One of the things I really appreciate about the Uniting Church is our commitment to being an inclusive community.  Our focus is on the reconciliation of people with one another and with God.  Here everyone is valued, everyone is nurtured.  Everyone has a place.

With this in mind I have been keenly interested in the Gonski reforms to our education sector.  With a focus on better resourcing student needs, the emphasis here is on valuing and supporting each student as they prepare for life and as they learn to fully participate within the community.

This is why the suggestion made last Wednesday that students on the autism spectrum should be removed from mainstream classrooms and placed in special classes deeply troubles me.

There are more than 160,000 Australians on the autism spectrum.  The suggestion they should be segregated within our education system serves to both isolate and stigmatize them.  This is not what an inclusive, enlightened, compassionate society is all about!

God creates each one of us as unique human beings in our own right.  Here each person, in all our difference, bears God’s image.  Everyone has a particular gift to offer.  Everyone has a particular role to play.  For this reason I shy away from the idea of “disability”.

The truth of the matter is that we are all “differently abled”.  And, in that “differently-abled-ness”, we have something unique to offer to the other.

Researchers claim students who are segregated and denied the benefits of a mainstream face-to-face education because of their “differently-able-ness” perform much worse.   Moreover, an educationist from Melbourne University claims that, when classes remain integrated, literacy and numeracy outcomes are actually better for everyone.

Exclusion and segregation play no role in our world today.  To suggest children don’t have a place in the “mainstream” because they are different is wrong.  A healthy, vibrant society is one that accepts, respects, celebrates and learns from the differences that make us who we are – no matter how hard or threatening that may be.

I believe this is what God call us to do.  And I celebrate with joy the commitment the Uniting Church makes as we advocate and cherish the inclusion of everyone in all that we strive to be!

25 June 17