally disabled students the best learning experience they can. However, IEP standards are not always followed, and many public school teachers aren't properly trained to deal with children who have developmental disorders and thus may not be able to respond to their students in an appropriate or helpful manner. A lack of training would just exacerbate problems for both teacher and mainstreamed student.
For all its flaws, I don't think mainstreaming developmentally disabled students is necessarily a bad idea, but for it to become truly beneficial, public school systems would have to undergo major changes and more resources would have to be devoted to making it a better system that benefits everyone involved.
When I was in high school I was part of a class that worked in a charter school that was located inside the high school. The charter school was for 4th,5th,and 6th grade students. There were about 30 kids, of varying education and ability levels, in the school. During the school day the kids did most activities together, but for things like math and reading the children were divided up by ability level, for beach group during theses times there was either a teacher (there were two in the school), a teachers aid or a high school student that worked with the children. The children took part in teaching each other based on each child's strengths, so children that were artistic created an art lesson, kids that excelled in math created a fun math game. While working in the classroom I never saw a child fall behind for long. The children helped each other in the learning process by giving each other tips that had worked for them. Learning was a group process. There were kids with IEPs as well at children that would have been call prodigies (for example there was a 6th grader reading Charles Dickens).
ReplyDeleteSo there are classes that do this but getting schools to change is difficult when it does not come with quantitative results immediate.
Good points! What we could do if we had all the time and funding in the world....education would be far better, that's for sure!
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