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Feature = : a ae

- ‘What if that child was in my class?’

by Valorie Lennox
The Review

Integration frightens some
teachers.

“I felt helpless,” one teacher
confessed after watching a video-
tape on inteprating special needs
children into a standard classroom.

“I thought, what if that child
was in my class tomorrow — and I
felt helpless.”

“TI don’t have any experience
with children like that and I feel
vulnerable, especially in imagin-
ing an oxygen tank in a science lab
with a bunsen burner,”” another
teacher admitted, referring to one
child shown in the video who was
connected to supplemental oxy-
gen.

In a five-hour workshop April
23, over 40 teachers from the
Saanich school district confronted
their feelings about integration.
Some had worked with physically
or mentally disabled children,
some had not, but all recognized
the potential problems.

“Special needs people don’t
necessarily have noble hearts that
want to conquer the world. Some
are unhappy, some are cranky, just
the same as any other group of
people,” one teacher remarked.

The teachers asked themselves
how they would handle a disabled
child in their class; how they
would work with the parents of the
child; how they would divide their
time between a special needs child
and other children in the class-
room; how they would work with
the aide who may accompany a
disabled child to class.

“Tf I say I can’t do it, is that a

reflection on me?”
_ Can I challenge the placing of
‘a special needs child in my class if
I feel the placement is mappropri-
ate?”

‘There were other difficult ques-
tions:

“How do I reassure the parents
of the other students that I am not
shortchanging the other students
— never mind reassuring the par-
ents, how do.1-teassure myself?”

“How is it possible to work with
the multitude of para-professionals
(aides, nurses,. therapists etc.) who
may be attached to one child? How
many meetings will I have to
attend?”

“How does a teacher determine
what is best for the child? How
will I feel if forced to follow a
parents’ wishes for the child
against my Own judgment as a

teacher? Who is ultimately
accountable for each child’s edu-
cational goals?”

“How do I change my teaching
to serve a child who does not react
the same way as the rest of the
children in the class? Without
feedback, how do I know if the
lesson has been learned?”

“How do I avoid becoming too
involved with the family of a
special needs child? What if they

“expect more support than the

school can offer?”

“What are the legal implications
for a teacher working with a
special needs child?”

An especially difficult problem
was posed by one teacher on the
integration of a disabled student
with a progressive disease.

“Will we have the counselling
Skills to handle a situation where a
child, over years, may be dying in
the class?”

Repeatedly the teachers won-
dered if the equipment and staff
and training would be available to
effectively integrate physically and
mentally handicapped children.

“How do I handle parents’
expectations if support services for
the special needs child are not
available?”

Teachers proposed workshops
on health and safety for those who
may be physically carrying a disa-
bled child, coupons which could
be exchanged for substitute time to
allow for the extra demands of a
special needs student in the class-
room and changing a school time-
table to allow longer classes in one
setting and less moving of a handi-
capped child.

Parents of all children in the

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Class will need information on
integration and teachers need in-
service training before a disabled
child is integrated.

Courses in teaching disabled
children should be mandatory for
education students, the teachers
added.

A safe haven should be available
for a disabled child who may feel
overwhelmed by six hours in a
classroom with 25 other children,
teachers agreed.

“We must accept what we can
do and accept the limitations,”
one teacher remarked.

One limitation is money.
Despite promises of additional
funding for integration, many
teachers doubted the support
would be available.

The skepticism was summarized
by a teacher who brandished a
Star-sprinkled plastic stick.

“You just wave a magic wand
and you will get it,” she promised.

keday

Wedestiy ‘ay’ 1994 = 2 AIT

CAREFULLY CONCENTRATING. SERENE Phillips prints
name on her worksheet. Integrated for almost two years
early primary classes at Sidney Elementary school, tie
seven-year-old Is proof that integration works, say teachers
Joy Paquin and Sylvia Kane. Other local teachers, many
who do not have special needs children in their class,
confronted their fears about integration at a workshop April
23. :

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