Education: Making a Difference

By Lynda D. Khan and Jack Pearpoint

The Marsha Forest Centre (MFC) collaborates to build a society where contribution, membership and belonging bring meaning and quality to each of our lives. By pursuing questions of community, social justice, family and inclusion, the Centre creates, develops and researches resources that make a difference in nurturing full lives, without isolation, for all citizens. This past year, four new resources were added to our materials — strategies for teachers, students and families that make a difference.

PlayFair Teams, an extracurricular activity sponsored by the school, engages youth with and without disabilities to increase awareness in schools and local communities of disability, education and social justice. PlayFair Teams maintain and uphold values grounded in the belief that all students belong in the life of their school and community. A 10th-grade student said, “I personally feel my group did an extraordinary job displaying how important acceptance is for everyone and how everybody, no matter what age or ability level, just wants to be accepted.” A DVD supports new school teams of any age, along with Manuals for Teachers and Community Advocates. PlayFair Teams is by students, for students, and is a leadership opportunity for students to create the future they want. PlayFair Teams: http://www.inclusion.com/mfcplayfair.html

Each Belongs (book and DVD) is the “big picture” inclusion story of the first school board to implement full inclusion for all, and it began in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1969. As creator Jim Hansen says, “Each person is unique and irrepeatable. The beliefs we hold about people can serve as prison walls at every turn. They can also set us free from our shackles to confront great new possibilities never dreamed of before. Life is the ultimate gift and learning is its crowning.”

The Basics: Supporting Learners with an Intellectual Challenge is a teacher/family-friendly book about how to strengthen the inherent gifts of great teachers so they can welcome all students.

My Life My Choice is a DVD with seven remarkable stories of individuals who are living full lives in the community — on their own terms — in spite of the odds. If they can do it, maybe you can too. My Life, My Choice is a testament to the power of dreams.

The Marsha Forest Centre: Inclusion * Family * Community has developed the pioneering work on Circles of Friends (1985), MAPS (1988), PATH (1990) and the Summer Institutes on Inclusion (from 1984). Circles supports the understanding of relationships and personal networks and allies; MAPS and PATH are among the family of person-centred planning processes.

Workshops * Training Events * Visioning * Keynotes
contact us: www.inclusion.com

Inclusion Press
24 Thome Crescent, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H 2S5
TEL: (416) 658-5363
FAX: (416) 658-5067
EMAIL: inclusionpress@inclusion.com
WEB PAGE: www.inclusion.com

Affiliated with Marsha Forest Centre
Inclusion * Family * Community