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By Betty Edwards, Chair of the Special Olympics Project UNIFY® National Education Leaders Network

The film “Cipher in the Snow,” a true story written in 1964 by teacher/guidance counselor Jean Mizer, tells the story of an ostracized teenager, Cliff, who has no friends and becomes a withdrawn "cipher" or nonentity. (Cipher is the mathematical notation for zero—something without weight, importance, or value.)

One day, Cliff asks to get off the school bus, collapses, and dies in the snow beside the road. Cliff’s math teacher is asked to write the obituary but realizes that hardly anyone recalls the student. When he tries to get a small group together to attend Cliff’s funeral, he can’t find 10 people who knew the student well enough to feel comfortable going. He vows to never let another student in his class feel unimportant and be unknown.

We wish we could say that this story could not be written today, but that’s not true. Many students in our schools feel insignificant, disengaged, and without value—especially students with intellectual disabilities.

The 2007 National Study of Youth Attitudes Toward the Inclusion of Students with Intellectual Disabilities found that only 10% of public school students report having a friend with an intellectual disability.  The results of the study, published in the summer 2007 issue of Exceptional Children, also revealed that in general, youth have limited contact with students with intellectual abilities in their classrooms and school and do not want to interact socially with a peer with intellectual disabilities.  

A Social Inclusion Model

Special Olympics Project UNIFY® is a social inclusion model that was inaugurated under U.S. Department of Education funding in June 2008. It brings youth with and without intellectual disabilities together through sports and related activities, providing them with the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to create and sustain school communities where all young people are agents of change for persons with intellectual disabilities and where school climates promote acceptance, respect and human dignity.  Project UNIFY has three core components:

• Inclusive Sports provide all students (those with and without intellectual disabilities) opportunities to participate in sports activities alongside one another.
• Youth Leadership and Advocacy provide opportunities for all students in the school to take on leadership roles in promoting social initiatives in the school and in the community.
• Whole-School Awareness and Engagement provide opportunities for all students in the school to bring attention to respect and inclusion through sustained school-wide activities.

When an inclusive environment is created, a student with disabilities can have a powerful, positive impact on others.

Brenda Niemeyer, a school counselor whose son, Jared, has Down syndrome, sees the impact of social inclusion. “I’ve had the privilege of watching my son play a role in changing thinking, perspectives, experiences and values among his peers and within the community of Project UNIFY. Inclusion removes much of the stigma as you come to know one another, you experience activities together and gain insights from one another.  ‘Typical’ youth recognize that others who may be different aren’t necessarily disabled – they are differently abled…. ‘Typical’ students and their parents learn that all individuals have value, that we each have a responsibility to make our community a better place for each of us.  ‘Typical’ students often recognize that tasks they find easy others do not; others have had to learn a sense of commitment, resilience, or strength of character to accomplish or overcome difficulties….  

“Learning to communicate with all individuals promotes learning as a group or community task and accomplishment. Inclusion allows differing perspectives to unite and have a voice – together making positive changes for the individuals, the community and yes, the world!!!!”

Samantha Huffman, a former member of Project UNIFY’s Youth Activation Committee, describes the personal impact of social inclusion. “There were times in my life [beginning in my middle school years] where I had trouble finding a group of peers who made me feel accepted and valued for who I was. But that didn't matter because I had my Special Olympics friends who consistently supported and loved me…. From these friendships I have built, I have learned how incredibly crucial it is for everyone, regardless of ‘creed, color, or uniqueness,’ to have people in their lives who love, accept, and support them for who they are and empower them to become even greater. Everyone needs social inclusion.”

Helping Each Other

The teacher in “Cipher in the Snow” vowed to ensure that no other student in his class would go unnoticed. We, too, must take a renewed vow to ensure that every student is known, feels valued, and is recognized as a significant part of the school.

Portions of this blog came from “Social Inclusion: It’s Our Middle School, Too,” an article that appeared in the February 2013 issue of Middle Ground (Association for Middle Level Education). The full article is now publicly accessibly at: http://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/Middle_Ground/feb2013/social_inclusion.pdf

Editor’s Note: This post is from our partners at the Special Olympics Project UNIFY. Each month, we feature a new article on a topic related to the social inclusion of youth with intellectual disabilities. Through this effort, we hope to inform the public of the importance of such inclusion as well as offer educators and parents resources to implement it.

Image modified from a creation of Vicki Nunn (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons