Why Mixing Students With and Without Special Needs Is a Good Idea - Essay Example

Article Review 11/00 DAM 615 Why Mixing With and Without Special Needs Is a Good Idea Every child in the world has the right to learn, to be a part of the learning process, and get every opportunity to benefit from the learning process. Children with special needs have that right regardless of the severity and type of their disability. Inclusive education could help students with special needs to benefit from the learning process. Moreover, it has several benefits for both students with and without disabilities such as friendships, greater opportunities for interactions, increased social initiations, relationships, and more integration into community, etc.

In this regard, I found Vaness Romo’s article Why Mixing Students With and Without Special Needs Is a Good Idea enlightening and very interesting because she gave very good reasons for her cause. The article started with a controversial photo of a second-grade class which caused some uproar on the Internet. The photo shows a teacher with a warm smile standing beside twenty-two kids sitting on a set of bleachers. Off to the far right, a boy with a beautiful smile was sitting in a wheelchair, separated from his peers.

At the beginning of the article, Vanessa discusses why that photo caused the uproar on the Internet and how it was heartbreaking for the online world that believed the picture aimed to show discrimination against people with disabilities. Then, she presents Miles, the boy in the photo, the type of his disability, and his mother’s feeling. Vanessa moved to another point, which was arguing about why mixing students with and without special needs is a good idea. First, she talked about a parent’s fear of people picking on or excluding their child, especially parents of children with special needs, and how that was the reason for the inclusive education model.

Secondly, Vanessa quoted Margo Pensavalle, one of the professors at the USC Rossier School, saying “It’s a win-win situation for everybody,” in arguing that students with special needs should be placed in mainstream classrooms with children of similar ages. Thirdly, Romo also explained how regardless of the severity of a student’s disability and socio-economic status, the advantages of inclusion in the classroom has been well documented with The National Longitudinal Transitions Study showing many advantages of mixing students with and without special needs.

Fourthly, Vanessa continued to argue based on Pensavalle’s statement that the two kinds of students in the inclusion model “take advantage of [the extra help] and learn more completely in a more supportive environment” because inclusive classrooms are smaller and often led by two teachers or has additional support staff. The writer mentions that not all inclusion programs are alike and the amount of time in general-education class that special needs students spend ranges from a single subject to an entire day.

In this regard, she presents what Berkeley Unified School Board President Karen Hemphill said about how, if the full-inclusion policy is employed, having the right person, with the right training is important to success the classroom inclusion. Toward the end of the article, Romo presents some quotes that explain how learning alongside students with special needs is essential to becoming a global citizen. As an ending, she pointed out that the company that took the photograph of Miles agreed the separation of Miles from his class was a mistake and has offered to retake the photo.

People reading Romo’s article would see that the writer worries about Miles and children with special needs. The article is full of the good things the inclusive education model would do for both students with or without special needs. She also supports her opinion with statements from experts in the educational field. Ms. Romo’s writing was simple and straightforward. The message was very easy to understand even for an international student like me. I think the article was written well and its target audiences would appreciate the message in Ms.

Romo’s article. http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/06/25/special-needs-inclusion-good-idea