Project Unify-Including All Students in a Rich Education
Project Unify-Including All Students in a Rich Education
By Andrea Cahn, Senior Director, Special Olympics Project UNIFY
Editor’s Note: This post is form our partners at the Special Olympics Project UNIFY. Each week in January, we will feature a new article on a topic related to the social inclusion of youth with intellectual disabilities. Through this effort, we hope to inform the public of the importance of such inclusion as well as offer educators and parents resources to implement it.The American education system was founded on the principles of democracy, most important, equity and justice so that all youth would grow to be capable, active, and principled citizens. In fact, the very fabric of our democracy is dependent on students staying in school long enough to learn the 21st century skills necessary to be productive, informed, working citizens. Students who have high school degrees are more likely to have satisfying and successful employment. And yet studies show students leave schools for what seem the most fundamental of reasons: they don’t like school; they don’t feel they belong; they don’t get along with others; they don’t feel safe. And here’s another shocking
