J Law Med Ethics. 2013 Dec;41(4):754-67. doi: 10.1111/jlme.12087.
Is inclusive education a human right?
Author information
- Earned his M.A. and B.A. degrees in philosophy and history at the University of Konstanz in Germany (2001), Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Göttingen in Germany (2005).
Abstract
In this article, I question the general idea that inclusive education - i.e., to teach all students in one class - is a moral human right. The following discussion shows that the widespread view in disability studies that there is a moral human right to inclusive education can be reasonably called into question by virtue of the proposed counter arguments, but without denying that inclusive education is of utmost importance. Practically speaking, the legal human right to inclusive education is of great practical value for impaired students, and for their basic right to be free from discrimination in education, since their concern thereby gains great legal and moral force. But, theoretically speaking, this particular human right lacks an attainable consensus concerning proper moral justification.
As the father of a now-24-year-old son with severe autism, I fought for his inclusion in the general education classroom for years. Unfortunately, most view this as a civil rights issue for the student with a disability. But isn't it also a right of the typical students to be educated in the real world? We found that the biggest defenders of our son's inclusion were his classmates. I hope and pray that as they are now young adults and becoming parents that they will be much more willing (in fact, demanding) of inclusive education for all than the previous generation.
ReplyDelete"We found that the biggest defenders of our son's inclusion were his classmates."
ReplyDeleteThank you.