This is one of those cases that should IMO be a no brainer - a bright child who needed physical access, both to the building and to the mainstream curriculum, to succeed. Quite different to Aquinas‘ example of a child that 8s severely mentally disabled and no amount of physical support can change the fact that the child cannot understand the mainstream content offered to age peers.
I think this is at the root of the issue with the implementation of inclusive education where I live. There is no recognition that there are differences between those two examples and any attempt at questioning whether that is truly what is best for a special education student lumps both into a one-size fits all bucket. I think the points about it becoming an ideology are also dead on. The goal has become full inclusion for pretty much everyone but the most extreme outliers.
I think what really needs to happen is to really think about what inclusion actually means. As stated above, part of the problem is that schools did such a horrible job implementing special education programs in the past that were essentially dumping grounds. When you're coming from that as the alternative, then even poorly executed inclusion is seen as an improvement. However, when you think about what could/should be done for some groups we could do more (and often more efficiently). As some have pointed out above, is inclusion really the best thing for the child when it means that they are occupying the same physical room but have academic needs so divergent from any other person in the room that they are effectively a class of 1 within that room that a teacher much provide curriculum for? How is it possible for each and every teacher in the system to be trained and passionate about dealing with every possible exceptionality and provide appropriate remediation and/or curriculum? Back in grade two, the non-verbal child with ASD and my PG child were both not getting much at their level as they listened to one teacher. Yet to even suggest streaming or clustering is deemed elitist or even as discrimination.
To go even further inclusion here is being in a classroom full time with kids born in the same calendar year. No child is ever held back and acceleration is essentially impossible.
