A wonderful poem about Inclusion...
Welcome to Holland
by
Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
My thoughts on inclusion...
Inclusion in Quebec’s classrooms has caused a tremendous amount of debate. Though many feel that children with special needs will benefit from being in alternative schools, an outstanding amount of research shows that children with special needs do benefit from inclusion and as well as the ‘typically developing child’ (Gilman, 2007).
Below is a link to a video clip from YouTube entitled “Are you happy?”. The video is of a little girl, Morgan, who has benefited from inclusion in her school.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_r3KkRK2h4&feature=related
This video in particular has opened my eyes about the concept of inclusion and how it can be so beneficial to all children. I was able to see how inclusion has benefited Morgan in so many ways; socially, physically and intellectually. She was given the chance to thrive and she showed she was capable. Though it is much work to effectively meet Morgan’s needs, Sarah Aguilar, one of Morgan’s educator’s states “her needs are met alongside typically developing peers…they are more than met, enhanced”. This is shown through her dialogue, her participation, and interaction with her school peers (demonstrated in many scenes of the short clip). Many examples include, Morgan playing the recorder with the other children in music class, singing the national anthem with her classmates and playing at recess with her peers. Morgan’s mother states “it [to be with other children] motivates her…she wants to do what the other kids are doing”.
As research has discussed extensively, her classmates also benefit from having Morgan in the classroom. They learn to have compassion, empathy, responsibility, and particularly to help one another. Morgan has much help from her peers. Her friends protect her. They help her wash her hands and with her school work. She also has a boyfriend who walks her to carpool everyday. One of my major concerns about inclusion was regarding the typically developing children teasing the child with special needs. However, through watching this video, I was able to see that yes, perhaps there will be a few children who may tease a disabled child however, there are always the other children who protect him or her, just as Morgan has friends who protect her.
I have also learned that to in order to create an effective inclusive environment, there must be a large amount of commitment from the parents, teachers, and staff. Sarah Aguilar discusses how the staff must commit to not be intimidated by the labels. This statement is one that I must remember when dealing with students with special needs. Though the concept may sound intimidating at times, I must keep in mind its benefits and how it will affect the children.
References
Gilman, S. (2007). Including the child with special needs: Learning from Reggio Emilia. In The Kindergarten Classroom Course EDEE-250
course pack. (pp. 83-91).