Ahead of the research!

My real-life example of research benefits to children and families comes from my own mother, Christine Silvis. At the time of this story she was a first grade teacher who worked very closely with the Intermediate Unit (IU) classroom teacher of the physically and mentally disabled. Both my mother and the IU teacher worked hard to mainstream those students into my mother’s first grade classroom. Christine learned never take things at face value. She worked with a student who came from a severe and profound class and by mainstreaming into her first grade class, throughout the year, working with the IU teacher; they developed a way for the student to communicate. By providing the means to communicate this student went from a first grade class to a fifth grade class within a year. This student eventually entered the regular school system at a gifted level. All she needed was a way to communicate and if Christine hadn’t spent the time to make that happen, everyone would have still considered her severely and profoundly retarded. The sad side of this story is that Christine and the IU teacher were ahead of the research of inclusion. In previous classes we have studied the benefits of inclusion. My mother saw first-hand the benefits. She and the IU teacher wrote up a proposal to combine the two rooms for a year to see the outcomes of all the children involved in the classes. Sadly since they were ahead of the research and the district would not allow them to implement this wonderful proposal that we now know would have benefited many children and is now supported by so much research.