As an educator it is important to work with a team and establish what is the very best for the child.  What may be best for the child, likely won’t be easy for the educator to implement but it is important because the student is important. Every single child deserves the best. Every single child deserves the right to be included. Unless the team tells the educator that another option would better fit the child, the educator must try, reflect, support and care for the child to the very best and beyond of their abilities.

Case Study: Alone in the Crowd

What has happened to change the ways that schools treat students with special needs?

Found in Hasinoff and Mandzuks textbook Case Studies in Educational Foundations: Canadian Perspectives, there is a case study about a young girl named Darlene whose sensory sensitivities and angry outbursts lead to feelings of isolation and aloneness.  Her teachers, Jim and Paula are aware of her struggles and seek to support her.  They are left feeling frustrated and inadequate and wondering, “if the schools philosophy of inclusion is missing the boat by focusing only on differentiation of instruction  and never on differentiation of space” (Hasinoff & Mandzuk, 2015, p. 81).

Looking at the situation with historic mindedness requires the teachers to look at the situation with “detachment from immediate pressures, a willingness to search for comparisons and analogies, a readiness to subject emotions to reason, conservation of multiple perspectives on issues and weighing forces of continuity or change’ (Hasinoff & Mandzuk, 2015, p. 3).  In this case: Jim, at the height of his frustration and wanting to help Darlene wonders, not unkindly, if segregation would be better fit for Darlene.  At a calmer moment, with reflection Jim would likely recall that historically, exclusion and segregation failed and segregation is not the answer.

As society has changed so has the history of special education in schools.  Special education has progressed from the 19th century practice of institutionalizing children away from their parents in unregulated institutions, to the early 20th century segregation of children with special needs, to the 1970’s and 1980’s practice of integration, and finally steps in 1999 toward inclusion.

This progression has been driven by a number of factors, one of them being the parents of children with exceptionalities.  These parents wanted the “best quality of life for their children,” which included a place for them to “be welcomed, to belong and to participate in all aspects of community life” (Inclusion BC, 2021). Parents of children with exceptionalities have fought in courts, to see their children included in many aspects of society including inclusive education. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically section 15 protect students rights without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability (Canadian Charter, 1982 s 15). The current philosophy of inclusion looks at “school reform, civil rights, educational equity and inclusion as a mindset.” (Winzer, 2007 n.p.) This mindset illustrates that inclusion leads to the social integration of students with exceptionalities and that Canadian educational spaces work toward becoming welcoming spaces for all.

I would argue that present day classrooms hold children who, although imperfect, are kinder and more accepting of differences than children of the past and this has created a greater sense of classroom community. Respecting diversity allows students to find the strengths in others and in themselves.  Inclusion has caused additional worries and situations for teachers that require pivotal thinking and additional supports to overcome, as illustrated in the above case study. However, I would argue schools that practice inclusion are far more constructive spaces than those that had practiced segregation of others based on students differences.

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, SC 1982. s 15. Retrieved from: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/Const_index.html

Hasinoff, H. & Mandzuk, D. (2015). Case studies in educational foundations: canadian perspectives. Oxford University Press.

Inclusion BC. (2021). What is inclusive education? Retrieved from: https://inclusionbc.org/our-resources/what-is-inclusive-education-2/

Winzer, M. (2007). Children with exceptionalities in canadian classrooms, 8E. University of Pearson Education Canada.  Retrieved from:        https://wps.pearsoned.ca/ca_ph_winzer_children_8/66/16943/4337661.cw/index.html