Opinion, Special Education

Who Defines What Learning Looks Like?

Too often, it is not people with different learning styles.

In my opinion, this is the biggest issue facing young people with disabilities and their integration into schools, religious organizations and our communities. People have this set idea of what learning should look like and if someone doesn't fit nicely in this box, then they're not learning.   This kind of thinking leads people to believe  it is a waste of time to include these special children in the classroom, on the sports field or in the Sunday School classroom. When my daughter went to middle school this year, I began to reflect on this very idea quite a bit.  I had always wondered in the back of my mind - why am I doing this?  Why am I fighting so much for inclusion for my daughter with Down syndrome? Was it social?  Was it educational?  If I'm honest with you, I would confess that in preschool and elementary, I did it for social reasons.  I assumed she did most of her learning in the Resource Room. Well this year, I began to see things a little differently. I'm pretty confident that all the "social" learning in elementary paved the way for her to have the fundamental skills in place to learn on an intellectual level in middle school. Because, let me assure you - she is learning. The other day we took her for a hike through a nature preserve and came across a huge tree laying on its side. For every ring on the tree, the park had placed bronze placards to denote special historical events.  This tree was really big, so both the Revolutionary War and Civil War were listed along with the ring for our first president, George Washington. As I examined the tree, I asked my daughter to read the placard. She read his name very nicely.  Then I asked her who he was.  She replied quickly, "President".  I then asked her which president he was.  She looked me in the eye and told me, "The first."   She knew this because she studied the  US Presidents in Social Studies this year, one of her four general education classes. She was so proud of herself and her dad and I were equally proud of her.  When I told her Social Studies teacher the next week, she got tears in her eyes.  This wonderful teacher also teaches the high ability kids, so I'm sure she was hesitant about my daughter being in her Social Studies class. My daughter's teacher has always embraced her being in her room, but this was something new for her and I'm sure she wondered if my daughter would actually learn anything. Society's preconceived notions of what learning should look like is why many of our kids run into obstacles when their parents try to incorporate an inclusive learning environment into their education plan.  I've heard more than one general education teacher exclaim in confusion, "But what are they going to learn?"  As my daughter demonstrated - more than you might think. But what I think is even more important, is who defines what level of learning is acceptable for a child to be in the classroom?  Isn't any learning beneficial? When we are challenged and fed academically, don't we all perform just a little better than if we are left to do the mundane?  I know that I like a challenge. Shouldn't we assume that kids with disabilities do also? I cannot tell you how proud my daughter gets when she tells us of an accomplishment at school or when she takes a project in that took a great deal of time for her to do at home. So I have to ask the obvious.  Does the  magnitude of learning have to be the caveat for inclusion or is this something we are clinging on to from centuries past? Add to this the social and emotional skills our kids learn, and we can't help but realize the handwriting on the wall - kids with disabilities benefit from being in the general education classroom.  I know some don't, but you get what I mean here.  To make the assumption up front that they are incapable of  learning in an appropriate manner is unfair and unjust and a stereotype which needs to go away.  Our schools need to be willing to start these kids in the gen ed classroom and modify from there.  Leave your worrying about how much they will learn out of the equation, because it shouldn't be a factor in the first place. Perhaps instead of modifying our kids learning styles, maybe society should modify the way they view learning. Do you think we can do this?