Our key question as we initiate a new millennium is "How do we live with one another?" Inclusion is about learning to live with one another. Inclusion means "being with." Inclusion means inclusion!
It means affiliation, combination, comprisal, enclosure, involvement, surrounding. It means with . . . Inclusion means being with one another and caring for one another. It means inviting parents, students, and community members to be part of a new culture, a new reality. Inclusion means joining with the new and exciting educational concepts (cooperative education, adult education, whole language, computer technology , critical thinking). Inclusion means inviting those who have been left out (in anyway) to come in, and asking them to help design new systems that encourage every person to participate to the fullness of their capacity as partners and as members.

Inclusion Means Welcome!
"I want to be included!" This simple statement is being spoken, signed, facilitated, keyboarded, whispered, and shouted by people of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, and cultures. Many are making the request for themselves while others are asking for their friends or aging relatives. It is a simple request and the answer is equally easy.

"Welcome! We want to include you. Come and be part of us and our community."

Why does this humble proposal evoke such a strong reaction? Why is welcoming people labelled "disabled" seen as an activity of the "radical fringe?" Hospitality is not radical. Caring for our families and friends is not radical. In fact, hospitality and caring are foundations of our culture. So why the intense reaction about inclusion?

We believe that the Inclusion issue cuts directly to the core of our values and beliefs. Inclusion seems so simple, so full of common sense and yet it is complex. Inclusion sets off fire works in the souls of those involved. Inclusion challenges our beliefs about humanity and cuts deep into the recesses of our hearts.

Inclusion is not about placing a child with a disability in a classroom or school. That is only a tiny piece of the puzzle. Rather, inclusion is about how we deal with diversity, how we deal with difference, how we deal (or avoid dealing) with our morality.

How else can we explain the emotions unleashed by the presence of a tiny child in a wheelchair or the presence of a teenager with down syndrome in a local school in Canada, the United States, Britain, or Australia? Why do so many apparently "normal" adults lose their composure with the mere mention of including an excluded child. We conclude that the arrival of this person signals major change, and for many, change is something to fear, something fraught with danger.

However, in danger there is also opportunity for growth. Thus, schools and communities, teachers and citizens, who face their own fears and morality by welcoming all children instantly create the climate for a new kind of growth. Inclusion becomes an opportunity and a catalyst to build a better, more humane and democratic system.

Inclusion does not mean we are all the same. Inclusion does not mean we all agree. Rather, inclusion celebrates our diversity and differences with respect and gratitude. The greater our diversity, the richer our capacity to create new versions. Inclusion is an antidote to racism and sexism because it welcomes these differences, and celebrates them as capacities rather than deficiencies. Inclusion is a farce when it only means "white, bright, and middle class." Inclusion means all together supporting one another.

A child or adult with a disability is a symbolic personal crucible where we face our feelings about differences head on. Inclusion is about how we tolerate people who look, act, or think differently than so called "ordinary" people.

Our future depends on our capacity to learn to live together without war, creating societies that build capacity with compassion for one and for all. Inclusion is about rebuilding our hearts and giving us the tools for the human race to survive as a global family. . .

Inclusion! It's About Change!
Inclusion means change! We believe both inclusion and change is inevitable. Whether we choose to grow with and from these changes is a choice. It has been instructive to be a participant in hundreds of emotional meetings about "inclusion," when it is crystal clear after a few minutes that inclusion is only nominally the topic. The real topic (seldom stated) is fear of change! Many people in education and human services are afraid they will lose their jobs. Afraid of new responsibilities. Afraid of what they don't understand. Afraid of being accountable.

The words that come out are: "But, we don't have enough money! But, we haven't been trained to take care of those! But, I didn't choose special education! But, I don't have special curriculum guidelines, and I don't have time to create a special program for 'them.' The other children will suffer!" We all recognize the phrases. Listen deeper. Most of the "buts" are about "me" and "I."

The buts that are couched in deprivation to the other children reflect both ignorance of virtually everything we know (for centuries) about cooperative learning and peer tutoring, and too often are a guise to cover, "I don't want to risk giving up control." "I am afraid that people might find out that I don't know everything!" "I don't want to do this!" "I am afraid!"

This is the key phrase underneath most of the whining. But for many, there are deeper fears that are teased out with great delicacy. People are afraid of being "faced" with their own mortality, with imperfection. People are afraid "they might catch it."

These deep seated fears are a product of our culture. It is not the fault of individuals (teachers and human service workers) that they are afraid. We were all taught to put "them" out of sight, and as citizens and taxpayers we have. But, now we know that "putting people away" is a decision just one step away from extermination. The film, Schlindler's List, reminds us that segregation in any ghetto is life threatening. The answer is that we must face the fear and do it anyway (i.e., include everyone). This will be uncomfortable, even terrifying for a few moments, but fears pass. When we face our fears, and proceed regardless, they immediately diminish and come into perspective. We have had conversations with hundreds of "inclusion survivors". Teachers and human service workers were petrified. They endured a few weeks of "Tylenol therapy" and then as if by magic, the terror passed. In interviewing people about that period, there is an overwhelming pattern. Every single person remembers being terrified.

No one can remember what they were afraid of. . . just that they were afraid and it passed. It usually takes about six weeks which is the general pattern for any crisis situation to get back to normal.

There are lessons to be learned. All to often we tell people who are being faced with change, "don't worry, don't be afraid." This is nonsense! Inclusion is about change. Change is terrifying for all of us. It's scary. It's unpredictable. But since the issue is one of survival, about the human rights of individuals, we must do it anyway. We do not have the right to exclude anyone. Our fears are simply an obstacle to overcome. There cannot, and must not, be a reason to deny any person their rights. A second learning is that people need support to get through the crisis period of change. The fascinating facts are however, that this has very little to do with budgets. The key ingredient in effective support of change is supportive relationships. What we need is to "practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty." A kind word, a thoughtful gesture. It is knowing someone will be there when you need them.

The values will be clear, cooperation, not competition, participation, not coercion, relationships, not isolation interdependence, not independence, friendships, not loneliness.

The Need To Belong
Inclusion isn't a new program or something one "does" to or for someone else. It is not a trendy product or fad to be discarded. It is not a new label ("the inclusion kids"). It is not a bandwagon. People are either included or excluded. One cannot be a little bit pregnant or little bit included (like the myth of "inclusive" recess or lunch time). One is either "in" or "out." One either belongs or doesn't belong. If we exclude people, we are programming them for the fight of their lives - to get in and to belong.

Most excluded people perceive that they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain in the battle to belong. Many youth consider it a matter of life and death. Teenagers join gangs because they are desperate to belong,to have meaning. Even when the gangs are a logical response to society's failure to make teenagers feel belonging. When our youth literally die to belong, it is a searing warning for us to look hard at the system in which we live.

Many suggest that with our society in crisis, we need to mount the barricades and defend out turf. Typical responses include: hire more police, build more jails, create more special education, administer more electroshock, issue more behavior modifying drugs. Control, control, control. There is another possibility. We could strive to welcome and include everyone, to build a society with more acceptance, more love, more caring, more compassion.

Our world has serious challenges. We must face them honestly, analyze, learn from the past, then move forward. The need for change is not negotiable. The only question is whether we run with it, or be dragged kicking and screaming into the year 2000. Dealing with change is like running white water rapids. It is dangerous, but if you train and plan, it is the thrill of a life time. Change is here. Our societies are white water chutes. There is no portage. Out choices are limited, will we shriek with joy as we run the rapids or will we just shrink?

Our world is rife with conflict. We must not deny it. Instead, we must strengthen our capacity and learn to live with differences and conflict while avoiding the tendency to slide into violence as a solution. Conflict is legitimate. We can agree to disagree. Resorting to violence is no longer viable. It will be our destruction.

With the advent of new technology, the critical issues of this new revolution of compassion will be to learn how to live with one another. If we are to survive, we will enter an era of "high touch" and genuine personal communication. Who better to instruct us in this new venture than those who have been excluded and rejected in the past.

Teenage suicide, random violence, drive by shootings, and gangs are simply the signals of a deep social malaise that won't be cured by microwave thinking or slick packaged answers. We must think deeply. We must make tough decisions and be willing to work hard. Inclusion makes us think deeply about what we want our world to be. Who do we want as neighbors? What do we want our communities, churches, synagogues, mosques, and schools to look like?

We believe the communities of diversity are richer, better, and more productive places in which to live and to learn. We believe that inclusive communities have the capacity to create the future. We want a better life for everyone. We want inclusion!

If we can pin point bomb cities halfway around the globe, and send men and women into space, surely we can figure out how to live together with "liberty and justice for all." Inclusion is truly and simply a matter of will.

Our canter is committees to work with people anywhere and everywhere to make this value a reality. Communities which reject the richness of diversity, continue to put us all at risk-personally and internationally.

Forest, M. & Pearpoint, J. (web page) 1996, June; http://www.inclusion.com/ (Accessed June, 1996).