February 23, 2012

Today, I reread my evaluation section because it involved a lot of steps, and I wanted to make sure that I had them right. As I was reading, I decided that I needed a unifying metaphor to pull this thing together, so I settled on a sailing ship. This might seem ridiculous, but people like that sort of thing. It would be a great way to inspire them to support this. After that, I addressed my second to last argument concerning inclusion, which is that it would be detrimental to include all students together because of the bullying that will occur. Research shows that even students with "hidden disabilities" are significantly more likely to get bullied than their "non-disabled" counterparts, but different sources provide slightly different estimates of the increased likelihood. Earlier in the year when I was doing research, I knew that this topic would be important so while everyone else was reading Twilight or whatever, I read these articles about bullying and social interaction that almost had more footnotes than text. However, I did come out of it with the information I needed, which is why such students are bullied so often. It's partly obvious why blind, deaf, or paralyzed children are bullied, but what about little Susy who has high functioning autism, or Joe who has OCD? You can't just look at someone and figure that out, but myou research found that students know that there is something unusual about one of their classmates. They may not know what it is, but I have learned that it is these students' failure to correctly interpret and respond to social cues that really isolates them. Additionally, our society has a way of constantly reminding someone that he/she is a part of a minority, and this can be emotionally stressful, which can make these students seem weaker and more reactive, and cloud their judgment concerning how to respond to social situations. Next time, I plan to write about what to do about it and how if treated correctly, inclusion can actually decrease bullying. After that, I will write a short section on how the new plan may be more cost effective followed by a conclusion. After that, I'll need about a week or so to go back, expand, and incorporate my metaphor throughout my proposal. Then, while I am allowing my proposal to be edited I will be writing my paper. I already have a two page outline, so I just have to expand on that. I think that I'll just have this project, graduate on the recommended plan, and have it changed if possible after my APs.