Inclusive primary education means that in addition to healthy children, children with different forms of disability are also placed in the same class. For example, people with autism, children with impaired concentration, or children in wheelchairs. Experience has shown that if schoolchildren have children with disabilities, they become more tolerant when they encounter certain disorders in adulthood. Not only that, they usually know what to do. If they spend nine years in one class with a child in a wheelchair, they will be able to effectively help as an adult wheelchair user or if the whole class learned sign language to be able to “chat” with a deaf classmate.
However, many adults are particularly concerned that the presence of children with intellectual disabilities impedes their more talented classmates. It\’s no secret, for example, that children with reduced concentration require more time and attention than other classes. Somewhere it is solved by an assistant, but there are also children who may be really good in a professional environment, in a smaller class, and in an individual approach.
For example, many parents of children with severe autism realize that their child never goes to “normal” school and does not want to do so. The violent disruption of functioning facilities is out of place if there is interest in them, and it is equally pointless to diminish the already modest support for them in the name of inclusion. Successful inclusion does not have to be absolute, nor does it mean the abolition of special schools. It is only a matter of evaluating each case separately and taking into account the opinions of both parents and children.
Children are like mushrooms. They absorb and adapt what is around them and adopt our attitudes and opinions. So if we teach them that different things don\’t make them worse, they will accept it. On the contrary, if you teach them that others automatically mean bad, they will act accordingly. Inclusion should be about breaking down prejudice and finding the perfect solution for everyone.