i would like to write a long and intelligent reply that would settle this question and enlighten everyone who read it...sadly i have not got the faintest idea as to if it is right or wrong....i suspect if i wrote a reply i would be both..

I'm with Jack here...it's really not an easy question to answer and I don't think there are more than there were once, it's just that now they're not hidden away, which is a good thing. Also, it could help the other children in the class who don't have problems to be more understanding of those that do, and maybe help them as well...I guess education comes in many forms, and learning to live alongside people with problems has to be a good one, even if difficult at times. I went to an ordinary school and I was severely disabled as a child and everybody accepted me, and I was the only one in all my schools so obviously different...it was only the adults in later life who didn't..

Our daughter is not disabled, but when she was at school she was a slow learner. She spent an extra year at junior school, and then was put into a school for children with special needs. At the time we thought, OK, if that's the best thing, we'll go along with it.
After the first year we had the parent/teacher evening and were shown the work she'd been doing. We nearly hit the roof, I was as angry as I've ever been in my life.
The 'work' they all did was geared to the ability of the slowest in the class. In her english book she'd written her name and address every day for a whole year! And nothing else!
I exploded all over them, and there and then took her out of the school and we kicked up a hell of a fuss, and got her into the main stream school instead.
Of course she found it difficult at first but she's a tough nut and plugged away, and when she left school she did 2 years NVQ for nursing, and she's been a nursing assistant in a terminal ward ever since. The NVQ course was for twenty four people, and at the end of it all she won the award as the best pupil.
So you will perhaps understand when I say it would have been so much easier for her to have stayed in the main stream school all along, I for one do not believe in separating pupils with special care needs, unless it is obvious they are badly holding up the rest of the class.

I think they have the right idea of trying to integrate learning disabled children into mainstream schooling, but not to the detriment of the other children.

My oldest daughter has a speech problem; which is fast being helped by the fact she attends regular schooling; but then she's not slowing the other kids down, or demanding attention from the teacher all of the time.

I know in my daughter school in their first year of school, the children with severe learning disabilities have their own class; but I'm not sure about the following years.

They need a better system.

It's such a tricky subject isnt it. I think it depends on each individual childs capabilitys. Remember even in a 'normal' class you will have a mixture of abilities who may slow down the rest, I remember the intelligent kids being more disruptive in a lot of my school lessons...

Each disability has different symptoms and degrees of severity, so even if all children with a disability are placed together, what is to stop the teachers still going at the pace of the fastest, or the slowest as in SomeBlokes comment to the detriment of the more 'able'.

I can imagine however that it must be very hard for teachers with such a mixed capability class to struggle to hit the right level for everyone. I only hope the teachers get support too.

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