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Uploaded: Thursday, December 6, 2012, 3:10 PM
Local campuses mark second 'Inclusive Schools Week'
'Inclusion is when you let people play with you and treat them well,' one student wrote
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| As Palo Alto ramps up efforts to teach special-needs children in mainstream classrooms, campuses across town marked the second annual "Inclusive Schools Week" to talk about how to behave around people with differences.
At Walter Hays Elementary School, students wrote and drew "what inclusion looks like" on paper trees, which they hung on an outside wall to create an "Inclusion Forest."
"Inclusion is when you let people play with you and make sure they are treated well," wrote one.
"Include all boys and girls," wrote another. "Make new friends. Be a good friend to people who don't know English," said another.
About 55 parents and teachers turned out Tuesday to hear a panel of experts discuss autism, learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- some of the conditions of children who are included in general classrooms.
"Your children interact with these kids everyday, and you do too when you volunteer in the classroom, drive on a field-trip or go to after-school activities," said the flier inviting the Walter Hays community to the event, which was organized by parents.
"Social inclusion" was the theme Monday in a panel discussion at school district headquarters sponsored by the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education.
School librarians across town held special readings of books about inclusion.
At El Carmelo Elementary School, students modeled play dough while blindfolded, strung beads with socks on their hands and watched "Brain Pop," a video on ADHD and "Arthur," a video on autism.
At Duveneck School, school-wide assemblies were held Thursday on inclusion themes.
Federal law mandates that special-needs children be taught in the "least restrictive environment" and local schools recently have intensified their efforts to do so.
The local nonprofit Abilities United opened an inclusive preschool, Milestones, about six years ago.
The school district's own preschool program, Preschool Family, followed suit last year, including eight special-needs children among the 22 in one of its four-year-old classes.
Ambitious inclusion efforts also are under way at Barron Park and Duveneck schools.
"If you look at it as an opportunity for learners to learn about difference, then you've framed it differently," the district's Director of Special Education Holly Wade has said.
"We've created an environment where we're going to have a compassionate group of young people who are going to understand in its more pure form what difference looks like."— Chris Kenrick Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Duveneck mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2012 at 9:05 pm I especially like the activities. Children learn better by doing something concrete and it looks like the schools embraced this. The sentiment on the Walter Hays flyer is something everyone should take to heart.
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Posted by MIke, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2012 at 11:22 pm Did the middle schools participate?
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Posted by A school teacher, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2012 at 11:01 am This was a very special week to focus on ensuring the safety and well being of all students in all areas of the schools.
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Posted by Duveneck mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2012 at 10:51 pm Middle schools & high schools participated.
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Posted by Walter Hays Dad, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Dec 10, 2012 at 2:38 pm I think Walter Hays did a great job. I attended the talks given at the parent night, and was happy with the turnout by both parents of special needs children and parents of normative children. It was wonderful to hear the normative parents talk through how they should teach their children about inclusion and helping their classmates with apparent and/or hidden disabilities.
I do want to take issue with one item. As quoted in the story, one child wrote "Be a good friend to people who don't know English." While I laud this sentiment, it was not in fact that sentiment meant to be broadcast by Inclusive Schools week. Inclusive Schools week was to focus on special needs children, and how to include them (especially those with social handicaps) in the regular classroom and on the playground. These special needs kids deserve friends too and often do not have the skills and abilities to converse with normative classmates.
Nonetheless, I would like this child's sentiment to be addressed. Just because our schools and communities are diverse, does not mean that they are inclusive. I suppose that one could stretch the definition of disability to include race and language issues, but please not for this week (unless such analogy is needed to help a child understand what a child with a learning disability feels like).
I guess, other differences can be discussed in other weeks. For learning disabilities, I would like this week to be kept for learing disabilities.
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