And we're back!
Well, we went, and we came back.
The actual exhibition itself was good. The walk up and back was fine. We had a couple of children on wrist reins, which were needed in a couple of instances, but the whole thorny issue of inclusivity raised it's head for me today.
We went for an exhibition which was basically a piece of Christian outreach. Fine, whatever floats your boat. I'm a card carrying Methodist myself, so I actually agreed with a lot of what was said. However, was it fair of us to include children who had no understanding of that which was being discussed? Was it fair of us to take them all the way to town, then have to tell them that they weren't going shopping in anywhere interesting? Was it fair of us to expose them to lights, music, noise, in a place they weren't used to, with adults they weren't used to to think about things that they had no concept of?
But that's inclusion. I can't choose to not take them, even if that is the best thing for them. Even if their time could have been used more constructively back at school. Even if their time could have been spent in a familiar environment, doing familiar things.
Inclusion is not just about the child, it also seems to be about being seen to be inclusive. This school has many issues with inclusivity, and they are being forced to overcome them. Many of the issues have just never come up before. Some of the issues have come up before, but as solo children, never in the combinations that we have right now. 8/40 children in our Y4 are ASD children. That's not a statistic that every school has, and there is no reason why our school should have had it previously. We have it now, and we are dealing with, coping, and loving it now. (Well I'm loving it now.)
But back to the subject.
What do you think?
The actual exhibition itself was good. The walk up and back was fine. We had a couple of children on wrist reins, which were needed in a couple of instances, but the whole thorny issue of inclusivity raised it's head for me today.
We went for an exhibition which was basically a piece of Christian outreach. Fine, whatever floats your boat. I'm a card carrying Methodist myself, so I actually agreed with a lot of what was said. However, was it fair of us to include children who had no understanding of that which was being discussed? Was it fair of us to take them all the way to town, then have to tell them that they weren't going shopping in anywhere interesting? Was it fair of us to expose them to lights, music, noise, in a place they weren't used to, with adults they weren't used to to think about things that they had no concept of?
But that's inclusion. I can't choose to not take them, even if that is the best thing for them. Even if their time could have been used more constructively back at school. Even if their time could have been spent in a familiar environment, doing familiar things.
Inclusion is not just about the child, it also seems to be about being seen to be inclusive. This school has many issues with inclusivity, and they are being forced to overcome them. Many of the issues have just never come up before. Some of the issues have come up before, but as solo children, never in the combinations that we have right now. 8/40 children in our Y4 are ASD children. That's not a statistic that every school has, and there is no reason why our school should have had it previously. We have it now, and we are dealing with, coping, and loving it now. (Well I'm loving it now.)
But back to the subject.
What do you think?
posted by Teacher at
7:56 PM
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