Inclusion

In 1973, the federal government passed a law requiring that mentally and physically handicapped students receive a "free and appropriate" public education in "the least restrictive environment." The law affirmed that far too many disabled students in confining "special education" programs ought to be in mainstream "regular" schools, alongside "regular" students.Two decades later, many states and localities still pay little heed to this mandate. Only in the past few years has Maryland's department of education shaken its lax attitude toward the "inclusion" of special education students.

Growing up in the 1970s, I never set foot in a school until it was time for me to go to kindergarten. However, times have changed. Over the past three decades, the number of preschools in our country has grown exponentially, and with this growth comes the expectation that children will attend preschool in order to be "ready" for kindergarten by age 5. Unfortunately, this expectation is often accompanied by great pressure to send one's child to the...

Moving toward inclusion for larger numbers of special education students is one of the better ideas Baltimore County public school officials have had in the past year. Too bad they executed it so poorly.Along with the demotions of some 40 principals and assistant principals, inclusion of special education pupils in regular classes raised a great furor in the county. The controversies drove a school board president to resign and convinced her successor to name a task force to study the two issues.

As a post-World War II political activist, candidate, office holder and Republican supporter for the past 67 years, I have always believed in the two-party system of Republicans and Democrats. I believe in a political system consisting of "big tent" Republican and Democratic parties that, among other things, consist of liberals, conservatives and independent voters. However, for the past 40 years, the zealots in each party have rejected the emphasis on united parties in favor of fragmented "leftist" and "rightist" principles.

Item: At an Oct. 20 meeting, Anne Arundel County parents and educators praised the local school system system's handling of "inclusion," the program in which physically and mentally disabled students are moved from segregated "special" environments into mainstream neighborhood schools.Item: At an Oct. 26 meeting, the Baltimore County Board of Education announced it has been unable to fill the position of "board liaison," as it had promised to do by that date.On first reading, these two items don't appear to have much in common.

Eight of nine candidates seeking to fill two vacancies on the Baltimore County school board fielded questions on inclusion, magnet schools and standardized tests at a nominating convention in Towson last night.Most of the candidates, though with some reservation, supported inclusion -- the placement of special education students in regular classrooms -- but Shirley Giberson of Upper Falls, who has been an outspoken opponent of Superintendent Stuart Berger, was against it."It's a mess," she said.

The Baltimore County schools cut enrollment at special education schools almost in half through the controversial "inclusion" program begun late last year.There are 709 children with the most serious disabilities -- called "level 5" -- in the county's five special education centers this school year, according to preliminary data presented to the school board. Last year, those schools had 1,371 students.The Chatsworth School in the Reisterstown area lost about 80 percent of its students. Enrollment there went from 261 students during the 1992-1993 school year to about 50 students this year.

At a heated meeting last night on whether to turn the Patapsco Valley into a certified heritage area, a group of environmentalists and concerned citizens formally demanded that Patapsco Valley State Park be removed from plans for a trail network linking the natural, cultural and historic resources of the valley.After almost two hours of arguing, shouting and pleading, the two sides resolved nothing. Heritage area supporters said the Maryland Department of Natural Resources will have the final say on whether to include the park in the plans, but opponents said that was just an excuse to avoid the issue.

An experiment in chaos is being formulated in Baltimore County schools, as the administration pushes learning-disabled students into mainstream classrooms this fall without any plans or teacher training to meet their special needs.Although claiming that their sweeping ''inclusion'' model is required by a federal civil-rights complaint, the real motivation of administrators at the Greenwood headquarters is to save money by short-changing disadvantaged children who desperately need the attention traditionally denied them in regular classroom settings.

Mainstreaming special education students into classrooms remains a top concern for many teachers, according to a recent Howard County Education Association poll.The poll, taken of elementary, middle and high school teachers during this school year, also indicated that class size, curriculum overload, separate ninth-grade areas and four-period days worried teachers.But the overwhelming concern was the inclusion of special education students in regular classrooms. Teachers feel they have not gotten the staffing, training or planning necessary to effectively mainstream special education students.

Attention national media: You know Martin O'Malley, defender of the underdog. It's time to get to know Martin O'Malley, thug. The Maryland governor, widely rumored to harbor presidential aspirations, canonized himself in the progressive movement for championing gay marriage and in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants in the last election. He also deftly weaved a portrait of Maryland as a green energy, public-education utopia during his many appearances on national cable TV news during election season as President Barack Obama's surrogate.

Much ink has been spilled in recent weeks criticizing the Republican Party and its failed presidential candidate for a lack of compassion and obvious antipathy toward "47 percent" of the electorate (if not a bit more), so it was reassuring to see two of its more prominent leaders offer a message of inclusion and uplift at a Jack Kemp Foundation dinner on Tuesday. Too bad that on the same day, Republicans were reverting to form in the Senate chamber. There, the late Mr. Kemp's 1996 top-of-ticket running-mate, Bob Dole - recently released from hospital care and assisted by wheelchair - was unable to coax sufficient GOP support for what should have been a no-brainer for members of a truly compassionate party: the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities.

Microsoft thinks consumers aren't viewing their favorite games, movies and television shows on enough screens.   That's the premise behind “SmartGlass,” a feature debuting later this year that is designed to enhance the entertainment experience by simultaneously invading your Xbox, smartphone and tablet.   At Monday's E3 event in Los Angeles, the “SmartGlass” hinted at some practical luxuries, such as picking up a show from a pause-point on your TV and taking it with you on your tablet.

She remembers having "wonderful" history teachers growing up in 1940s and 1950s Annapolis, and she has explored and chronicled this area's past for more than 40 years. But as historian Jane Wilson McWilliams researched her massive, colorful and comprehensive new book, "Annapolis: City on the Severn," she sometimes found herself stunned to encounter truths about her hometown she'd never run across. If you did your high school history homework, for instance, you know the 15th Amendment to the Constitution (passed in 1870)

At Western High School in Baltimore, few students had heard of bocce when coach Mary Hain was putting together a team of players, with and without disabilities, in anticipation of Maryland's first Unified Indoor Bocce State High School Invitational. Senior Thea Chase said she came out for the team thinking that "it was hibachi, some kind of eating contest. " In fact, bocce is a sport that resembles bowling. Ultimately, three freshmen and several seniors, including Chase, joined the team and trained for the interscholastic competition, which pairs students with intellectual and other disabilities with their high school peers.

I believe that Ground Zero at the World Trade Center is sacred for all Americans — Christians, Jews, Muslims and those of many other faiths, or no faith — because those who died there on 9/11 included all of the aforementioned — all victims of radical terrorism. Somehow the current furor over the building of an Islamic Cultural Center and mosque at Park51 ignores this fact, and ignores that there are worship places of other faiths nearby. Ground Zero is no less sacred for Muslims than it is for Americans of any faith.

REMEMBER what Colin Powell said at the Republican Convention on July 31? "The party must follow Governor [George W.] Bush's lead and reach out to minority communities and particularly the African-American community -- and not just during an election year campaign. It must be a sustained effort. It must be every day. It must be for real." That statement didn't exactly get an "Amen" from the crowd in Philadelphia. But Mr. Powell was speaking the truth. It's far past time for the Republican Party to make more than token gestures toward inclusion.

A nother holiday season is upon us, and the battle is joined. For most of our young nation's life December has been all about Christmas, the Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Christ. In my youth, I was not aware of other holidays sharing the same space - and only vaguely aware of other religions. It was a time to think of others less fortunate, giving our time to those in need and being kinder to my brothers as well as strangers. I lived in a country that welcomed everyone seeking a better life than the one they had in their country.