The advanges of mainstreaming of children with dissabilities

Well it’s a nice concept.

The trouble I have seen is in implementation.
Some schools just do NOT provide the resources to assist the students.
I think also not *everybody* can or should be mainstreamed. There are some students who aren’t getting what they need, can never get what they need in a mainstreamed setting. (How does the regular teacher handle a kid with severe autism in their second grade, for example?)
Another thing is I think as an idea it works better in younger grades. The kids benefit from learning about differences and the curriculum is not too challenging to modify. As the kids get older the gap will naturally increase and I think the benefits are then lessened. (I saw a Down’s Syndrome kid in 4th grade. In second grade she might have done well, but what was she supposed to do while the other kids were talking about continents. I thought things were irrelevant to her life at that point. In the mean time she needed a one on one, which would not have needed in a special ed. class. The one on one, was depriving her of experiences to be more independent.) I think we have to ask what “least restrictive” really means.

OTOH, when the staffing is there for it, it can teach the other kids that there are differences and the disabled kid can watch and imitate normal behavior patterns.

—des

Response to mainstreaming question:

For the past 10 years I have team-taught with general education teachers in inclusion elementary rooms (I am a teacher consultant). I think most special needs students learn more and are more motivated in an environment with their peers. However I think for it to work well, there needs to be a partnership of team teaching between general ed and special ed.teachers. Also there needs to be time for coplanning.
DC