David M. Perry’s son Nico’s name was “conspicuously absent” from a flier promoting end-of-year performances by his school’s reading groups. Nico’s teacher’s explanation: “Nico will get to participate as an audience member.”
“The end of the school year should be a happy time filled with celebrations of all the hard work and preparation for a busy summer ahead,” Perry wrote at The Washington Post, On Parenting. “For us, though, Nico’s exclusion from these plays was just another reminder how far we have to go.”
To honor the 25th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Perry is asking educators and parents to “go out of their way to be more inclusive” of children with disabilities, beyond merely providing the formal structures mandated by IDEA.
“When a child with disabilities is kept out of an activity, not only will it hurt them (and their families), but the typical children internalize this segregation as necessary. They will carry that lesson forward.”
When it comes to the library service I provide to children of all abilities, I want to behave better than these adults.
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