I’ll probably annoy some folk with this post…
If you are involved with disability in any way, be it as a friend or a parent, inclusion does come up a lot in conversation. I do believe that every member of society should have the opportunity and support to participate fully in all aspects of life.
My entirely personal view is that although inclusion is something to be strived for, there should also be a healthy dollop of common sense used.
Let me explain that with Ashley we have never drawn lines. We don’t cap his potential. This isn’t us being clever. It’s just something we have never done with our other three kids so it was natural to do it with him. (That’s “inclusive” of us isn’t it?)
Society doesn’t naturally include everyone. Our local high school is quite elitist with its sport. Both my older girls have walked away from extra curricular sports because the skinny girls from the local gym club were happily doing triple twisty somersaults and the closest they got to a netball match was the bench. (That’s not “inclusive” of them, is it?)
Ashley spent his first four academic years in our local primary school alongside his sisters. We arranged a statement of needs, a legal document which bound the school to provide appropriate care. He was assigned a superb carer who worked with Physio to get him walking with a k-walker. Initially this worked as his Foundation/Nursery/Kintergarden peers showed him that socialising and improved mobility were possible.
However, after three years they moved away from him both in their abilities and in classes as he was held down and then started to spend more and more time in a computer lab with his devoted carer. Readers of this blog will remember our efforts to combat this and then (remember that dollop of common sense?) to get him into a Special School.
His time at the school has been marvellous. He walks independently, has improved communication and has grown in confidence. The school itself has a policy for equality which is quite clear:
Equality does not mean treating everyone the same; it means treating people fairly, with respect, having regard for their rights, wishes and needs. Sometimes this means giving people extra help or making different arrangements so they have the same chances.
As a parent at the school and having had the chance to visit his senior school too, I’ve been fortunate to see the full spectrum of the physical and mental impairments catered for. It is huge. Problem behaviours, complete lack of mobility, blindness, various complicated syndromes which cause the staff to adapt and be creative to include everyone in all areas of school life.
But I can’t honestly see this happening in non-special schools. To do this would force the local authorities to create larger inclusive buildings and infrastructures to accommodate the massive range of impairment found in any special school.
There just isn’t the money.
The High School my girls attend has been allowed to slowly fall apart over the years until now it is just too costly to repair. A new school has to be built. This building will include consideration for disabilities like slopes and wider doors but nothing like what would be needed for full inclusion.
There are 100 kids in Ashley’s school. The High a School has 2000.
His school still has a family feel to it with classes of six and three adult present. High School has classes of 20+ with all the normal out of class rowdiness.
Okay, in an ideal world it would happen. But the world isn’t “ideal” is it? We strive toward ideals. That’s what they’re there for. They guide us like a light to see a path which we can choose to walk. Idealism is like full inclusion. Great idea, but we’ll never actually get there, will we?
