Young Person's Voice: Quiet Riot
On Letting Everyone Belong: Why Inclusive Education Matters To Me By Maresa McKeith, a Nottingham-based writer, educator, activist and observer of the world, who has led numerous workshops and given talks in a wide range of educational and community settings.
I express myself non-verbally, through alternative communication. I hope that my work challenges, comforts, and gives hope. As a Disabled Woman, I know what it is like to feel completely alone in spaces where others appear to be excelling. I have not merely witnessed that sense of isolation, I have felt it. In schools, many Disabled children need help, but there is never enough quality help around, and so it becomes more about survival, than thriving. My school journey was challenging and complicated. I needed friends to help me get through it, along with other key staff, personal assistants, and my mum. In segregated settings, it is often impossible for children who can’t talk or move to form relationships with each other, as there is nobody to assist those relationships. Friendship is not even on the agenda. What fuels my work as a writer, poet, and educator, centres around the potential isolation that begins when a Disabled child is not seen as an active part of a school, and the long-lasting impact that this can have. Not just on their own sense of worth, but as to how they are seen by other children. Or worse: not seen at all.
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