Why is mainstreaming the preferred practice when it has cheated people for so many years?

Question

Mainstreaming has caused bullying and school shootings to start. Mainstream schools group students based on ability. That is how bullying starts. The "real" inclusion encourages all students to LEARN together. Therefore students are NOT encouraged to bully. Students would be a lot happier when everyone is taught to learn together.

Mainstreaming is the practice of educating students with special needs in regular classes during specific time periods based on their skills.

Here is the link: http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/Mainstreaming.html

Inclusion is the practice of educating students with special needs in regular classes for all or nearly all of the day instead of in special education classes.

Here is the link: http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/Inclusion.html

Answer 1

I have a child in special education classes right now.  He is taken out of class a few hours each day and goes to a speech pathologist.  He also visits a special education teacher for a few times a week.  For the rest of the day, he is in the class with the rest of the kids.  He does not have what I would call a severe disability, but he seems to be doing rather well while he is in class with the rest of the kids.  There is also a teacher's aide to help with his needs should he run into it in the main class.

My son  has assimilated well, but he has always liked learning.  For kids with more severe learning disabilities it may be a different story.  

I tend to think it boils down to cost and politics.  The No Child Left Behind Law has favored mainstreaming.  I think there is also an equity issue of how much a school should spend on each child, without spending too much on a child with special needs.  Mainstreaming seems to be the most cost-effective way, and it may be to the detriment of the most severly disabled children.  Classes for gifted children have been cut for the same reasons.

Answer 2

I had special needs when I was in regular classes, I remember I was in 8th grade and i had this teach that had legs that it seemed never ended and when she would bend over... got dam*...  any way the desk was to small I guess thats where the phrase peckerwood came from.  lol lol lol lol.

Answer 3

Sorry, but I don't think that anyone can answer your question - but thank you for the clarification between mainstreaming and Inclusion.  Inclusion has it's needs as well!

Answer 4

Mainstreaming or Inclusion is the trend is special education right now.  Unfortunately, it does hinder some children.  Children should be educated where they can learn and be successful..bottom line.  Who cares what room it is in!!!

Answer 5

Special education is continuously evolving.  The fact of the matter is that No Child Left Behind provides a means to hold schools accountable for the progress of special needs children, children who "fall through the cracks," gifted students, and the general non-disabled population of ordinary kids.   The effectiveness of school programs is dependent upon both the teachers and the student response to the service model provided.

Encarta doesn't provide a clear picture of what school administrators and teachers are up against.  Special classes for students with unqualified teachers teaching subjects they know little about do not improve the learning of kids needing special services.  However, special classes with qualified personnel make a world of difference.  When students realize they are genuinely being helped, they respond positively, despite the social embarrassment they endure leaving the regular classroom.  They WANT to leave because it is rewarding.

Inclusion classes with teachers who don't have the time or resources to meet the needs of kids with learning problems also don't help.  The students are frustrated and often misbehave rather than expose their poor academic skills.

Special education is a highly individualized process.  What works with one may be a disaster with another.

Answer 6

Bullying occurs with regular ed. kids too, it shouldn't, and we must always strive to teach people to tolerate others whatever their issue.

Mainstream or inclusion- depends on the child's needs. Some people get it; many people don't. No one method works for all!