Inclusion?

Today I want to talk about Inclusion because it’s a relatively controversial issue, at least at my school, and I would like feedback. I discovered an excellent blog and in exploring the postings, I came across one about Inclusion from about a year and a half ago. It can be found here Segregation or Inclusion Supports.
I’ll just do a brief summary since I realize that not all my readers may be teachers. Inclusion is the practice of taking children with disabilities of all degrees and placing them in the general education classroom. The advantages of this are that students with disabilities witness socially appropriate models of behavior and have an opportunity to take part in activities with their same age peers. It is also believed that normally achieving students benefit from getting to know and learning with a child with disabilities. The disadvantages are not commonly discussed because it is the practice of most districts to allow full inclusion and, at least when I was going through college, it was the practice of the University to teach Inclusion to the future teachers.
It’s not that I have a huge problem with Inclusion and I do recognize the potential for benefit however, I have a big problem with the blog posting liked above which calls anything but Inclusion, “segregation”. The word segregation carries with it extremely negative connotation and immediately turns people off to the idea allowing children with disabilities to be educated with others who are like them. My school is one such school that takes only students with special learning needs. Nearly all of the students who attend have been in a public school Inclusion setting prior to attending. The stories they tell make me feel like Inclusion in practice isn’t the glowing, happy, let’s-all-be-friends concept that some would have you think it is. The disadvantages with Inclusion that I see come from first hand experience. One student in the past had a public school regular education teacher explain to his whole class that SLD meant “slow learning dummy” (and was serious). I have had other students who were flat out ignored by teachers in regular education classrooms; students who were bullied and called “stupid” and “retarded” more times than anyone’s self-esteem could handle and students who were given passing grades so they could be pushed through the system despite major learning disabilities. Students who come to my school from a public school are typically depressed, have low self-esteem, and are underachieving academically (as reported by parents). So is Inclusion really the best way to go or is it just something we do to make it seem like everyone is being treated fairly? Do we sacrifice the true needs of our students just to keep from using the dreaded word “segregation?” or can we possibly call specialized learning environments a less harsh, negative word? Let’s at least be open to the ideas put forth and examine the potential positives for students rather than let negative words sway us in a direction which just may not be the best way to go.