The Lonely Child...still lonely even with Inclusion....

After kindergarten is over all of the children in my son's program go out and play on the playground, the parents sit around and chat and talk. A little girl with Downe's Syndrome is never among the kids playing. She always leaves on her special education school bus, earlier than the rest of the class.

Go to the grocery store and watch the special needs people as they bag your groceries. They try to talk to the people in line, and they are politely ignored. It happens everywhere. Inclusion is teaching the general population to be polite to our special needs population. That is a good thing, but polite ignoring makes for a very lonely person.

I challenge everyone of you to sit back and watch inclusion. Really take a look at it. Not just in the classroom where the teachers are facilitating and forcing the kids to interact. Look at it on the playground after school. Look at it in the lunchroom as children are eating and standing in line. Just really look at it. Next time you attend a birthday party or you help your own child to make an invitation list notice whether the included special needs children are on the list.

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