Real inclusion (part two)

Last week, I shared some things I’m learning about inclusion. I’m continuing with the promised “Part Two” of that piece below—but I’m also mindful of the difficult time we’re going through as a community and a school system.

Mental illness, substance abuse and threatened or actual acts of harm to oneself or others require swift, effective intervention and treatment. We should always be asking, “Are we doing enough things? Are we doing the right things?” and vigilantly working to improve.

Additionally, we have work to do to make sure all our students and staff members are safe, seen, known and loved. Research confirms that “school belonging” is a preventative and protective factor against various forms of abuse, alienation, aggression, absenteeism and dropping out, to name a few.
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Inclusive practices fuel a sense of belonging. Thus, I think of what I’m writing below as one piece of a larger, sustained effort to respond to our current challenges and head them off in the future.

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When we left off in Part One, Shelley Moore’s student had just pointed out that this illustration doesn’t really represent inclusion.  Can you see why?

Shelley’s student pointed out that this illustration is really about assimilation, not inclusion. It subtly suggests that green is the majority and the norm to which we should aspire.

Wouldn’t a more realistic rendering look something like this?

​Another student then chimed in: doesn’t each of us have multiple identities that we’d like to see welcomed and valued in our schools?

​The challenge for us, in operating any kind of community we want to be inclusive—as public education surely must be—is this:

I have many thoughts about how we show that we value all colors, what Shelley calls “teaching to identity”—too many thoughts to list here. There are educators inside APS and in other school divisions who are doing this exceptionally well, and they are my teachers.

Our APS superintendent talks about knowing every student “by name, strength and need.” We have an obligation to identify and address the needs, to be sure. But we’d be doing our students a great injustice if we don’t also help them name and build on their individual strengths and identities, and assure them that our school communities are better because of their presence.