No, I appreciate hearing more on this argument, because it tends to be brushed under the carpet.
the thing I fear, based on the Tories' plans, is that once they've got disabled children nicely squirrelled away where society cannot see or understand them, and therefore doesn't have to give a toss, they'll start reducing funding for special education anyway.
That is exactly it.
I am torn on disability in education because of what you've outlined. My mother worked in a school specifically for children with Down's syndrome and though it was (and I presume still is) an excellent school where the needs of the pupils were met in a way not necessarily catered for in mainstream schools, two things strike me - the first being that this was in the eighties, when, let's face it, we disregarded the feelings of these children. There was much less emphasis upon integration for them and their disability shut them away from other children.
There was a pupil there with a semi-famous British father who absolutely refused to acknowledge him. Everybody on the school staff was aware that it was because of the stigma of Down's and the stigma of him being in a 'special' school.
My own younger brother, who is absolutely fine now, was removed to a 'special' school when he was an infant just because he was a bit of a slow learner. That's honestly the only 'problem', in their words, that he had. It doesn't make sense! Remove a slow learner (who went on to get great A-levels) and force him through that system from 4-11 just because he struggled in the first year at school?
Then again, my sister does have severe learning difficulties. It would have been absolutely impossible for her to attend a mainstream school, as even in her thirties she still requires full-time care.
So you're completely right; we need to realise that all children need to be looked at individually. Some people with Down's are happy to be in a like-minded environment. Some would be devastated to be removed from mainstream schools where they are thriving. It's the same across all levels of disability. And where can either party draw the benchmark for what determines where you go? They can't! People are individuals. People change as they age.
Finally, I find the Tory policy to be sinister because I just... I feel that it is less about meeting the needs of disabled children than a sneering indictment of Labour's inclusion policy and a middle-class phobia of equality and helping the disadvantaged. We can't have those weird disableds corrupting our own precious normal children, can we?
no subject
the thing I fear, based on the Tories' plans, is that once they've got disabled children nicely squirrelled away where society cannot see or understand them, and therefore doesn't have to give a toss, they'll start reducing funding for special education anyway.
That is exactly it.
I am torn on disability in education because of what you've outlined. My mother worked in a school specifically for children with Down's syndrome and though it was (and I presume still is) an excellent school where the needs of the pupils were met in a way not necessarily catered for in mainstream schools, two things strike me - the first being that this was in the eighties, when, let's face it, we disregarded the feelings of these children. There was much less emphasis upon integration for them and their disability shut them away from other children.
There was a pupil there with a semi-famous British father who absolutely refused to acknowledge him. Everybody on the school staff was aware that it was because of the stigma of Down's and the stigma of him being in a 'special' school.
My own younger brother, who is absolutely fine now, was removed to a 'special' school when he was an infant just because he was a bit of a slow learner. That's honestly the only 'problem', in their words, that he had. It doesn't make sense! Remove a slow learner (who went on to get great A-levels) and force him through that system from 4-11 just because he struggled in the first year at school?
Then again, my sister does have severe learning difficulties. It would have been absolutely impossible for her to attend a mainstream school, as even in her thirties she still requires full-time care.
So you're completely right; we need to realise that all children need to be looked at individually. Some people with Down's are happy to be in a like-minded environment. Some would be devastated to be removed from mainstream schools where they are thriving. It's the same across all levels of disability. And where can either party draw the benchmark for what determines where you go? They can't! People are individuals. People change as they age.
Finally, I find the Tory policy to be sinister because I just... I feel that it is less about meeting the needs of disabled children than a sneering indictment of Labour's inclusion policy and a middle-class phobia of equality and helping the disadvantaged. We can't have those weird disableds corrupting our own precious normal children, can we?