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Enlarging
One's Circle of Friends: At McGavock High School, It's All Done on the
Buddy System
By
Carolyn Hughes & Carol Guth
Breaking
Ground
The Newsletter of the Tennessee Developmental Disabilities Council
Volume Five/ Number Four Fall /1995
Many
students with severe disabilities are attending Metropolitan Nashville
high schools but, for the majority of the school day, they remain
segregated in self-contained special education classes away from their
regular education peers. This isolation spreads to other settings in the
school, such as the lunchroom, sports events, and club activities.
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McGavock
High School in Nashville has implemented an exciting new program to help
overcome the social barriers students with severe disabilities experience.
Through a three-year grant from the Tennessee Developmental Disabilities
Council, Dr. Carolyn Hughes and her colleagues at Vanderbilt University's
Kennedy Center are assisting McGavock High School teachers to set up a
"Peer Buddy" program. A unique feature of this social inclusion
program is that regular education peers provide the support that students
with severe disabilities need to be included within the curricular and
extra-curricular activities that make up a typical day of a regular
education student. These include eating with friends in the lunchroom,
going to class together, "hanging out" by the lockers,
participating in school clubs, and attending sports events or school
dances. Peer buddies also support students with severe disabilities in
vocational education classes, such as body shop, cosmetology, or
restaurant trades, or other classes in which they have both chosen to
enroll. Peer buddies help the students complete their class projects,
communicate with the instructor and their classmates, and provide
friendship. They also introduce some of their own friends to the students
in order to enlarge each student's "circle of friends."
This
is the first time that a peer buddy program has been offered for credit in
the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. McGavock High School is the
largest high school in Tennessee with almost 3,000 students and more than
300 students in special education. Dr. Hughes and Carol Guth of the
Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University helped Gladys
Henderson and other special education teachers at McGavock High School to
pursue the application process to develop the peer buddy course. Following
the approval of the Metropolitan Nashville School Board and Tennessee
Department of Education, McGavock High School piloted the program during
the 1994-1995 school year.
The
program is unique in the Nashville school system in that it is one of the
few to support inclusion on the high school level among students with
severe disabilities. Most inclusion efforts focus on preschool or
elementary school students with less severe disabilities.
Principal
Dr. Howard Baltimore and the guidance counselors at McGavock are
instrumental in notifying regular education students of the opportunity to
be a peer buddy and in identifying strong candidates to the special
education teachers. After a referral from their guidance counselor,
students complete a brief written application and an interview with the
teacher and students of the special education class with whom they have
chosen to work. The teachers feel that this screening process is critical
to ensure a good match between peer buddies and their partners with
disabilities.
The
widening gyre. Peer buddies and their partners spend at least one
class period a day together attending a regular education class,
interacting in the special education class, visiting the library, or
attending Student Council, clubs or other extracurricular and social
events together. Peer buddies and their partners also meet once a week to
have lunch together in the cafeteria. The "Lunch Bunch" is a
purely social gathering and is joined by other regular education students
who are interested in social inclusion but unable to enroll in the course
because of class conflicts. Once a week peer buddies also meet with their
supervising teachers for assistance in setting goals with their partners
and in developing strategies to meet their partner's special needs.
Project staff, along with graduate assistants Stacey Scott and Judith
Presley, provide technical assistance and support to the teachers, peer
buddies, and administrative staff at McGavock to promote social inclusion
for each student with severe disabilities.
Dramatic
differences in the social interactions among students with and without
severe disabilities have been noticed by both students and teachers. Tina
Kline, a sophomore peer buddy, observed "They used to sit at their
own tables in one corner of the cafeteria. They wouldn't talk to anyone
and now they go outside and talk to everyone. They are much more
comfortable now." She added, "I feel good that I'm doing
something to change students who didn't normally speak to other
people." Peers and teachers have noticed that students who rarely
talked and spent most of their time alone are now animated in their
conversation, initiate interaction frequently, and feel comfortable
"hanging out" with regular education students at lunch, in the
halls, and in classes.
The
project also has been helpful in building public awareness and sensitivity
toward persons with disabilities at McGavock. Senior Laurie Wood, a peer
buddy, reflected, "I really did not understand people with
disabilities. I felt sorry for them. I did not know what they were
thinking or feeling. I never had much contact with people with
disabilities. I was afraid of becoming friends with them. Now I know that
each one has his or her limits and abilities. The are like becoming
friends with anyone else."
Peer
buddies also report the benefits they are experiencing from their
interactions. Bethany observed, "(the peer buddy program) has taught
me many things that have already helped me. I have gotten better at
communicating and relating to other people." Laurie agreed, "I
am gaining experience and new friends. I am able to see what goes on with
students with disabilities. It is helping me make up my mind about my
career choice." Tina summed up, "No matter what mood I am in
when I meet with Sharon, I always leave in a better mood. Sharon does not
always do what I ask her to do. I have learned to be patient with her when
I talk."
Project
staff will be providing technical assistance to teachers and students at
other high schools in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools who are
interested in participating in the peer buddy program.
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