Inclusion and the Deaf

After reading this chapter about inclusion, I got to thinking... How far is too far when it comes to including kids with disabilities into general education classrooms? Should all children of all possibly disabilities be allowed in with the normal kids? Should blind children, deaf, and dumb children be expected to learn within the same class as both normal kids and those with learning problems like downs syndrome and autism? How much is too much? When I was in high school, for some reason I was always in the home room with all of the deaf children and their aid, who spoke to them and translated everything the teacher said in sign language. Now, it wasn't too much of a distraction, since it was homeroom. It was actually pretty interesting and I learned a few things. Yet, if those children had been in my other classes, I have to say that I probably would be distracted and have trouble concentrating.

In the article that I read on this subject the author stated "Inclusion entails, students receiving all support services within the classroom". Now to me, this isn't totally appropriate for deaf children. They need to have their own room and time with their aids where they can totally concentrate on learning in sign language. This way, the deaf children get a quality lesson, while the normal and other disabled children also are not totally distracted by all the sign language going on. Parents may argue that it is not fair that some disabled students are allowed to learn solely in the classroom while their deaf or even blind child is not allowed. Yet, I don't really have sympathy for these parents. They need to realize that some students with disabilities are already easily distracted, and to place a deaf child with an aid constantly translating in sign language in the same environment, they are both going to have difficulties learning. The percentage of deaf children is exceptionally lower than that of other learning disabilities.

So to answer my primary question- I would say that placing deaf children solely in the general education classroom would be pushing inclusion too far. It would be fine and acceptable for these children to be involved in some aspects of the general education classroom, for certain parts of the day- but certainly not all day every day. This question is one of many that are brought up when learning about and discussing the issue of inclusion. I think inclusion is a great idea that should be implemented throughout the school system, but only to certain limits.

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