Social Issues Day

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Brock's Social Issues Day at the Hamilton Campus but I have had the experience working as an educational assistant in a high school in the York Region District School Board. Over the course of 8 professional development days, I attended many conferences and seminars dealing with sensitive social issues, including issues surrounding students identified with exceptionalities such as autism and psychosocial disorders. It was paradoxical in some respects to be employed by a board that stressed inclusion, religious and racial tolerance and diversity and equality for all students on the one hand, while the special education classes were hidden away in the far corner of the building and the principal and vice-principal made a grand total of one visit between the two to our classrooms that school year.
Inclusion must be far more than tolerance and acceptance of diversity; it must include a concerted effort on the part of educators to include the diverse in the everyday activities of the school while encouraging the mainstream, majority to explore and interact with minority populations within the school and board. We have a student with autism in our class. Grade five students can be very nurturing to their classmates and this is no exception in this class. As a teacher, I will do my best to encourage my students, whether they be in grade 1 or grade 6 to welcome diversity. I hope my effort will lead to students that continue to have this positive attitude into their high school years, unlike the high school I recently worked in.