Classroom Inclusion

Part 2 of my Goodbye to Teaching post. My thoughts on inclusion.

I’ve been to many different classrooms in many different schools as a sub for the last five years. I was an elementary teacher for five years before that. I believe in classroom inclusion. I don’t even like ability ranking. I think we should tell students what they’re capable of instead of what they’re not capable of. Multiple Intelligence classrooms help students understand their own unique way of learning. As one student said to me, “We’re all smart in our own way. Right, Ms. Rausin?” Right.

When I taught elementary there were some teachers who did not welcome students who were in an isolated ESE room into their classrooms even when their ESE teacher felt they were ready to be mainstreamed. Why, because it added more responsibility onto a teacher usually without much support.  I welcomed it, having a child who used a wheelchair, I knew the importance of having a different ability classroom. However, I also knew it was possible the entire atmosphere of my classroom could change making teaching all the more difficult.

One year I had a young boy who crawled under desks every morning. If anyone tried to coax him out he’d throw a tantrum. Eventually, his medication would take effect, as long as his parent remembered to administer it, and then he’d be a completely different child, eager to learn. This was how I began most mornings. I had the full spectrum of students in my room for several years, from those classified as gifted, to those who failed a grade due to a low FCAT score, to those classified as having a behavior disorder. We were one giant melting pot.

Many times as a teacher and as a sub when I’m dealing with a child who has extreme behaviors in a classroom, and I stop teaching to address them, I glance over at the student who is calm, taking notes, waiting for me to get back to the lesson, and I wonder how I’m helping them when so much of my time goes towards those with the greatest needs.

It’s a sinking feeling for a teacher because you want to say to the student who is waiting patiently for you to resume the lesson, “I’m sorry. I promise you my lesson will spark your enthusiasm, I just have to deal with your classmates interruption first…” The teacher in you loves both children. Possibly you know where the unusual behaviors in your most needy students come from, you feel great empathy for those students, but you are also responsible for the students who are on task, and following along. It can feel as though your heart is getting pulled in opposite directions.

Look For Common Ground

Here’s how I see it. One day all of these students will be adults interacting together in society. In the workforce, in college, wherever they go they will always encounter people who behave differently and think differently. As a teacher, through your example in the classroom, you have the ability to teach your students to be tolerant of others, you can teach patience by addressing interruptions with calmness and by speaking with kindness–not yelling or arguing. You are teaching all of your students in that moment that everyone is important, there is no smarter than, better than, everyone deserves kindness and respect. This is a lesson your students will carry with them throughout their lives. Perhaps it’s the most important lesson you didn’t even realize you were teaching.