MAINSTREAMING: Taking Steps to a More Normal Life

In the fall of 1979 I decided to try and make the jump from weekly newspapering to the big time of the dailies.  A lot of factors were at play and I am sure a little of misplaced self-importance came into the mix, but the bottom line was that I resigned my position with Sun Newspapers to search for greener pastures.  Before I left, however, I had one final photo-essay to complete.  It was a self-assigned project and it turns out it was never published.  Ironically it was probably the best piece of photojournalism I had created to date, and perhaps the most important collection of images I have created up to the time of this writing.

The project  involved embedding (using today's term) myself in a novel-for-its-time special education program at a local elementary school entitled "Mainstreaming."  The concept was simple enough:  integrate functional special education students into the traditional classroom environment for a portion of the school day.  Typically the student would attend the conventional remedial special education classes in the mornings and then spend a portion of afternoon in "mainstream" classes in which they had higher functionality.

I spent three days in early November of that year at Creekside Elementary School in Bloomington, Minnesota documenting the special education classes as well as some of the mainstreaming activities.  Following are a selection of those images.

A teacher comforts a student in a special education class.

Two students help each other through a flash card drill.

Students focus their attention on a lesson.

A part of the Mainstreaming program includes integrate common school activities like lunch. Here a student sets the linchroom table for his classmates.

 

A student stops for a drink of water on his way from his special education class to a mainstreamed class.

A "mainstreamed" student gets instruction from the teacher...

...but needs some help from classmates...

...before mastering the lesson.





A special education student sleeps in the arms of a teacher on a bus ride back from an off-site activity.

A group of students enjoy an off-site outing to the YMCA.