Inclusion in Education Position Paper

Inclusion in Education
Name:
Institution:
Commonly, children with special needs are those that require special attention may it be at home or school. Such children usually have some health complications that include epilepsy, autism, microcephaly and many others. It is because of these complications that special attention, care and services should be granted unto them, mostly at schools. However, there are those children who have special abilities; therefore also calling for special kind of attention as opposed to other students (Integrating students with special needs into mainstream schools, 1995). For instance, a student may have special capabilities that may require teachers to design an extra schedule for such students. Most of these capabilities are usually talents that teachers should help the pupil identify and consequently nurture it. However, special needs children, other than those with special abilities require more attention as compared to other students. This is because they are vulnerable and may have mild learning capabilities; therefore not performing well in their studies (Sacks, 2001). It is the role of a teacher to identify such a student and make sure that extra time on studies is spends in this student than others. This means that a teacher will have to design a schedule that ensures more study hours are assigned to these students. However, researchers argue as to whether such students should be included in the mainstream classrooms or not. It is as a result of these controversies that this paper shall address the challenge of whether to or not include such students in the mainstream classroom.
From what is happening currently, it is evident that not all people, especially parents are comfortable with idea of mixing together children with disabilities and others. This is an issue that was highly opposed by the Florida Education Society United (Sacks, 2001). In this sense, inclusion is used to describe incorporation of students with special needs in the normal classroom environment. For example, these students will be at a position to study with other students that lead a normal the education society of Florida, mentioned earlier on, was concerned at the rate at which inclusion was being implemented among most of the schools (Sacks, 2001). The association argued that inclusion would lead to limited resources available for teaching. In addition, insufficient resources lead to improper training and other support necessary to teach such students effectively. The Association went ahead and pointed out that as a result of inclusion and insufficient training resources, special needs children end up getting insufficient and inappropriate care and attention (Integrating students with special needs into mainstream schools, 1995). However, on the part of other regular students, learning is disrupted and time wasted is hardly recovered. In addition, an emphasis is laid on the fact that special needs children are likely to face pressure from state legislatures and the general public. Once inclusion has taken place, these children are expected to compete favorably and equally with other normal children. This leads to a lot of pressure being exerted on the special needs children in verge to produce good result for the school. Consequently, schools also end up implementing academic standards that aim at improving performance of both the school and the student; therefore not being favorable to the children with special needs (Integrating students with special needs into mainstream schools, 1995).
Other researchers point out that inclusion leads to expansion of a range of levels of abilities within a classroom. However, wit...