The wheels on the bus go round and round, but not in the community of Lakewood, Ohio, where families prefer the good old-fashioned method of walking.
That’s because the town has chosen to abandon school buses, resulting in the school system saving about $1 million a year on transportation costs.
The suburb of Cleveland considers itself the densest community between New York and Chicago, according to the Atlantic Cities. With 51,00 people in five and a half square miles, the community boasts seven elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school — all within walking or biking distance of their students’ homes.
A short film from Streetfilms profiles the town that developed its community without the help of busing kids to school. As Streetsblog USA reporter Annie Schmitt points out, modern schools are often built on the periphery of communities to accommodate large parking lots and cut land costs. But with the addition of transportation, districts tend to lose money whereas Lakewood’s deliberate decision to remove transportation altogether is actually saving money.
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But for residents of Lakewood, the experience of walking to school is more about celebrating a sense of strong community than it is about a budget.
“It’s a big social event every morning or afternoon,” Katie Stallbaum said. “You walk to school and the kids are running and playing and laughing. It’s a good thing for them to know what community is. I don’t think they’d get that if we weren’t walking.”
MORE: A Georgia High School Lets Students Learn on the Job
Elementary school principal Sandy Kozelka points out her students benefit from walking by having some time to relax before coming to class. As a 2012 Danish study found, walking or biking to school improves children’s ability to concentrate, with effects lasting all morning.
“When they get to school, they’re ready to learn,” she said.
Lakewood encourages students to bike to school as well. City planner Bryce Sylvester said the community hosted its first bike-to-school day as well as a charity event asking residents to donate old bikes to fix up and give to underprivileged children.
The students enjoy that period, Sylvester said. “They’re experiencing the city in a different way.”
With more school systems implementing green initiatives and finding means of cutting costs, Lakewood’s example proves that sometimes simplicity works best.
Category: Moving America Forward
Meet the Couple Who Dedicated Their Entire Life Fighting for the Homeless
For decades, the 54-block stretch of downtown Los Angeles known as Skid Row has been home to the largest concentration of homeless people in the country. While much of the city’s population marches towards revitalizing the area, a seasoned couple has dedicated their lives to standing up for those left behind.
Jeff Dietrich, 68, and nearly 80-year-old Catherine Morris have spent their lives sticking up for L.A.’s most underserved community: The homeless. The two are often found at the Hippie Kitchen, a soup kitchen located on 6th Street, where the couple joins a team handing out 5,000 hot plates of food each week, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Despite their efforts to serve the poor, Dietrich and Morris have not always been popular. They’ve been arrested more than 40 times and have even faced criticism from within their own religious organization. Notorious for their range of protests — from rallying against nuclear arms and Army recruitment to the first Gulf War to the groundbreaking of a $200 million cathedral — Dietrich and Morris have also been perceived as preventing growth in one of the poorest areas in the city.
Indeed, Los Angeles is home one of the largest homeless populations in the country. According to a 2013 report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), L.A. had the highest percentage — about 80 percent — of homeless people without shelter as well as the largest amount of chronically homeless, Politico reports. About 14,840 homeless people, many whom suffer from mental disorders to drug addiction, live in L.A. — 5,000 of which call Skid Row home.
“We’re known as the homeless enablers,” Dietrich told the Times. “Yes, we believe in enabling people living on the streets, people who’ve been discarded by society, so they can live with as much dignity as possible. I guess that’s right, homeless enablers is what we are.”
The two also championed an initiative to provide homeless people with shopping carts to serve as mobile storage. Despite public outcry from business owners downtown, a judge ruled that the carts could not be seized, which some considered detrimental to revitalization efforts.
MORE: Why This Pastor Continues to Feed the Homeless, Even After the Police Told Him to Stop
The pair first met while volunteering at the Hippie Kitchen as a part of the Catholic Worker, an organization that sprang from the Great Depression and created a movement of people living in poverty while helping society’s most vulnerable members.
Morris was on a year-long hiatus from her job as a principal at a posh Pasadena school while Dietrich was returning from a trip to Europe after he refused the Vietnam War draft. The two fell in love and Morris left the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus to marry him in 1974.
Catholic Worker volunteers operated out of an old Victorian home, which can house up to 30 people at a time. It is kept scant to convey the sense of being poor, and Morris and Dietrich still reside there with just 12 workers — half of which are older than 50.
But the two are resolute to carry on their work despite a lack of successor. They don’t preach or ask for any federal aid and instead focus on what’s important: Helping the poor.
That attitude is inspirational to some like Father Tom Rausch, a Jesuit priest and professor at Loyola Marymount, who points out that their work aligns with Pope Francis’s vision for the future of their church.
“I think finally we have a pope in line with the Catholic Workers,” Rausch said. “If he were a simple priest living in Los Angeles, he’d be with them. Times have changed. There’s a sense that the work they are doing is validated by Francis, that he is saying the kinds of things they have been saying for years, and that has to feel very good to them.”
Taco Talks: A New York Pop-Up Restaurant Doubles as an Innovation Lab
Manhattan’s Lower East Side will welcome another creative space for the aspiring entrepreneur, but this time it comes with an order of crispy shells stuffed with meat and cheese.
The Design Taco, a weeklong, pop-up storefront is actually an idea accelerator operating under the guise of a Mexican restaurant. Design Gym, which runs a series of innovation workshops, teamed up with Made in the Lower East Side, an outfit that transforms empty storefronts into pop-up shops, to create the refreshing break from a boardroom whiteboard.
“When you go to a coffee shop, you might see people trying to brainstorm and collaborate, trying to pitch ideas to their friends and get something started, but the truth is those spaces aren’t really designed for that type of interaction,” Design Gym founder Andy Hagerman told Fast Company.
MORE: These Startups Offer Sleek Technological Innovations for the Elderly
Hagerman explains the concept is open to both individuals and companies looking for a new approach, and an atypical environment like a taco joint may encourage people to relax and experiment more than usual.
The pop-up will run from May 12 to May 19 at 37 East 1st Street and be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The restaurant will host a series of private classes, panels and workshops including a collaboration panel with Brooklyn Brewery, Moleskin, and West Elm as well as an evening on innovation with Chipotle, OXO, Kickstarter, and Refinery 29. Walk-in hours are also available to the general public, giving customers a chance to stop in, enjoy some tacos and develop an idea.
Hagerman expects foot traffic from all walks of life, and while it’s only temporary, the Design Gym is not dismissing the idea of opening a permanent outpost.
“In the workshops we’ve had, a brain surgeon will be sitting next to a seventh grade student, next to an executive from a Fortune 500 company,” Hagerman says. “The conversations we’ve seen happen, with a little bit of coaching and facilitation, are incredible. We don’t think there are necessarily enough outlets or places for conversations like that to happen right now.”
Why Do We Celebrate Mother’s Day? 9 Heartwarming Reminders
1. The Military Mom Helping Veterans Make a Transition to Civilian Life
WHO: Eva Secchiari
HOW SHE DOES IT: After growing up in a military family, Eva Secchiari understood all too well how stressful deployments can be for soldiers and their loved ones. But seeing her own son struggle with anxiety after his return from combat in Afghanistan in 2012 prompted the Nevada mother to do something. That year, Secchiari founded Life After Active Duty (LAAD), a nonprofit that helps returning veterans readjust to civilian life. The group’s primary initiative, called LAAD Life Enhancement Program, is an eight-week immersion course that trains veterans on basic coping and communication tactics, employment opportunities and other leadership skills. The pilot run launched in December 2013 with 30 participants, but Secchiari told the Las Vegas Review-Journal she’s already thinking bigger. “I see it going nationwide,” she said. “We have 330,000 veterans here [in Nevada], so if we start building that foundation, then we can start expanding outside the state of Nevada. It needs to happen.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Volunteer as a program mentor or offer financial support here.
2. The Safety Activist Turning Her Heartbreak Into Hope
WHO: Alison Rhodes Jacobson
HOW SHE DOES IT: After Alison Rhodes Jacobson lost her first son, Connor, to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 1997, she quit her executive gig in public relations and started Safety Mom, a consulting company dedicated to child safety. Its website offers families tips on everything from baby-proofing the house and bullying to disease prevention and nutrition. Now Rhodes Jacobson also gives advice on living with disabilities — subject matter she became familiar with after she learned her second son had a learning disability and her husband was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In 2013, she formed Accessible Home Living, a company that provides disability remodeling and handicap installations for the home. The Connecticut mom has been an equally tireless crusader for children’s safety in the public realm, having testified before Congress in 1998 and campaigned to increase national funding for research dedicated to SIDS, which claims about 4,000 infants a year in the United States.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Share Safety Mom’s health and wellness tips with friends, family and social networks.
3. The Innovator Making Grocery Shopping Easier for Families With Disabled Kids
WHO: Drew Ann Long
HOW SHE DOES IT: When Drew Ann Long couldn’t find a viable solution to grocery shopping with her special-needs daughter, Caroline, who had grown too big to fit into traditional carts, the Alabama mother decided to create her own. Caroline’s Cart, a specialized shopping cart that combines the convenience of a grocery cart with the space and modifications required of a wheelchair for special-needs children, is Long’s solution to the challenges of navigating a supermarket with a disabled child. Caroline’s Cart features a large seat that’s accessible by rotating handles on the back of the cart, while a harness secures kids, leaving parents’ hands free to shop. “I just saw a very unmet need in the retail world,” Long said. “There are carts for every group out there, but there is nothing for special-needs children.” Caroline’s Carts are in stores in Alabama, Wisconsin and Indiana, and Long hopes to make them available nationwide so families with disabled kids can have better mobility when it’s time to shop.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Join Caroline’s Cart Facebook page to request the carts in a store near you.
4. The Foster Mom Granting Wishes for Kids in the System
WHO: Danielle Gletow
HOW SHE DOES IT: When Danielle Gletow and her husband began fostering children in their New Jersey home in 2006, they were inspired by the many friends and family members who wanted to help kids in similar situations. (Nearly 400,000 kids lived in foster care in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.) So in 2008, Gletow started One Simple Wish, a nonprofit that collects “wishes” from nearly 600 organizations that work with foster kids from across the country. One Simple Wish then reviews the requests and posts approved “wishes” online — which range from products like video games to experiences like going on a trip — and anonymous “wish granters” can fulfill them. “These are individual children that have individual wishes and individual personalities and wants and needs and dislikes and likes,” Gletow told CNN. “And I wanted to share those with people so that … they could see that this wasn’t about nearly half a million children that are in foster care. This was about this young man who wanted to go to karate lessons with his friends at school.” To date, One Simple Wish has granted more than 8,500 wishes in more than 40 states.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Grant a wish.
5. The Vaccine Advocate Spreading the Word
WHO: Duffy Peterson
HOW SHE DOES IT: Duffy Peterson’s decision not to vaccinate her child, at the alleged suggestion of her doctor, is one that’s haunted her for years. In 2001, the Minnesota mother lost her 5-year-old daughter, Abby, after the little girl came down with a serious case of chicken pox — one that made her body too weak to fight off the pneumonia that she caught at the same time. Abby died in Peterson’s arms after 10 excruciating hours in the hospital. Duffy Peterson is now one of the loudest champions for childhood vaccinations, having testified before the Minnesota legislature in support of immunizations and worked to pass laws requiring vaccinations for kids. “Not vaccinating is not taking full medical care of your child,” she told ABC News.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Learn about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s suggested immunization schedules for children.
6. The Environmentalists Saving Lunchtime by Kissing Plastic Bags Goodbye
WHO: Karen Whorton and Becky Harper
HOW THEY DO IT: Karen Whorton and Becky Harper, moms based in Washington State, got their business idea while performing a task that any parent would be familiar with: preparing their kids’ lunch. Day after day, they found themselves throwing away many plastic sandwich bags. And while cloth napkins and sustainable water bottles were easy to find, there wasn’t a green alternative to wasteful plastic sandwich bags, which typically have one use. (U.S. consumers use about 100 billion plastic bags a day.) To fill this void, Whorton and Harper launched ReUsies, a line of reusable, eco-friendly food bags. Made of 100 percent cotton and lined with leak-resistant nylon, they are free of harmful ingredients like phthalates and bisphenol-A. They’re convenient, too: All ReUsies can be tossed in the dishwasher for quick cleaning. Whorton and Harper started selling their product to fellow moms in their kids’ schools in 2008, and now ReUsies are available in retail stores in 36 states and online at the company’s website.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Buy a ReUsies bag and go green.
7. The Crusader Helping Veterans Cope With PTSD
WHO: Roxann Abrams
HOW SHE DOES IT: Some 22 veterans kill themselves a day, according to a 2012 Department of Veterans Affairs study. Many of them are among the estimated 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These devastating statistics hit close to home for Roxann Abrams, whose son Randy, a combat solider who served three tours in Iraq, took his own life in 2009. Frustrated by what she considered a lack of attention and treatment for her son by the Army, Abrams founded Operation: I.V., a nonprofit that provides free PTSD treatment for combat veterans. Funded by corporate and individual donations, the group also helps to educate families and friends of combat veterans on PTSD and works to improve the transition process from combat to civilian life. “The best way I can honor my son is to help his brothers,” Roxann Abrams writes on Operation: I.V.’s website.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Donate to Operation: I.V.
8. The Underdog Mom Helping Kids Dance to Success
WHO: Tawanda Jones
HOW SHE DOES IT: The challenges that Camden, N.J., students face is a matter of empirical research. Roughly 90 percent of the city’s public schools are in the bottom 5 percent of the state’s schools based on performance, while only 49 percent of students graduate high school, according to the New Jersey Department of Education. But one local mother has found an innovative way to help turn those statistics around — and help kids stay off the street and active in the process. Tawanda Jones founded the nonprofit Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team in 1986 as a way to motivate young girls to succeed in school by using the disciple principles of a drill team. Over the last 28 years, the program has served more than 4,000 girls, all of whom have graduated high school and 80 percent of whom have gone on to vocational schools or traditional four-year colleges.
Jones, who was a teenage mother, was inspired to create the program after seeing how solid family support and hard work helped her succeed, compared with many of her peers who found themselves pregnant, too. “I saw that a lot of girls didn’t have any of that, and I wanted to help,” she told CNN. Today, the nonprofit has grown to include boys and a drum line program; its drill team has also received national acclaim after a performance on ABC’s popular series, “Dancing With the Stars.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Volunteer with underserved kids or donate to cover operational costs.
9. The Entrepreneur Championing Compassion Through Education Reform
WHO: Jan Helson
HOW SHE DOES IT: A lifelong businesswoman and philanthropist, Kentucky mother Jan Helson taught her kids at an early age the importance of both business savvy and a passion for giving back. It’s no wonder, then, that when her daughter Rachel learned that another one of her aunts (making it four) had been diagnosed with breast cancer, the aspiring actress staged a local performance of “The Rocky Horror Show” to raise money for breast cancer research. Rachel, then 15, raised a whopping $12,000 and eventually went on to produce the play as a one-night benefit on Broadway in 2007.
For Jan Helson, the experience confirmed her long-held belief that encouraging a child’s true interests holds the key to professional and personal success. Today, she’s spreading that message through the Global Game Changers, an educational nonprofit she founded with Rachel in 2011. GGC offers after-school programs through local organizations like the YMCA, summer camps and a Common Core-compliant curriculum that encourages kids to pair their passions with their talents to unleash their “superpower” to change the world. “We believe that it’s important for kids to find the educational aspects of what they’re learning to be fun and engaging and something that’s relatable,” Jan Helson told NationSwell. “By using the equation — my talent plus my heart equals my superpower — the goal is to show them that giving back is part of who they are and not just something that they do.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Sponsor a child for a Global Game Changers workshop here.
Shooting For Hope: How One Photo Changed This Foster Teen’s Life
“A picture is worth a 1,000 words,” is a maxim that’s taught us the power of imagery. But that doesn’t always resonate when a picture fails to capture its subject.
For a 16-year-old foster child, that seemed to be part of the problem. Deon, a teen born and raised in Yakima, Washington, has spent most of his childhood in and out of foster care since the age of 5. Last year, he gave up finding a family, expecting his final years in the foster care system to wind down.
In most states, foster children become responsible for themselves when they turn 18. While some agencies provide job training programs or workshops to build resumes, most of these children are thrust into adulthood without any support or stability. In fact, more than 27,000 of the 400,000 children in U.S. foster care leave the system without any family or support, according to U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Children’s Bureau.
“It’s pretty frightening for them because they really are just pretty much on their own,” said Amber Louis, a recruitment and outreach specialist for the Northwest Adoption Exchange in Seattle.
But that all changed for Deon, who thanks to a photographer’s eye, found a new outlook on life.
Jennifer Loomis, a family photographer based in Seattle, was scrolling through photos of children on adoption sites when she realized how poor their quality was.
“I was so blown away by how bad the photos were that I thought, ‘Oh my God, these photos don’t show these kids at all,'” she told CNN. “I can’t get a sense of who these kids are.”
Loomis contacted the Northwest Adoption Exchange, and Louis quickly responded. Loomis enlisted another photographer, Rocky Salskov, arranging a two-day photo shoot to capture the spirit of seven children between ages 9 and 17 who are looking for a home. Deon was fortunate enough to be selected.
“I wanted photos where you could look into their eyes and see into their soul a little bit better, where you could be like, ‘Wow, Deon, what a guy,’ ” she said.
MORE: Foster Kids Need One Thing to Succeed in School. A Former Teacher’s Goal Is to Give It to Every Single One
It worked. Joanna Church always wanted to adopt an older child and she began her search after her husband, Sean Vaillancourt, a sonar operator for the Canadian Navy, agreed. Church first spotted Deon’s old photo on a website and skipped past it, but after seeing his newfangled shot on the Northwest Adoption Exchange, she was captivated.
“You saw…personality in the face, like you saw it coming off the page and it was enough to get us to stop and open that profile and look at it it, and want to get to know Deon better,” Church said.
Deon moved in with Church and Vaillancourt in October, and the adoption process soon followed.
“They’ve really given me a new look on life,” he said. “Instead of feeling just like that I’m all alone, I actually feel like I have somebody there for me.”
Church and Vaillancourt are helping Deon with obtaining Canadian citizenship to prepare for their move to Victoria, British Columbia, in August. Deon, who had trouble in school, has since improved his grades, joined the track team and is learning to drive. The couple is also dedicated to ensuring their new son keeps in touch with his biological family — including his great grandmother who has taken care of him over the years.
When you give someone a chance, it can change their life forever, Deon said. “You are basically saving a life.”
As for the new parents, the relationship has led Church to become an advocate for adoption, sharing her good fortune to raise awareness about older kids waiting for homes. She often hears that parents are nervous about the uncertainty that comes with older children, she adds.
“And my response is always, you [don’t] know what kind of kid you’re going to get when you birth them,” she said.
Vaillancourt contends it’s about giving someone else a chance.
“We’ve all had our chances, from our parents, from somebody looking out for us, and these [kids] have nobody looking out for them.”
Watch The Magic Trick That’s Both Heartwarming and Baffling at the Same Time
Using magic to solve hunger sounds completely ridiculous, but a YouTube star is certainly making it look like it’s possible.
In the video below, Magician Rob Anderson walks around the streets of Las Vegas and asks homeless people to indulge in his magic trick involving an empty paper bag. At first, they look skeptical but after they agree to place an item of food into the bag, Anderson does whatever magic voodoo he does and — presto, chango! — several more packages of the same food appear. In fact, there’s so much food coming from the bag that they can’t even catch it all.
Anderson calls himself a professional magician who also makes light-hearted pranking videos, but as he says about his aim: “I make videos that make you feel good.”
MORE: Donations Pour in After Video of Homeless Man “Winning” the Lottery Goes Viral
While solving hunger takes much more effort than a few shakes of a paper bag, it’s certainly joyous to see the faces of these people light up after seeing their stash of food multiply as if out of thin air.
Across this country, millions of people do not have money for food or a home. Solving this problem is a serious undertaking, and that’s why there’s also a need to bring joy — and yes, a little magic — to the world.
Why This Fearless Teacher Risked Her Life for Her Special Needs Students
Tricia Moses lives and breathes for teaching, so there’s no greater irony than the fact that an extremely rare autoimmune disease destroyed her lungs and nearly took her life.
The Brooklyn teacher, diagnosed with Scleroderma in 2009, was in urgent need of a double lung transplant after the incurable disease turned her lungs into scar tissue. Ever the fearless and devoted teacher, Moses went against doctors orders so she could see her third grade special needs class through state exams, as Yahoo Shine reports.
“We’d been preparing for the exams for so long,” Moses, a teacher of 14 years, told Yahoo. “Even though my students have special needs, they’re still held to the same standards as everyone else unfortunately. We’d worked so hard. I said please just give me another week, and then another week, and then another week. I wanted them to have a fair chance to succeed.”
MORE: Meet the Teacher Who’s Still Inspiring Students, Despite Retiring More Than Three Decades Ago
The 39-year-old, who teaches at P.S. 233 in Flatbush, is the epitome of selflessness by putting her own life in danger for the well-being of her students. While still working, her health got so bad she had to be placed on oxygen 24 hours a day, and she was so weak that she needed her students to help her get around.
Miraculously, as the New York Daily News reports, Moses was able to see her students through their exams on April 23 before flying to a hospital in Pittsburgh to receive her new lungs in an arduous eight-hour procedure. According to the publication, Moses is recovering but she is in danger of organ rejection — her body has already turned on her new lungs twice, sending her to the hospital both times.
She also faces a mountain of medical bills. While Moses’s insurance mostly covered the $900,000 transplant procedure, she is using her own money to pay for doctors’ visits and medication. To help with the costs, her loved ones plan to host a fundraiser in June.
Now in rehabilitation, the elementary school teacher has been instructed to stay in Pittsburgh to be near her doctors, but she’s already awaiting her return home to New York next January so she can go back to what she does best. She even told Yahoo that she wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again.
DON’T MISS: The Opera Singer’s Third Set of Lungs
“They’re children with special needs, I didn’t consider it to be the job,” Moses said. “It was something I wanted to do. I wanted to be around them, and I had so much faith in them. I knew if I left them and they had a substitute teacher, it might not have gone as well. I knew that I needed to be there with them.”
Looks like we can all breathe a little easier now that this heroic teacher is on the road to recovery.
Would You Notice Your Loved Ones If They Were Living on the Street?
Maybe you’ve handed some change to a homeless person. Or perhaps you’ve given them a meal or simply stopped to say hello. But no matter how well-intentioned you are, the unfortunate reality is that many of us have become accustomed to the sight of homelessness, and we’re far likelier to ignore someone living on the streets rather than acknowledge them.
But would you ignore a homeless person if he or she were your family member?
In an eye-opening social experiment from New York Rescue Mission (NYRM), the non-profit organization arranged for hidden cameras to film unwitting participants walking past their family members, who were dressed up to look like they were without a roof over their heads.
It’s no surprise that nearly every person passed by their brother, sister, or uncle without blinking an eye. One man named Tom casually glanced down at his wife of 34 years before continuing on his way.
MORE: Why This Pastor Continues to Feed the Homeless, Even After the Police Told Him to Stop
The premise of this video asks this simple but uncomfortable question: “Have the homeless become so invisible we wouldn’t notice our own family members living on the street?”
This experiment, part of the NYRM’s “Make Them Visible” campaign, was created by ad agency Silver & Partners and directed by Jun Diaz. The director told Fast Company that the hardest part was showing the participants footage of them walking right by their loved ones on the streets, but “when they found out what it was all for, they got behind it.”
“We had to make it very clear that it could have been any of us,” Diaz added. “I’ll tell you, it would have been me.”
Hopefully this video will encourage us to take a closer look at the people we walk by everyday.
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The World’s Most Difficult Job and 4 Other Videos That Inspired Us This Month
You can not take any breaks, you are constantly on your feet and during the holidays your workload doubles. Watch an interview for the world’s most difficult job and four other videos that inspired us this month
A Blended Classroom That’s Yielding Exceptional Results
Every child deserves the best possible education. Of course, not every child learns the same way, which is why it’s not unusual schools separate their students — from gifted to special needs — into different groups. However, one school in San Francisco is testing out a one-size-fits-all approach, and it’s bringing surprisingly positive results.
As NPR reports, for the last two years, Presidio Middle School (where 10 percent of the students have some kind of learning disability) has been experimenting with a somewhat controversial model of integrating their special education students with some of their general education classrooms.
Here’s how they do it: To cater to every child’s needs, these classes are team-taught by two teachers, with one that specializes in learning disabilities. And because each of these students have their own school-issued laptops, customized learning software allows teachers to tailor their lessons using technology. Students are also encouraged to turn to their more gifted peers for help. The idea is to make these special needs students feel more included as opposed to creating feelings of separation or difference by sending him or her off to a special ed class for instruction.
MORE: Why some educators are encouraging students to spend more time in front of a glowing screen
While integrated classrooms aren’t working for every single special needs students at Presidio, this method is definitely bringing positive results to others. “I had one kid last year, one of my favorites, very high on the autistic spectrum, doesn’t talk, and that kid is one of the top performing students academically in the whole school,” Presidio teacher Grey Todd told NPR. “And yet he probably wouldn’t have had that opportunity had he been sent to a special day class because he has difficulty communicating with other people, and when he’s able to be accepted for that and not ostracized or sent to a separate room, I think it makes him more viable to himself and to the community.”
Integrated classrooms also allow children to have an increased familiarity and better attitudes about those with disabilities.
However, not everyone is in favor of mixed classrooms. Critics say that they put gifted or talented students at a disadvantage since teachers need to cater more towards the special needs students. The results from Presidio Middle School demonstrate that inclusive classrooms can work well when they’re done correctly.
To learn more about integrated classrooms, you can listen to the full broadcast here.