A number of the M&R teachers said they miss the direct contact and special relationships they had with students as classrom teachers.
Changing Attitudes in Schools Towards Integration
Integration is for everyone. For a while I wondered whether it was really going to work for a few, but now I realize it is for everyone. It might not be using the same methods or it might not be for the same time limits, but you have to be open to that. You have to look at the student as an individual. All students have a right schooling and having people be positive — mind you there a lots of problems. With anything new there are going to be problems — but we’re conquering them one at a time. It’s great to see it working. I had doubts when I first started.
While this teacher has a very positive and optimistic view towards the integration of students with disabilities, many teachers in districts 28 and 29 don’t share her enthusiasm. M&R teachers report that most teachers have accepted that integration is going to take place and that it is probably in the child’s best interest. Many are apprehensive about what they are expected to do with the student with special needs. Some teachers are concerned that through classroom integration, the student will miss the benefits of more individualized instruction. One M&R teacher with experience teaching a segregated class suggested that teachers “don’t understand that what you do in a one-to-one situation is basically what would take place in the regular classroom.” Some teachers continue to nurture the idea that the movement towards integration might end:
There are still people saying it’s a cycle … that we’re going to do away with all this integration. I don’t think it’s a cycle. I think that things are evolving. It may be true that next year we’ll do things a little differently, but we will be improving on what we’re doing now. We’re never really going to segregate those children and go back to the system we had before. I think parents are too aware of the situation to let it go back.
