Inclusive Classrooms: Together We Are Strong

01.02.2007

Since a couple of decades handicapped children can study together with children who are not disabled in inclusive classrooms. All children are supposed to profit from this set-up. REHACARE.de visited such a school and took a look at the concept.

Florian* has big hearing aids in his ears. He bends over a book, a Brockhaus encyclopaedia for children. Marco looks into the same book. He is not disabled and sits next to Florian. Together they try to find out as much as possible about clouds - weather is the topic of this lesson in the third class at the Matthias-Claudius-School in Bonn.

Each morning about 350 pupils stream into the school buildings. Twelve of these are handicapped and study in inclusive classrooms together with children who are not disabled. On average about ten percent of the disabled children in Germany take part in this way of inclusion, most of them in elementary schools. The idea for this concept arose about 30 years ago. At that time a parents initiative in Berlin enforced the first inclusive classroom at a state school.

"As a result of parents initiatives inclusive classrooms began to spring up like mushrooms in the eighties and nineties. At the moment the number is stagnating because there is no longer a movement for inclusion in the way it used to be”, explains professor Hans Wocken who holds a chair at the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Human Movement at the University of Hamburg. "The parents to whom the inclusion of their child was very important have already found a space.”

As is true for TobiasŽ parents who have send their son into the inclusive class where Florian is taught. He is a maladjusted child. Perhaps this is the reason why he sits on his own at a table which usually provides space for six children. The other pupils, who normally sit next to him, walk through the class and collect information on weather. It is noisy. However, Maria sits alone at her table as well - she is not disabled. The difference between the children seems to be diminutive in the end. The Classmates, especially in elementary school, are not intimidated by disabled children. "For them these are children which are no different from the rest, only with slight disparities”, says Wocken.

However, children with a handicap often need additional assistance in the classroom. As for example Simon, who has autism. Sometimes a woman sits next to him at the table. She appears huge at the little desk. For 15 hours a week she helps Simon during lessons because he finds it sometimes difficult to comprehend what he is supposed to do. "If, for example, he is supposed to find out what is most important in a text, he just copies the whole text”, explains his class teacher.

There are several children with a handicap in each inclusive class at the Matthias-Claudius-School. For every child with a disability the federal state pays three lessons per week in which a special education teacher comes to the class in addition to the class teacher. "With three disabled children in a class, we can attend classes nine hours per week”, says one of the three special education teachers who work at the school. The other children also benefit from this arrangement because they use the chance of having two contact persons.

"The fear that because of the children with disabilities the other children might learn less is absolutely baseless. They learn just as much if not even more”, says Wocken. Hence, there is no problem finding enough children without a handicap for the collective classes. "The parents of children who go to an inclusive class are very content”, knows the professor from Hamburg.

At the Matthias-Claudius-School the children now take a break from classes. It is cold but the sun is shining. The children play soccer in the schoolyard. At first Simon appears to be undetermined, he stands close to the wall. Perhaps he wants to join into the game but he doesnŽt dare to do so. When the ball comes flying into his direction he makes a step forward, but then he stops after all. However, a child finally plays the ball directly at him, he shoots back. Florian is running with some other boys around the schoolyard. He has put on his hood, the hearing aids have disappeared.

*All childrenŽs names are changed

REHACARE.de