Week 5: Assignment A- Going to School Documentary

Going to School Documentary

This one-hour long documentary was powerful. Although not a contemporary film, I feel it gave me a historical look back at how things were in a Los Angeles school district were incorporating adaptions become or stay compliant with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142), or the EHA. The EHA guarantees a free, appropriate public education, or FAPE, to each child with a disability in every state and locality across the country.

 Today, in our local school districts students with physical, developmental, and learning needs are for the most part mainstreamed in the classroom. In the film we saw a few examples of how schools at that time were educating students with special needs.  

One school segregated students with physical, developmental and learning needs into one section of the school.  The special education teacher remarked that although the students were getting an education, they were not learning social skills that would allow them to function in mainstream society. Also, that same school was not equip with proper accessible facilities such as entryways into the school. He did remark that there was a beautiful, handicapped bathroom but no direct route for the students to access it.  

Another classroom integrated students into the classroom and had 1:1 aides to supplement learning but the classroom lacked adequate space for adaptive equipotent and proper mobility of the students with special physical needs. 

The best example of incisive education at that time showcased a classroom that appeared to have a low student to teacher ratio, several students with special need were in the class and the students were learning together, side-by-side and student to student mentoring and socialization was happening. That is how I envision an inclusive learning environment. 

After watching the documentary, I did a bit of searching on-line. I came across an organization that supports resiliency in teaching.  Teaching can be difficult and especially when the needs of the classroom increase in numbers and acuity. Click to link to find out more https://resilienteducator.com/