Kids with Autism - Where do we put them?
I have just come from a dissertation meeting where the subject was kids with autism - should they be included in general education classes and if so do they learn to read like other students and what reading instruction do they need to be able to read. As we know, people with autism are as different as people who like ice cream. Because of their diversity, it is almost impossible and in my opinion, unethical to try to determine what kids with autism need in the classroom. I think its the teachers responsiblity to determine what each individual child needs in the classroom and then create a supportive environment where a wide variety of ability levels can learn. How do we do that? Where do we start? We first start with a teachers belief that this can happen. After that, its a matter of gathering data and designing instruction to meet those student needs. The big obstacle is teacher beliefs. Many teachers don’t believe that kids with disabilities belong in their classroom. Why? After all it wasn’t too long ago that many white teachers didn’t believe that African-American kids belonged in their classroom. Frankly, if we dig deep, I think we would still find plenty of teachers that still don’t want them in their classroom, nor do they want the gay kids, the muslim kids, the jewish kids, the christian kids, the low SES kids, the high SES kids, etc. One of my students told me they don’t want any general education kids in their classrooms, only the special education kids. Wow! Whats going on? Why do we want to put paramenters on what kids we teach. Are we fearful of our ability to meet the needs of kids different from us? Are we fearful that we might have to expand our own knowledge and skills? Are we scared that if we get to know these kids, our house of cards will fall, exposing our ignorance and admitting that our bias is unfounded? Hmmmmmm.
April 21st, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I believe that all students no matter of what they are labled with should have the chance to be included in the general education classroom. I know that for some young people this is not possible, but instead of putting restrictions on the environment in which the young person learns, we as educators and teachers need to also consider the young persons preferences. Maybe the reason why they are not striving in their self-contained environment is because they do not want to be there.