Inclusion teaches valuable lessons

It takes a lot to include students with special needs in mainstream classrooms but successful cases can benefit the entire classroom, writes author Barbara Curtis, whose son Jonny has Down syndrome. Jonny's mainstream kindergarten teacher wrote Curtis a four-page letter at the end of the year: "I am thankful to Jonny for teaching my students and myself unconditional love, sharing, acceptance, humor, and friendship. ... Perhaps these will be the most valuable lessons [his kindergarten classmates] will learn." The Christian Science Monitor