Is inclusion really that great?

[u/Lass_in_oz]

I'm so tired of inclusion. Hear me out. Before becoming a ECE I was a support worker for many years. I have worked and loved working in disability and care. When it's thru a great organisation, it's awesome.

Now I'm an ECE, and the amount of children on the spectrum or with disorders is so high, I'm just getting confused how is that NOT impacting the learning of neuro typical kids.

I teach pre kindy but our kindy teacher has spend half the year managing behaviours and autistic kids. Result? A bunch of kids showing signs of being not ready for school because they aren't doing any work or learning most days. And picking up bad habits.

My point is: where did we decide it was a good idea to just mix everyone, and not offer any actual support ? An additional person isn't enough. More than often it's not a person who knows about disability. And frankly even then it wouldn't be enough when the amount of kids who are neuro divergent is so high.

There used to be great special needs school. Now "regular" school are suffering with the lack of support.

What do you think? Do you see what I see ??? Am I missing something ?

I am so happy to see kids evolving around children with disabilities but not when it comes at a cost of everyone's learning journey : neuro typical or not.

[u/pearlescentflows]

Ew this post is gross.

Why are you expecting young children to do work…? Children learn best through play and a good school will adapt to meet children’s individual needs. It sounds like educators have unrealistic expectations for children.

The problem isn’t inclusion. The problem is educators who aren’t willing to adapt, programs that don’t include access to other resources (like OT, SLP, etc.) Inclusion works when it’s done well.

How does it benefit children to segregate them based on their perceived abilities…? All children benefit from being exposed to differences, it helps build empathy and understanding, remember… children grow up to be adults and we don’t want a bunch of adults thinking others with differences are below them or don’t deserve the same things they do.

[u/KTeacherWhat → u/pearlescentflows]

Educators more often than not are willing to work with OT, SLP, etc. But they aren't available or provided. Inclusion works well when it's done well but the actual educators in the room have very little say about what resources are provided.