Anne Marie Potts Dr.

Karin Mendoza Intermediate English Composition (ENGL 2089-085) 24 March 2014 Mainstreaming in Education: Is it effective or not?

The controversial issue that I chose to research was mainstreaming students with autism. Mainstreaming, which is another word for inclusion, is putting students with special needs into regular education classrooms instead of keeping them in separate classrooms all day long. I chose this issue because I tutor a boy with autism, and I plan on being a Speech Pathologist one day. When I become a Speech Pathologist in the future, I plan on working with these kinds of children, and children with all kinds of disabilities. This topic has always interested me since I decided to go into education for my major. I wanted to find out more about it, and be able to write an effective research paper. I have learned a lot about autism, and I believe it is important for everyone to know more about mainstreaming and why it is so effective in education. Mainstreaming the students does not only effect their education, but it affects their social skills, and helps them develop relationships inside and outside of the classroom. They are able to pick up things in the regular education classroom that they might not be able to pick up if they were separated from the non-disabled students. It has been an issue in education for a while and I truly believe that mainstreaming is effective for students with autism. I have found three articles that go against what I believe and that talk about why mainstreaming is not the best option for students with special needs. I understand the other side of the argument, but I still strongly believe in my side of the argument. I have read each of

these three articles very carefully and really tried to understand what the author is trying to say and who the audience is. A special education teacher wrote the first article that I found, and she had first hand experience with effective schooling for children with disabilities that did not include mainstreaming the students. This article is called Op-ed: An Argument Against Mainstreaming Kids with Disabilities. This teacher works at a special education center with children who have moderate to severe disabilities, and there is a wide range of disabilities in some of the classrooms. They have different programs to fit all of the students needs and they try their best to make these students have the typical school experience so they do not feel like they are getting left out or secluded from the nondisabled students. They have athletics for the students to participate in as well after school. The article talks about how these students are able to experience all of the exciting aspects of sports and being able to participate on a team and win events. In a regular education school, the students with disabilities may not get the chance to participate on these teams. The author really wants to get across that the school does not only have educational benefits to the students, but it has benefits outside of the classroom. The author of this article is trying to get the parents of students with disabilities to see the benefits of the special education center. The article also talks about why mainstreaming does not work. Mainstreaming can help social skills, and they can pick up on all kinds of skills from the non-disabled students in their classrooms. This article explains that having students with disabilities in classrooms with non-disabled students can maybe cause the students with disabilities to feel down on themselves. They could get made fun of. They could also lose their self-confidence if they are not able to

do the things that some of the normal students are doing. Since this author works in the school for special education children, she has gotten to see first hand the many benefits of the students with disabilities not being mainstreamed. The next article that I read opposing the mainstreaming argument was called Concerns About and Arguments Against Inclusion and/or Full Inclusion. This article came from a nonprofit education research, and development group. One of the arguments in this article states that the regular education classroom teachers do not have enough training to teach the students with disabilities, and that does not give those students with disabilities a fair and equal chance at education because these teachers are not properly trained. The way to solve that problem is to properly train them to teach the students with disabilities. In this article, they continue to argue that having students with disabilities in the regular education classrooms is disrupting to the education of the nondisabled students. I believe that statement is completely unfair. There is a way for the teacher to make sure that everyone is receiving the proper education, and that they are giving equal time to both the students with disabilities and the non-disabled children. Another strong point that this article states is that some parents have concerns about their children being mainstreamed because they feel they will not get the proper education that they need. The author of this article is trying to target the teachers and parents as their audience. They are trying to persuade them that mainstreaming is too difficult, and telling the parents their children will not receive the proper education, if they are mainstreamed. The third article I found is called The Inclusive Classroom Model is not Efficient or Effective: An Evaluation of Essential Assessments/Audits and Essential Deliverables.

The article begins to talk about some of the things that were talked about in previous articles such as teachers not having enough training, and the students with special needs feeling less confident with the other students in the classroom. A new point that was made in this article was that students should be grouped based on their abilities in the classroom, so that everyone goes at the same pace and the students are comfortable with it as well as the teachers. A concern that was brought up in the article is that the nondisabled students might get bored with the material in the classroom because the teachers are thinking about the students with disabilities and they may not be able to do the higher level stuff. I do understand what the author is trying to say in this part of the article. It could be difficult to fit all of the students needs in the classroom, but I also believe that there is a way to satisfy all of the students in their classrooms and fit all of their needs so that they receive the best education they possibly can. A suggestion that this article gave was to have the students with disabilities be included in the music, physical education, and art classes. I do believe that it is a good idea to include them in those classes, as well in the regular education classrooms. It is not fair to exclude them from some classes, and let them in some classes. One of the articles I found in my annotated bibliography talked about including students with special needs in physical education classrooms, because they will pick up on many skills in that class. The audience of this article is all types of educators, and parents of students with a disability. This author disagrees with the idea of mainstreaming, because they believe that the students will receive a better education if they are separated. Although they disagree with the thought of mainstreaming, they do have the students best interest in mind, they are not trying to make the students with

disabilities feel left out or secluded. The author wants all of the students to learn as much as they can at their own level in a comfortable environment for them. After reading all three of these articles that disagree with my argument about mainstreaming being the most effective way of education for students with special needs, I feel more confident in writing my final research paper. I have more resources to use, and more points to make after reading these articles, and writing this paper. This analysis was very important for my final paper. Understanding the other side of the debate will help me write my argument better. Now that I know the main arguments against mainstreaming, I am able to research more and find more evidence to prove that mainstreaming is effective. It is also important to understand how the articles are constructed and try to understand the real meaning of the article and what audience the author is targeting and why they believe what they believe. I found finding these articles to be very helpful, and it was good to understand the other side of my argument to make a stronger argument for my side.

Works Cited

Smith, N. Op-Ed: An Argument Against Mainstreaming Kids With Disabilities. 26 Mar 2014. <http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/10/26/op-ed-inclusion-bestidea-children-disabilities>. Thompkins, R. Concerns About and Arguments Against Inclusion and/or Full Inclusion. SEDL: Advancing research improving education, 2012. <http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues43/concerns.html>. Germaine, J. The Inclusive Classroom Model is not Efficient or Effective: An Evaluation of Essential Assessments/Audits and Essential Deliverables. Lean Thinking for Schools. 1999. Pgs. 1-10. Print.