Why is all this important and what does it have to do with current provision and inclusion of disabled children and young people into society and education?

It is interesting to note that the ‘inclusive’ policies of the late Victorian and early modern era were to put disabled children into these institutions so they could be properly ‘cared for’. The alternative for some was a miserable life on the street, begging or worse. For others, their families would care for them, whatever their means. Current ‘inclusive’ wisdom says that it is better for a child to be educated in a mainstream school in their local community. Rather like the Victorians, we could accept the current social dogma of the day and not question that this is the case. There are many arguments for diversity in education, as in life. What you, the reader, should consider in your professional capacity is not how severe or what the nature of a disability is, although this will inevitably be apparent, but whether the environment that the child or young person is attempting to learn in (and live in) goes some, if not all, of the way to meeting their needs.

This is an expression of what is called the ‘social model’ of education in which we all have a responsibility and the ability to adjust the physical, social and educational environment to enable a young person to achieve in the broadest sense. It is in direct contrast to the ‘medical model’ where all the problems are seen as ‘within the young person’ and their ability to achieve anything lies solely within the domain of so-called ‘experts’. There is absolutely no doubt that this view, spread abroad by the language of medical and psychological ‘experts’ (as in comparative studies of psychology and biology) has contributed greatly to a societal view of disabled people as ‘abnormal’. Other influences have been religion (it is God’s punishment), eugenics (breeding of the perfect human, prevalent in Europe and America in the 1920s and 1930s), and more recently media and advertising that promotes unreal stereotypes for us all to aspire to.

All these historical and ethical perspectives have an impact on what happens in classrooms every day. The deeper social and psychological influences that pervade professional practices cannot be ignored.