The book has talked a ton about inclusion of students with disabilities being included into regular classrooms. From experience, I believe that everyone benefits from regular students being in classrooms with students with disabilities. I worked with children like this for a long time and you can see a change in a student who has come from a classroom, where they have never had a "mentor", to having a "mentor". Not only do the students with disabilities benefit but every "mentor" that has came in closed minded or uneducated come out a new person.
Not only are both parties learning but at my school where each child had a "mentor" to help them got one on one time. We had class time with the teacher and as we worked on assignments, the children had someone right there to help them all the way. They progressed so quickly. One student, from one of my first years in the program, came to our school not speaking a word of English. This student has down-syndrome and was not taught any English, ever. After a year of being in the program, she now speaks English like she has been doing it forever and also continues to speak Spanish which was her native language. I feel so privileged to know this student and to say that I have helped her accomplish getting over a language barrier.
This program of inclusion also makes students aware, understanding, and educated about any type of student with any type of disability. The other benefit is that being able to know children with disabilities is the most rewarding and life-changing of anything I have ever done in my life. No matter what my mood, it was never down around them.
So YES, inclusion of regular students in special education classrooms is beneficial for everyone.
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