Inclusion includes who?

Many of the methods that were incorporated by Maria Montessori in her pedagogy came from her study of Friedrich Froebel and others who worked with "idiot" children--what I will henceforth call children who learn differently. Additionally, Montessori's first observations of children were those who were in an asylum. So I am thankful that including children who learn differently as well as those who have special needs are being placed back into the national equation as it pertains to Montessori programs. One could ask the question, "How were they ever subtracted from that equation?" But such an answer requires far more blog posts. And they are coming, dear friends. When I saw this Facebook post on your right...

It gave me hope for the future of Montessori education in this country. But in order to be an agent of peace for the future of our children, it is worth considering the past (and present) wounds of a nation that places a limit on whose children we consider to be "ours". That is to say, "difference" is so easily equated with division. Anything outside of sameness easily becomes other. How do we fight against this human tendency? Better still, how do we cultivate a new tendency? While we can lovingly (and vocally) disagree with one another, how do we create an environment in which we can still learn from and serve one another? May such answers come all the more quickly as we walk forward, child in one hand--who holds the hand of yet another child...and another---and the smallest pink cube in the other.