2016 Inclusive Schools Week: Champions of Inclusion – POWerful Things Happen in Inclusive Schools!

This year, the Inclusive Schools Week’s theme focuses on the concept of being a hero. This is particularly fitting because the definition of a hero, a person noted for courageous acts of nobility of character, resonates with all of the students, parents, teachers, principals and community leaders who take courageous steps forward each day to promote acceptance for all.

The path toward more inclusive educational services has been challenging, yet rewarding. This year, we will focus on the steps along this journey and consider the courage it requires to:

• Walk into an unfamiliar classroom and participate in the general curriculum beside your peers;
• Speak up in favor of the vision and practice of inclusion when some in your group continue to believe that students should be grouped homogeneously to make instruction easier for the teachers and less demanding for the students;
• Model a sense of shared responsibility for all students, rather than labeling or categorizing them;
• Dare to challenge a fellow faculty member that makes comments that are not in keeping with inclusive language, such as those students, the special education kids, or the autistic students, using labels like they are the best or only descriptors of a child;
• Raise the issue and ask difficult questions surrounding overrepresentation of children of color in special education services and the underrepresentation of this same group in accelerated instruction;
• Speak up at your Parent/Teacher Association meeting in favor of inclusive membership, goals and activities that include all children and families;
• Ask difficult, but necessary, questions of school administrators around the subjects of progress toward inclusion, the barriers that remain and the ways in which we can support the effort toward inclusive schools;
• Extend the conversation to the community to make certain that the inclusive opportunities that are provided in the schools are available throughout adulthood.

Today’s media heroes, Batman, Superman, Supergirl, Wonderwoman, and all of the other caped crusaders are fun to watch on the big screen, but it is the authentic, everyday heroes who demonstrate the courage and sense of honor that we recognize through the Inclusive Schools Network. Our most sincere thanks to each of you – Our Heroes!