Philpott – children naturally inclusive

I started teaching in 1985 and my first job was in a small rural community. And my first job was to convince the principal that my “poor disabled kids”, as she referred to them, belonged in school for a full day. She thought they should only come for a couple of hours because that’s all they were capable of. So I convinced her that they all belonged in my class, and these were children with very visible multiple disabilities, who were completely excluded.  

Well we took them into the school, but we took them into the classrooms and when they went into the classrooms with the other children we did not have to work at including them, the other children included them.  

So I was the male teacher on a staff of all women, so I became the Phys Ed teacher as well of course, 1985. And when I took the grade one class or the kindergarten class to gym period, the child with the disabilities, I had the worker just, you know, wheel them into the gym and leave them alone. And go on, you know, the staffroom and have a break. And we’d start playing whatever game we played. I never ever had to cue the children how to include the child with the exceptional – they all naturally took turns pushing the wheelchair or engaging them in one way or another.  

Children are intrinsically inclusive, especially young children. As they age, they learn our values and start to exclude.