My Journey with Inclusion

The community is not complete until you serve all learners

- John Garrow, on CatholicEd4All

Inclusion has been the place where my journey as a Catholic and a teacher has grown the most.

In high school (maybe the first place where I was cognitively aware of the idea of inclusion), I would say that I grew to be someone who was more accepting of differences (religious, cognitive, etc.).

As a teacher, at first, I really struggled and tended to err on the side of the idea that "there's only so much we can do" and "we are just an under-resourced inner-city Catholic school." The year I worked at a high-income Catholic school, where we had a resource center, helped me develop a personal effort for inclusion, but one that I struggled to replicate without that support.

While a middle school teacher at St. Bernard's, I had the opportunity to work with a student on an IEP for 2 years and saw how I needed to reach beyond my discomfort as a teacher and person and really try.

Now as a leader, I see the NEED to welcome in all students. I struggle at times with whether it is fair to ask teachers to make the same effort that I struggled with over my own teaching career. However, as John shared on Raul's podcast, we need to do this. If we are truly Catholic, we need to be truly universal. That idea is a part of our mission statement, it is a part of our root beliefs, it is a part of our Faith.

My job as a leader of an inclusive school then is two-fold: (1) provide the resources for the teacher, parents, and students to be inclusive. (2) Be the face of Christ and welcome in all who want a Catholic education.