Inclustion

What is Inclusion? Well according to Webster, it is the act or state of including(425). Inclusion happens not only in school but in the community as well. It can occur in churches, work and playgrounds. Inclusion in schools is not only suppose to be a placement in a regular classroom but also a desired state. It can only occur with long and proper planning, preparation and lots of support. The desired outcome of inclusion is obtained only when a child is able to participate in classroom activities with the supports and services they need. Even though the child is in a regular classroom it does not mean that they do not receive services or have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). An IEP is a plan for children with special needs that sets goals that they are to achieve throughout the year. There are two different ways that inclusion can work. One way is where the student is in the regular room for part of the day and then is with the special education teacher for the rest of the day. The other way is called full inclusion. In full inclusion the students are in the general room for the whole day. A lot of factors are involved when deciding weather or not to put a student in full inclusion or just part of the day. Inclusion is an important part in the life of a child with a disability so even if the child is not educated in a regular classroom they still live in a community with many different people.

Major Figures that also had a disability

Nationwide compulsory school attendance in the early 1900s, flooded schools with thousands of new students, and policymakers had to find ways to deal with children who did not fit the mold. A lot of the students stayed in school until they could withdraw. There were many jobs available to someone who dropped out of school so there were not many consequences.

After the 1960s, there was a flood of people developing or inventing things concerning special education. There has also been a lot more people coming out and showing off their disability and being proud of it. There have been many famous people who have achieved a lot even though they had a disability. Some of the people are Thomas Edison, was unable to learn in schools; Woodrow Wilson, suffered from dyslexia; George S. Patton, had a server learning disability; F. Scott Fitzgerald, had a hard time learning in school also; and Nelson A. Rockefeller, he had dyslexia too.

These people are just a few of the people that have help special education get to where it is today. There are many more people that have an influence on helping special education get to where it is today. Parents of the disabled for example are major figures in helping to get special education to where it is today in the 21st century.

Helpful Tips

In Thursdays class we looked over each others papers and made some suggestions on how to make it better. I think the peer review was very helpful. It was nice having some different opinions on how to write an introduction or a conclusion. It was good to see that people have different writing habits so I was able to tell them what I had trouble with and I got a lot of information back. I was glad that we didn’t have the same problems because if we would of I think it would have been very boring to correct four papers and looking for the same mistakes. Since we all wrote on a different topic reading the papers were interesting because some of the information I did not know about.

Overall, letting someone else read my paper and give there feedback on what they think I should change or where I should put a coma is very helpful. I also like helping other people see things that they may not see when they are writing their paper. For example when they are writing there paper they may not realize that the wording of a sentence sounds funny unless they re-read it and even then they may not catch it. So I think it was very helpful to get a fresh pair of eyes looking at my paper and getting suggestions on how to word some sentences or where to put a coma.

Two laws in the History of Special Education

My third source talks about the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). It talks about how people with disabilities before this act did not get much of an education. IDEA helps thousands of people and their families. If this act was not created many students would still be learning in institutions, instead of in regular school. Which is helping not only the people with the disability but there peers also because it is allowing them to see that even though a child with a disability may need more help in certain areas they are still like there peers in other ways as well.

In 2004 President Bush reauthorized the act and made it so each state had to set goals for each person with a disability in school and they had to report there progress each year. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 made sure that the schools had to set high standards for the children. That way they were having to make an effort. Due to the No Child Left Behind Act and IDEA schools are putting students with disabilities first instead of forgetting about them.

With both acts they have increased the role of the parents in their child’s education. IDEA looks at the needs of the child with the disability and the NCLB looks at how the school deals with the children who have the disability. Both laws are to improve the education that a child with special needs receives.

Overall, this source looks at two of the laws that have impacted the way children with special needs are educated. Without these laws disabled children would probably be in the same situation that they were in during the 19th century.

The picture is from http://www.specialedmoms.com/

Progress on the research

I am writing my research paper on the History of Special Education and so far I have found two sources that are very good. They have dates of things that have happened and people who have made a difference in the lives of children with special needs. Some of the information that is in them over laps both sources but I think it is a good thing because those are some major points that I can use in my paper.
I have also found three other sources that I am going to go get from the library today. One of them has information on the way special education was in the 19th century and another has information on the 21st century. I think these sources may be helpful in seeing how much of a difference there has been in the education of children with special needs.
So far finding information on this topic has been very easy but problem I may end up with is that everything may repeat its self. I am not to worried about that though because I think there is enough stuff out there that I should be able to find enough for an eight page paper.
Overall, my research is coming along great. I am finding a lot of information and so far the information is not repeating to much. I am hoping I can find more sources other than from the internet and books. I am not really sure though if you can get this kind of information in a magazine or not but we will see.

The Development of Special Education

For my second source I found an e-book in the electronic reference collection and the book is a reference handbook on special education. In the part of the book that I am using as my source it talks about how before the 1800s people were treated poorly do to the lack of knowledge of how to deal with people with special needs. There were many horrible ways children with a disability were treated and there were not may people who knew or were willing to work with someone with a disability. Some of the people who did work with disabled children were Ponce de Leon, Juan Pablo Bonet, Jacob Rodriguez Pereire, and John Locke. These are just a few people who worked with the disabled before the 1800s, there are many more.
Between 1800 to 1900 the first institutions were developed in the United States and Europe. While they were forming them they had two goals that were hard to achieve: (1) provide human treatment; and (2) remove the disabled from society. Different schools where built for people with special needs. Some of them are schools for the blind and deaf, mental institutions, and schools for the handicapped.
In this article it also talks about famous people who had a disability of some kind but yet were still able to achieve big things in life. Some of these people are Buehler and Dugas, Hans Christian Andersen, Woodrow Wilson, and Nelson A. Rockefeller. These are just some major figures in developing special education.

Image of Ponce de Leon taken from Boricua Kids.

Major Figures

Some of the major people in special education are the children’s parents, teachers and family members. If you do not have the cooperation of the parents then any work that is done to help the child with the disability doesn’t work because they help the child in school and then the information is reversed at home. So a lot of work is done between the teacher and the parents to set goals. The Family members help by being supportive if the child is having difficulty they can give them advise.
There are many medical professionals that are involved in helping a educate a child with special needs. Some of them are doctors, guidance counselors, therapists and nurses. The doctors are involved to oversee the medical condition that the child may have and the guidance counselors are there to help make the child feel as normal as possible while in school. They are also someone to talk to if the child needs someone to talk to about a problem or if they just need someone to listen. The therapists are there to evaluate how well there speech is and there physical abilities. If they find out that they need therapy then the therapy is provided at school for them in order to help their education better. By getting therapy at school it helps give children therapy that they may not get other wise. So these are some of the major figures in the field of special education. There are many other figures these are just the major ones that are in the child’s life everyday.