Celebrating Inclusive Schools Week

                                 I am wearing my I Am Norm tag- get yours here and wear to celebrate Inclusive Schools Week!

This week we are almost in the middle of celebration season. Sure, we celebrate year round, but when else is celebrating so apparent? Lights everywhere, music, catalogs and cards filling your mailbox and certain foods that we only indulge in at this time of year. Celebrating is an important part of our culture. This week, I am going to spend some time and effort celebrating something else that I think is very important to our culture now and in the future, and I encourage you to do the same. “Inclusive Schools Week is an annual event which is held each year during the first week in December. Since its inception in 2001, Inclusive Schools Week has celebrated the progress that schools have made in providing a supportive and quality education to an increasingly diverse student population, including students who are marginalized due to disability, gender, socio-economic status, cultural heritage, language preference and other factors. The Week also provides an important opportunity for educators, students and parents to discuss what else needs to be done in order to ensure that their schools continue to improve their ability to successfully educate all children.”

If you follow KIT’s work then you know that our focus is inclusion in the out-of-school hours. We teach people who work in early childhood, before and after school and enrichment programs how to include children with and without disabilities. But that does not mean that we are not huge advocates for inclusive schools. KIT’s vision is that children with disabilities are welcomed and supported in all aspects of community life. The school is the centerpiece of the community. Outside of the family it may be the first place a child with a disability has to experience being included. It is the place where a child can understand and begin to know who they are in the world. It is where we as a society begin to support them in their journey to becoming an adult that contributes back to their community. Being included sends a powerful message. Being excluded or segregated or whatever you want to call it also sends a message to a child. Believe me, I know the state of education as it stands. I know that we are all about standardized tests and increasing achievement. I know that inclusion requires teachers to be prepared and given additional support and that we are operating with less money than we have in the past. But I believe that by promoting inclusive schools, we are encouraging what we know is best for children. We are making a statement that every child can learn and giving every child the chance to experience true diversity.

Won’t you join in me in promoting and celebrating Inclusive Schools Week? Visit the Inclusive Schools Week website for ideas and planning tools, or check out what our friends at I Am Norm are doing to celebrate. Or watch Malia describe it for herself.

Inclusion is...in school and out of school, and in every part of community life.