Years ago I was buried in the decision making process of whether to continue to pay tuition at a small but exceptional parochial school or on the other hand, to "bite the bullet" and enroll my children in a public school. While still preoccupied with all the agonizing details of the decision, I pulled my rattling red, high mileage jeep into the "carpool" line and was immediately surrounded by a plethora of brand new Escalades and Navigators...and, I had an epiphany. "What was I doing?" Despite being blinded by all those shiny cars reflecting the bright Texas sun I clearly saw that THIS was not the real world. The school's curriculum was exceptional; the teachers extraordinary; but the student body, while being racially diverse was definitely not economically different. I realized that my children needed to be surrounded by peers whose backgrounds reflected the community in which they lived. Half of what our children learn in school has to do with academics...the other half of their education revolves around developing social skills and learning how to intereact with the world around them. Glass bubbles provide a temporary safe haven...but ultimately they break. Removing special needs children from mainstream schools deprives them of 50% of their education.

Follow up:

Eric Smith, the parent of a special needs child writes, "Just like we need water to take a bath we also need a "normal" social setting to educate special needs kids about society and interacting in it. The use of Special Education facilities is like taking a mainstream school student to the desert to teach them to swim." [ESN] I am not suggesting that a special needs child should be placed in a class with students whose abilities are so far above their own that they are doomed to ridicule and failure but that special needs resources should be available in the mainstream schools. A child with special needs is not contagious and should not be "quarantined" in programs which are separate from the community school. A special needs child may not be able to cope with Calculus but they should have the opportunity to eat lunch with their peers, attend sporting and social events, and learn in the same type of classroom settings as mainstream students.

Eric Smith provides several reasons why special needs services should be provided within the structure of a community's mainstream schools. [ESN2]

1. Mainstream students learn to accept the child behind the disability while students with disabilities need to learn, fail and succeed like any mainstream student.
2. Disabled children can develop a sense of acceptance. Educating special needs children apart from mainstream students gives the disabled child a sense of not only being different, but of being unaccepted.
3. Social interaction should be a part of every child's education and not a "special event" or excursion. There is little sense in removing a child from society in order to teach them social skills.
4. When students with more severe disabilities are educated at mainstream schools, the services for the child with less severe disabilities are available on hand rather than by appointment.

We need to focus on educating children in the "real" world and to prepare them for all of the eventualities that will face them when they leave the protection of their "ivy covered halls".

Sources:

[ESN1] Smith, Eric J. Ezine @rticles: Educating Special Needs Children In Mainstream Schools.

[ESN2] Smith, Eric J. Ezine @rticles: 5 Good Reasons to Enroll Special Needs Children in Mainstream Schools.