Inclusive Learning Is So Important For Every Community

In the 1950's, the Supreme Court ruled that communities be more inclusive with the ground breaking decision known as Brown V. The Board Of Education. Similar decisions would follow, including people with disabilities and other groups that were discriminated against. The United States, it would seem was moving towards a more inclusive society.

While there have been great gains, it seems that high stakes testing has reduced progress. Quietly, classrooms in some communities have been again segregated. People with disabilities have been reduced to smaller less inclusive settings. It would seem that full inclusion is no longer the goal. The academic needs of the mainstreamed children far outweigh the needs of inclusive education. Social learning has taken a back seat to standardized testing.

While anecdotal, there is evidence to conclude that the same can be said for minorities. Some minorities are shipped off to alternative education sites or segregated learning centers. Behaviors are often the rationale for such moves. The school districts will argue that they lack the proper setting for such behaviors, and smaller settings have a goal for the student to return to their home district. Often, this is not the case. Many sent away will graduate at the learning centers that was intended to return them home.

Children leaving their cohort from their community, especially at such a young age can have negative consequences for the community as a whole. When diversity is absent from the classroom, students can make conclusions later on as adults that can be intolerant to other groups of people in their community. A community will lack empathy for certain social issues while being overly supportive of more mainstream causes. Advocacy efforts for those less fortunate will fail when a community is less educated about the citizens that no one sees or hears from as children. 

This was never the intent of Civil Rights legislation, and should be reexamined by educational leaders. It is time to advocate for the benefits of full inclusion whenever possible for disenfranchised populations.