All children are special, but children with disabilities of all kinds, children with special needs, have been integrated into the Moscow educational system and community using intervention and therapeutic methods practiced in Israel. MASHAV, the International Institute in Kfar Saba, Shekel Association for Community Services for People with Disabilities, a Jerusalem NGO, and Moscow Municipality combined forces to help children with physical, intellectual, emotional, mental and learning disabilities in a significant project.
One can see many things on busy Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv. But the Deputy Minister of Education from Moscow, Ms. Larissa Kornishova, on a professional visit to Israel in 1997, viewed things from the perspective of a person who has played a leading role in shaping Moscow's education system for many years. She was not surprised by the abundance of shops and restaurants to be found in Tel Aviv. But she was astonished to see a city population which included children and adults with disabilities moving freely and independently in the streets. "Who takes care of them? Don't you have appropriate institutions for them?" she wondered. The response to these questions did surprise her: "We make efforts to encourage children with disabilities to live at home, in the community, and to lead a normal life in accordance with their capabilities and needs. With growing awareness, the population of Israel is their supportive community."
Ms. Kornishova, grasping the difference between the approaches in Israel and Moscow, asked for assistance in building a system similar to the Israeli one in Moscow, so that children with special needs would be able to live at home, with their families, and in the community rather than in government-run children's homes. "All these years," explained Kornishova, "women who give birth to children with disabilities have received generous benefits, enabling them to send those children to institutions that provide care for as long as they live. According to the system practiced in Moscow, parents have the option of visiting their child - but if they wish they can sever ties with the child forever. This system is unnatural: children with special needs are cut off from their biological families, and their chances of fulfilling their potential and living a normal life in accordance with their abilities are almost nil. Based on the Israeli experience of integrating children with special needs into the community, and in light of developments in Eastern European countries in recent years, special opportunities for cooperation have been created with the help of MASHAV, the Center for International Cooperation of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem.
Together with Shekel Association in Israel, one of the leading advocates of integrating special needs population into the community, which also makes efforts to keep up with the latest professional developments and implement the most innovative methods for integrating people with special needs into the community, MASHAV worked on a plan for cooperation. Larissa Kornishova was determined to implement what she had seen in the Israeli special education system when she returned to Moscow.
Of course, changes in any system of special education cannot be implemented overnight. In the initial stage, a team was formed under the direction of Ms. Galina Shirokova, who was director of the Department for Early Childhood Education (ECE) at the Moscow Ministry of Education. The Department is responsible for a whopping 2,900 (!) ECE institutions. Shirokova decided to institute a system she had observed in Israel among children aged 0 to 7. At that point, the changes were introduced, step by step. The team began working, and despite pressure and difficulties, the administration of Moscow's Ministry of Education decided in principle to encourage care and education for children with special needs by integrating them into regular schools. As a result of this decision to choose the Israeli model, Shekel was selected to serve as a professional body to offer consultation and to supervise the process of development, under the auspices of MASHAV through the International Institute.
The first stage of the process in Moscow involved a week-long visit by Shekel's Executive Director, Clara Feldman and two additional senior employees, Suzanne Goichman and Dr. Pesach Gitelman. That visit was designed to achieve three major goals. The first involved exposure of the Shekel representatives to the range of services then available to children with special needs and their families in Moscow.
For almost the first time since the onset of perestroika (the policy of reconstructing the economy of the Soviet Union), the government-run children's homes were opened for the members of the delegation to visit. In these residential settings, children were provided mainly with living accommodations and medical care, while rehabilitative and educational activities were minimal. In addition, the Shekel delegation visited the university that trains special education workers. If we're already talking about changes, why not change the entire special education system?
The second component involved a three-day seminar presented by the Shekel staff outlining the range of services available and planned for this population, under Shekel's auspices in Jerusalem. The seminar, held at the Pedagogic Center of the Ministry of Education in Moscow, was attended by 107 directors of ECE institutions in Moscow. The topic of the seminar was "Educational Services for Children with Special Needs from Birth to Age 7: The Israeli Model, Theoretical Approaches and Therapeutic Methods."
The Ministry of Education in Moscow set several goals for the seminar: discussion of innovative methods implemented in the Israeli special education system for children up to age 7; of ways to expand the special education system for early childhood in Moscow; of establishing, managing, and operating nonprofit organizations; and discussion, too, of achieving cooperation between a government ministry and a nonprofit organization.
All of the goals of the seminar were achieved. Even though some of the goals differed from those ideas prevailing in Moscow's special education system, they were openly examined. The change in the Moscow Ministry of Education's perspective is highlighted by the fact that, for the first time, it recognized that "every child is entitled to education," and that the commonly used term "uneducable" no longer exists.
The final component was to begin a process of ongoing cooperation between Moscow and Israel, with the ultimate goal of developing and expanding the range of services in Moscow, enabling the integration of children with special needs in the local educational system. Special emphasis was placed on laying the groundwork for professional cooperation and mutual understanding between the guests from Israel and their colleagues in Moscow. In order to establish a common basis for such cooperation, both the representatives of MASHAV at the Israeli Embassy, who were involved in the project from its inception, and the representatives of Shekel emphasized that the Israeli delegation had not come with the intention of dictating what should be done. Rather, their intention was to present a variety of perspectives in order to work together on finding the best approach for implementation in Moscow, in accordance with the decision of Moscow's Ministry of Education that was responsible for these issues.
During this period, changes have already begun to be felt in Moscow. In maternity hospitals, there are staff members who work with mothers who give birth to babies with special needs. The mothers have begun to take their babies home rather than give them up to institutions.
At the same time, NGOs have begun operating in Moscow for parents of special needs children. An especially active group was one for parents of children with Down's Syndrome. During the 2000-1 school year, 57 children with Down's Syndrome were integrated into regular preschools. In addition, dozens of children with cerebral palsy and about 100 children with various problems have also been integrated into regular educational settings.
By 2001 it became necessary to provide professional training for preschools workers, who had been faced with problems they had never encountered before, including issues related to multi-disciplinary teams as well as budgetary and administrative problems that resulted from integration of special needs and normal children. Notably, the directors of these preschools had participated in the Shekel seminar and already integrated children with special needs.
So, at the end of 2001 MASHAV presented a professional educational tour of Israel in collaboration with the Foundation for Training Employees of the Moscow Municipality. Two groups of 20 professionals, directors of day centers from the project in Moscow, participated in the tour. The delegation was hosted at the International Institute of the Histadrut in Kfar Saba, where the Russian Division, under the directorship of Dr. Maya Glasserman-Almog, presented the training course, "Management of Projects and Integration of Disabled Children," in Russian, in cooperation with MASHAV. The two groups visited numerous settings for special needs children in Israel, and spoke with parents and teachers. Representatives of Shekel accompanied the delegations throughout the entire tour. During their visit, the delegation saw a living model of the goals they sought to attain in Moscow.
This cooperation between the Moscow Ministry of Education, Shekel and the International Institute under the aegis MASHAV has led to the establishment of the "Healthy Generation" Center, where methods used to care for children with special needs in Israel have been adopted by the Ministry of Education in Moscow. Today, 600 children with special needs in Moscow live with their families in their communities, receiving the love and attention they deserve.
Dr. Pesach Gitelman adds: One aspect of the learning program in Israel was the presentation to the participants of elements of the theoretical and philosophical background underlying the entire approach to the area. The title selected for the presentation was: "Community and Educational Integration of Children with Special Needs."
The above topic reflects not only a technical and practical issue but, more importantly, a value-based statement regarding human rights. Accepting the definition of integration as an "act or process of incorporation as equals into society or an organization of individuals of different groups," it is clear that integrating people with special needs is a de facto statement of their being accepted as equals to all other citizens.
The notion of equality does not imply that all people are the same but that, despite significant (physical, emotional, etc.) differences there are basic qualities which make all human beings equal. This perception is accurate no matter what specific limitations and unique needs a person may have, he or she is equal to all other members of the community or society.
Applying this understanding to people with special needs, i.e., individuals whose need for attention and assistance is beyond, or different from that of other individuals, it becomes evident that the designation of these needs and their severity or significance aren't only internal to the individuals but are dependent on societal assessments.
In order to appreciate this aspect fully it may be useful to relate to three concepts which have been used to define special needs. These concepts are impairment, disability and handicap.
Impairment - any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function
Disability - any restriction or lack of ability (resulting from an impairment) to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.
Handicap - A disadvantage for a given individual resulting from an impairment or disability that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal, depending on age, social and cultural factors for that individual. A handicap is the result of the interplay between the impairment and the societal and\or attitudinal environment.
This understanding may be further clarified by an example.
A child born with spina bifida has an impairment - this, the non-complete development of the spinal cord, is an "abnormality of physiological or anatomical structure or function."
The outcome of this impairment is a disability - "a restriction of ability to perform in the manner considered normal." In this case the disability is quite often the inability to walk or have control of his/her body functions below the waist.
Whether or not the child becomes handicapped is the outcome of a societal decision regarding the services and facilities that will be available for him/her. For example, if the child has access to a wheelchair and if the school building where he/she learns is accessible to people in wheelchairs and if vital services (health, recreation etc.) are accessible, the child may not be considered handicapped. If however none of the above services are available then the impact of the impairment on the child's life may be overwhelming.
Two children with the same impairment may have totally different levels of handicap. The difference is a value-based societal decision regarding the priorities in distribution of resources, not related to the objective physical (or emotional) condition of the child!!
With this as a background, the significance of providing appropriate and meaningful opportunities to people with special needs becomes most evident. Societal decisions and priorities can determine whether a child with a specific impairment will be provided the opportunity to become a contributing and active member of society or whether he\she will become dependent on others and not a productive element in society.
Clearly, depending on what model the society adopts, decisions will be made regarding the nature of resources to be developed, the priorities to be assigned in resource development and, most practically the distribution of resources to cover the cost of these services.
The program to integrate children with special needs into local kindergartens with children without disabilities currently being undertaken in Moscow, can represent a major, initial step in developing a societal model where all people can live, work and play together with common appreciation for individual differences and strengths.
This step can help to overcome significant problems involved in the isolation and segregation of children with special needs from the broader society. This integration will also expose these children to a variety of life experiences that may prove threatening and possibly dangerous for those who have, in the past, been separated out of society and treated differently. These children may be exposed to "risks" which are often a major element of life in an open society.
Finally, the following lesson can help focus on the significance of accepting all people for society seeking the good and well being of its citizens.
Together we're better: a lesson from the geese
As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an "uplift" for the bird following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds 71% flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.
Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantages of the "lifting power" of the bird immediately in front.
Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks, and sharing leadership - with people, as with geese, interdependent with each other.
The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging - not something less helpful.
When a goose gets sick or injured or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own, with another formation or to catch up with their flock.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as the geese, we'll stand by each other like that.
(Milton Olson, Nebraska Synod [ElCCA] Update, November 1988)