Why should I want my child to be educated with yours?

1. Why should I want my child to be educated with yours? Dr Margo A Shuttleworth

2. Outline • My history • Basis for paper • The Stories • A Parent for Inclusion: Diane’s Story • Social Exclusion: Jessie’s story • Facebooking: Notes of a parents on her experience of the assessment process • Feelings of a teacher: gender identity and issues relating to education • Universal Design for Learning (UDL) • The stories, issues and areas to explore • Closing thoughts

3. My History • Masters and Doctorate in UK, focus on inclusion and life history research • Taught, advised and worked in mainstream, PRUs and special education schools (behavioural disabilities) for 10+ years in the UK • Moved from UK to Calgary, Canada in 2007 • Athabasca University • Writings and advising on inclusive issues

4. Basis for paper Inclusion should not only involve people with disabilities but also those who are viewed as different. This paper will look at the influences and impact exclusionary views have on human rights recognising the importance of promoting the differences that denote our unique cultures, learning styles and individuality.

5. Basis for paper (cont’d) CAST’s Universal Design for Learning and its quest to eliminate unintentional barriers created in learning will also be examined and related to inclusion. This paper is still in its preliminary stages. I am still in the process of the discussion of issues with friends and colleagues, both locally and abroad. I hope through this seminar I will gain more insight which will aid in the final development of this piece

6. The path to becoming diverse is not a straight one. There are many bumps and potholes to negotiate and twists and turns that can, and sometimes do, take you off the right path.... inclusion and diversity are not a destination you reach, they are the journey you take (Harris, p. ix, 2009) None of Us is as Good as All of Us, 2009, Patricia Sowell Harris.

7. Within your sphere of knowledge is your life. Everything you have learned, everything you have participated in, everything you have come to understand is within your sphere. Everyone has one. Some things in it are positive, some negative…. Once outside your sphere you are in danger of ramming into another sphere, potentially causing damage to both spheres (Hayden Taylor, p73-74). Me Funny (2004), Drew Hayden Taylor.

8. THE STORIES • These are four stories that have spurred my decision for writing this piece: • A Parent for Inclusion: Diane’s Story • Social Exclusion: Jessie’s story • Facebooking: Notes of a parents on her experience of the assessment process • Feelings of a teacher: gender identity and issues relating to education

9. 1. A parent for inclusion- Diane’s Story Diane arrived at preschool with her two year old daughter and told us all it would be her daughters’ last day at preschool. Being curious we asked why, and Diane told us that her daughter was just too tired as she was in this preschool for two days and another preschool for the other three days. It was just proving too much. The other preschool was a school that included children with Downs Syndrome. The immediate reaction from some of the parents was shock and surprise. ‘Why would Diane send her daughter there? Her daughter is clearly ‘normal!’ Cont’d

10. 1. A parent for inclusion- Diane’s Story In talking with Diane as to why she chose to keep her child at other preschool, she said that it was both from the learning perspective as well as atmospheric. Her daughter didn’t see any of the children as ‘different’ and was happy to engage and learn alongside all of the children regardless of their ability. She also thought that really at that young of an age, there really isn’t that much of a difference between her daughter and her classmates that had Downs Syndrome.

11. 2. Social exclusion: Jessie’s Story Jessie called the director of the preschool to let her know that her 4 year old son would not be attending after the end of the month. When asked why, Jessie told the director that she felt her son was not happy with some of the children in his group, not being able to relate to them as they were ‘different’. She felt that the parents of the children at the preschool were ‘colourful’ and not necessarily the type of people she was comfortable with and that some of the teachers’ aids (who were from Central America) were not proficient in English and unable to relate to her English child.

12. 3. Facebooking: Notes of a parent on her experience of the assessment process Joan • is wondering at what point you are officially allowed to start your day over again???? • is wondering if you how can be hopeful yet sad and scared at the same time...... • Wishes tears wouldn't come at the drop of a hat... • is so unbelievably frustrated with the provincial government. You think you have a plan worked out and their farking hoops and red tape get in the way of getting the help he needs as quickly as possible. 6 -8 weeks more of waiting is great - if it's not your child!!!! Cont’d

13. 3. Facebooking: Notes of a parent on her experience of the assessment process Joan • was talking to the neighbour down the street. We were talking and I was able to say "he is on the autism spectrum" without bawling my eyes out! Progress baby! • has a cramp from filling out 3 different waiting list forms. If these are just to get on the waiting list, I don't want to see the forms for when he actually starts a program !!! • is getting really, really frustrated with people not returning my phone calls!!! I will be calling them daily until they get so pissed off that they actually call me back!! • didn't want to go to Holland.... (Check out the new "Note" on my page).

14. Welcome to Holland c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...... When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

15. "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

16. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But ... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

17. 4. Feelings of a Teacher : gender identity and issues relating to education My first year back in Toronto, in 1998, I was working in a high school, with kids who have global developmental delays, and was told by a colleague, with a look of disgust on her face, that if I told people, it would be my own undoing.Other educators have warned me early on that if I divulge my sexuality, I will be viewed by students and their families as a predator.

18. However, a wonderful moment happened last June. a student of mine asked me why I chose to be gay. I responded by asking her, if she chose her gender, skin colour, family, the fact she was a brunette as opposed as a blonde. she said no, I told her, that just like her, I had no choice. I was gay, and just like the fact I am male, and have blue eyes, it had nothing to do with my choice. this is just who I am. she looked at me, smiled, and told me, I get it.

19. That being said, regarding exclusion, I don't feel as though there is still an environment that exists which is truly inclusive. as much as I have rights, in general, its ok to speak out against racism, sexism, and anti Semitism/ Islam, but queer issues still have many major leaps to go. this I feel is primarily based in the fact that many people are still trapped in using religion as an excuse to cover hate, homophobia.

20. Universal Design for Learning • Recognises diversity as the norm • Addresses a disabled curriculum (responsibility shift) • Provides a blueprint for flexibility of goals, methods, materials and assessments of diverse learning • Looks at multiple means of • Representation ( ‘what’ you are leaning) • Expression (‘how’ you are learning) • Engagement (‘why’ you are learning)

21. The stories; issues of inclusion; areas to explore • Social as well as educational inclusion- attitudes towards it, institutions who promote it • Perceptions, knowledge rather than ignorance • Parents influence on children • How are these issues being tackled within education and how can this be extended into communities?

22. What barriers do differing populations encounter within the educational system • Visible vs. invisible minorities ‘Often, it is more about finding solutions to make all students fit into the prescribed model developed by school administrators and policy makers than about finding solutions to accomplish the type of inclusion beneficial to students from diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds’ • We must examine how and when difference is produced and treated

23. Closing thoughts Social justice must go hand in hand with Inclusive Education. It is not only the education system that is involved it is the cultures that exist within schools, communities and the exclusionary beliefs that are embedded within society .... How is it that we are going to tackle these issues? Historically there have been 5 responses to diversity: • suppression of difference; • insisting on difference, • denying difference, • inviting difference and • critiquing difference (Harper, 1997)

24. All humans are sacred, whatever their race, culture or religion, whatever the capacities or incapacities and whatever their weakness or strength may be. Each of us has an instrument to bring to the vast orchestra of humanity. Maturity comes from working with others. Human beings need to be encouraged to make choices… we humans need to be rooted in good earth to produce good fruit. We need to reflect to seek truth and meaning together. Vanier, J (2006) Becoming Human, 1998 Massey Lectures, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation