Inclusive Education
What is inclusion? Inclusion is about ALL of us. It is about living full lives and about learning to live together, making the world our classroom for a full life, treasuring diversity and building community. Inclusion is about our 'abilities' - our gifts and how to share them. Inclusion is NOT just a 'disability' issue.
We asked Jack Pearpoint, Gary Bunch, Lynda Kahns and colleagues from Inclusion Press and the Inclusion Network to host 3 online chats about inclusion. Those chats took place on September and October and covered the following topics:
Topic 1: Transition Crisis or Opportunity
For teenagers and families, transitions from school to full lives of work and community engagement are exciting and volatile times. For students with ‘disability labels', transitions are too often a crisis. Support systems evaporate, and without careful planning, "falling off a cliff" is a too common family summary. With collaboration and planning, transition can be an opportunity instead of a crisis. Begin exploring processes that identify gifts and capacities as building blocks for transition and life.
Topic 2: Inclusion by Engagement
We'll explore the power and creativity of PlayFair Teams in schools - and their capacity to unleash hidden talents and instigate powerful cultural change about ‘disability labels' and attitudes. Playfair Teams provides a structure for a group of students with and without disabilities to "hang' together over a period of months and undertake initiatives of their own creation. Their activities and projects help to sensitize their schools and surrounding communities to issues of Disability, Social Justice, and Inclusion.
Topic 3: Solution Circles: Creative Problem Solving
Top down problem solving strategies often hit a brick wall. Creative engagement can unleash the gifts, capacities and energy of students and citizens in mutual problem solving. Join us to learn and practice Solution Circles - a creative Problem solving tool created by Inclusion Press.
We'd like to keep the discussion going. The following pages contain some great reading materials and a video about inclusion. Please feel free to browse and post your thoughts.