Inclusive Education is Best for All!

by Janice Strickland

Entering high school is one of the major events in our lives: it is an exciting and scary transition for students and parents. Imagine the mix of emotions when a student has disabilities.

My son, Jordan, speaks with gestures and facial expressions. He takes your hand to help him get up and down the stairs. He needs the curriculum presented to him differently. He uses a computer to help him communicate and participate in classroom activities.

He got the help he needed to learn as a member of regular class in his elementary school, always included at home and in the community. He is a charmer; he loves to hang out with friends; watch TV, go to movies, bowling, out for dinner.

This summer, he conquered the rapids of the French River and climbed the rocks at Camp Queen Elizabeth with great determination! We are very proud of him! Yes, he has delays as well, but he does not point out yours or mine, and we do not identify him by his. Jordan is “one of the kids” – not a kid with disabilities or “special needs”; but one of those excited grade 9 kids, at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School, in London, Ontario.

Reform has resulted in many changes that currently affect students with disabilities across Ontario. Jordan’s school board can get extra Ministry of Education funding (ISA, or Intensive Support Amount) – only if a physician or psychologist is willing to predict his abject failure. Jordan surprises everyone who knows him; how would a formal medical diagnosis help his teachers? To get the money, they must pre-judge Jordan, and provide only social and life skills training. Once they get the extra provincial money, the Ministry of Education says they don’t even have to spend it on Jordan, and ironically, if he does succeed academically and socially, they stand to lose the money that made this possible.

Jordan has made so much progress because we refuse to focus on his deficiencies, inabilities, "deviations from the norm" and pathologies. We don’t want money wasted on assessments by professionals who don’t know him. Parents can refuse consent for inappropriate psychological assessments (whereby IQ scores misrepresent our kids). We can refuse to release irrelevant medical diagnostic information (which was never meant to prescribe educational programming).

By law, “exceptional” students like Jordan are entitled to an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Schools must consult with parents and older students and commit to those human resources, teaching strategies and/or accommodations, and individualized equipment a student requires for success. It is important that this plan promotes student strengths, relates to the classroom curriculum as closely as possible, sets the highest possible academic and social goals and brings help quickly to the classroom teacher to modify instruction so that all of the students learn together.

Jordan’s classmates respect how he overcomes adversity. Not all students will have the same objectives, but they can still learn together within the context of the Ontario curriculum. His peers can teach their new high school about Jordan’s abilities and show them how to build on all of their capacities to learn together.

As a parent, it is my job to help the school understand and capitalize upon Jordan’s strengths. It is the job of school board administration, principals, and teachers to assist students of all abilities to learn together in inclusive classrooms. This is really the best use of available educational resources.

People with disabilities have spoken out about how they suffered in the past from low expectations. Effective inclusive education should create a better future, encourage students to do their very best, and support them right in the heart of our communities. I know that Jordan contributes to school progress – Mother Teresa School is learning to better welcome, accommodate and celebrate individual differences.

Because of my role in coordinating the Coaching to Inclusion Conference in London (another article will refer to this), Jordan and our family had the honour of welcoming Dr. Cheryl Jorgensen from University of New Hampshire to our first “team meeting” with Jordan’s school. Mother Teresa School has been very welcoming to Jordan, and his teachers shared their feelings about the first three weeks of school. They had good questions, and Cheryl asked them to consider the concept of “least dangerous assumption” as they plan for Jordan, moving from welcoming Jordan to the school, to including him as a contributing member of his classes.

From the University of New Hampshire book Petroglyphs: the writing on the wall (1996), “We now know about the “least dangerous assumption.” So when we aren’t sure whether or not a student understands, we must assume that he does. We now know the high price of assuming he does not”.

I look forward to the relationships that Jordan will develop over his high school years, and the opportunity that we have to show that inclusion is the best!

Janice Strickland is a parent, Special Education Advisory Committee member, and is also active with the Ontario Coalition for Inclusive Education, Family Alliance Ontario and Integration Action Group.

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