Inclusive curriculum

When reading Fernando Naiditch’s article “Cross the street to a new world,” one quote in particular stuck out to me. Naiditch comments that although the school, and especially the teacher he was working with, labeled one of the students, Pedro, as “Learning Disabled,” what he came to realize is that the school had just lacked to teach Pedro about certain skills/concepts that the teacher and the school overlooked. He writes, “How could something this fundamental be overlooked in the classroom. I realized there is so much taken for granted. Teachers expect students to already know so many things when they come to class, and labels can easily explain away gaps in that knowledge” (Naiditch 28). This made me think about Kumashiro and the idea of “common sense” in the classroom, and how viewing the skills that Pedro lacked as “basic” or common sense can be alienating and oppressive. Along with this story, I also thought about a quote from Sleeter, where she states, “It is the teacher’s responsibility to find out, become familiar with, and respect knowledge students bring to school, and to organize curriculum and learning activities in such a way that students are able to activate and use that knowledge” (Sleeter 106). Naiditch writes that Pedro had a stronger background with oral information and stories, and I wondered what a classroom/curricula might look like if a teacher were to utilize this aspect of Pedro’s life, so as not to alienate him for being unfamiliar with books and instead create a more inclusive environment for him.