How inclusive education benefits children with varying sets of needs

Curiosity runs wild in children. As they explore the world around them, they ask endless questions about people, places, situations and things they see. They have this sense of wonder that both rouses their imagination and engages all their five senses, eventually fueling their creativity.

At this point in their children’s journey of discovery, parents and guardians must seize the opportunity to point out life lessons and values that could help shape the little ones’ character and moral foundation. 

However, in modern families where both parents juggle being professionals and maintaining a household, they can only do so much to explain ideas and concepts so kids can see life a bit more clearly.

This is where inclusive education comes in.

One World School Philippines in Makati City offers a specialized curriculum that bolsters the curiosity of little minds and, at the same time, satisfies it. It is a place of learning that encourages lengthy exchanges between children and mentors and tailor-fits the lessons to the creative capability of every student that enters its doors.

The school offers programs from Preschool to Elementary where a specialized curriculum is given to each student. Specialized curriculums allow children to learn at their own pace while still growing with peers and friends who accept them as they are.

In a learning environment that puts together specially trained  teachers and children with wide-ranging sets of needs and capabilities—the gifted and talented, the average or typical learners, and children with mild, moderate, and significant special education needs—inclusive education can be beneficial to all.

Let us count the ways:

• Early education on diversity. For many, differently abled individuals are just characters read in stories, people met during quick interactions, and strangers encountered every day. But for One World School students, these are the people they grow up and interact with every day. The early exposure to various types of personalities helps them break free of stereotypes, opening their minds to, and making them more tolerant of, variety and uniqueness in life.

• Development of social skills. Inclusive education gives typical children the opportunity to see and experience firsthand the things that trigger their curiosity, and may answer some of the why’s in their minds. Relating with children who seem different also creates a more empathetic nature. Thus, they tend to be more nurturing towards their peers as they understand the struggles and challenges the latter face.

• Formation of nurturing friendships. With understanding comes caring. This, in turn, helps inspire friendship among different types of personalities and cultivates a culture of compassion among them.

An acceptance of children from different sides of the spectrum develops respect and value for people as they are. This accepting environment can very well translate into how these children would eventually deal with individuals as future professionals.

• Saying “no” to bullying. Bullies have no place in the One World School, where students receive healthy emotional support. One of the most critical issues in school campuses today, bullying causes some children to suffer from long-term emotional traumas and psychological maladjustment. This shameful conduct is unheard of in the school as children are taught early on the importance of showing respect for peers and acceptance of everyone’s uniqueness.

• Provision of a holistic education. Developing socially smart and compassionate individuals is deemed as important as setting high standards for academics in One World School. The institution trains students to be the best versions of themselves as they study to become well-meaning members of society and compassionate individuals toward their peers and the people around them.

          

Inclusive education may seem like a new and unfamiliar concept to most of us, but this fresh take on learning will certainly inspire future generations of Filipinos to be a more enlightened workforce and more compassionate employers and captains of industries. This early, let’s help our children develop a heart for others and a mind ready for the real world out there.