When I went to school, they called it mainstreaming. Today they call it inclusion. Today mainstreaming is defined as a child being in a regular class for part of the day. Inclusion is defined as the child being a full member of the regular class with no additional placement for students with disabilities.
For me to be fully integrated, some compromises had to be made. One came the first day of class. Ms. Daye, our homeroom teacher, wanted to assign seats alphabetically. My last name being Micklitz, I was placed in the middle of the room. The problem was I couldn't raise my hand all the way up, so Ms. Daye had a hard time seeing my hand when I had a question or when I wanted to answer a question.
The simple solution would have been to put me in the front row, but Ms. Daye did not want to single anyone out by doing that. For the next day or two she had to look specifically for my hand when asking questions.
The next week, she told me to stay after class. I thought I was in trouble, but I didn't know why. Ms. Daye went to her desk and pulled out a ruler. The difference with this ruler was that it had a pink hippo pasted to one end. She asked me if this would help. I took it and started to raise it up and down. I told her it was perfect.
This is just one example of many compromises that had to be made, but the teachers and the school were very receptive in having me in a regular classroom. Is it this easy for everyone? No. Each child with a disability needs to be looked at separately. There are different circumstances for everyone. Each disability is different and needs to be addressed that way.
Should every child with a disability be given a chance at inclusion? Yes. I know that many will disagree with me on this, but a classroom education is only part of the school experience. Children with disabilities can learn social skills in a regular classroom that they wouldn't learn in a special classroom. The same is true of the classmates. If the classmates aren't exposed to people with different backgrounds or disabilities, they will not know how to interact with them after school.
People who aren't exposed to many different backgrounds as they grow up, tend to listen to stereotypes and treat people at arm's length instead of as a friend. Education is the foundation for society. I know that if I would have stayed in a special school, I wouldn't be able to interact with others as well as I do now.