The Need to Belong: Rediscovering Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Abraham Maslow was an American philosopher who was born in the early 1990 's in Brooklyn, New York. He was one of the leading theorists that promoted humanistic psychology during his era. Maslow sought to understand what motivates and inspires individuals. He theorized that individuals possess and hold a group of motivation and incentive systems not related to plunder or insensible desires. Maslow declared that people are motivated and provoked to attain certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. The earliest version of Maslow 's hierarchy of needs includes five motivational needs, often viewed as hierarchical levels inside a pyramid. The five stage representation can be separated into basic needs and growth needs. The deficiency or basic needs are said to motivate and stimulate individuals when they are unmet and not fully attained. Also, the desire to fulfill and accomplish such wants and needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. Once these needs have been relatively satisfied, an individual may be capable of reaching the highest level of the pyramid called self-actualization. Maslow though that self actualization is a state that exists when an individual is acting in harmony with his or her full capabilities. In Cormac McCarthy 's novel, The Road, we will examine the character 's physical journey towards self-actualization on Maslow

A stereotype that is often associated with special education is that its only for students with a severe disability. Special Education is for all disabled children no matter how severe or the need for the special education services. This stereotype often leads faculty and others to misclassify or inappropriately place students in a special education program. Another stereotype is that special education can only be performed in a “special” classroom with other students with a disability. Being placed in special education doesn’t mean that the student needs to be restricted from the other students without a disability. Children with a disability should be educated in general education classrooms with typical peers as much as possible. As teachers,

According to “Learning Disabilities Fast Facts” by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, “Close to half of secondary students with learning disabilities perform more than three grade levels below their enrolled grade in essential academic skills (45% in reading, 44% in math).” This fact proves that when disabled students are in a classroom that contains both disabled students as well as nondisabled students, disabled students are not learning to their full potential or may not be learning at all (Learning Disability Fast

In elementary school, my classroom had students with and without disabilities, and we all shared the same space while working towards a common goal, but over time this diverse community diminished. This phenomenon of tracking and hierarchy of opportunity in education that I notice today is also responsible for creating an environment in which secondary special education is often a segregated locale, physically and socially removed from mainstream public schooling. I've witnessed Syracuse University push against this norm and challenge these boundaries time and time again, and I feel that before entering my own my classroom I want to address these issues of homogeneity and continue to build my tool box of inclusionary practices that extend past my current

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs teaches us that the human condition requires that certain needs be met such as our physical needs, our safety needs, our belongingness and love needs, our esteem needs, and our self-actualization needs. According to Maslow, it is when these needs are met that we become whole people. Ethan Frome is a book that centers on the needs of a man and his family. The author, Edith Wharton, shows a range of characters that are at times at various levels of the needs that Maslow explains in his hierarchy. What we humans need to fulfill our own self-actualization is often times shown in Wharton’s work. It is the building of one such character that mirrors the belongingness and love needs that is of particular interest because of her evolvement throughout the book. The character of Frome’s wife, Zeena, suffers from hypochondria who seems to be in search of something just out of her reach. The character is filled with illnesses that seem to trouble her on a daily basis with each one seemingly more significant than the other that leads the reader to understand just how manipulative she is. It is as if the character needs attention in order to participate in life. Edith Wharton creates a character in Zeena that fakes her illness because it parallels the relationship

Students with special needs need deserve the same education general education students are presented with. The philosophy of “ Disability Inclusion” concentrates on creating a safe, loving, and effective learning environment for students who suffer from physical, learning, and behavioral disabilities. When a student with disabilities is placed in the same environment as a non-disabled student, the results show wonderful improvement. When we are able to discover the strength of the student we are able to see just how much the student can improve in an inclusion classroom. Disability Inclusion not only sets a new beginning for an equal education of special education students, but it allows for more interaction with the child, and a more hands-on assessment.

Full inclusion or mainstreaming classrooms is when special needs students are assimilated into a general classroom setting. On the other hand, the special needs classrooms are set aside to allow disabled students to learn at a different pace with a certified teacher. The census has reported “Of the 53.9 million school-aged children (aged 5 to 17) in the U.S. civilian no institutionalized population, about 2.8 million were reported to have a disability in 2010 ”(Brault, 2011, p. 1). These children require special attention from properly trained teachers who can help them succeed. Since the number of special needs students is on the rise, full inclusion has become a popular topic among education reformers. The full inclusion of a class can mean the difference between passing

All teachers dream of the classroom filled with fifteen tranquil, enthusiastic students, all with their note books out and pencils prompt for note taking. This is the classroom where everyone works together, at the same pace, and without any interruptions or distractions. This is the ideal classroom setting. The only problem with this picture is that it does not exist. Students are all different. Kids all learn different ways, and at varying paces. Both Physical and Learning Disabilities can hinder a child’s learning speed and hold them back from the rest of the class. It can be very difficult to identify a child with a learning disability because students can often be misunderstood and labeled as unmotivated and lazy. These students

Within the past decades and a big discussion has occurred regarding the most appropriate setting within which to provide education for students in special education. Although the change in the educational environment is significant for handicapped student the concepts of inclusion also bring up new issues for the regular education classroom teachers.

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist and at the forefront of the humanist movement in psychology, proposed a theory concerning basic human motivations that are based upon a hierarchy of needs. (Boeree 1998, 2006) Often described or pictured as a pyramid, basic physiological drives like thirst, hunger and sleep, as well as the need for safety, shelter and some feeling of security are the motivational needs that occupy the bottom tiers of the pyramid.. They provide the foundation for higher levels of needs to become present and available that the individual is aroused or driven to attain. Once those physiological and safety needs are met then the individual looks to love and be loved, to belong

“The integration of children with disabilities in the same classroom with non-disabled youngsters has emerged as one of the most complex, important, and controversial practices in the field of education” (Tarver-Behring et. al, 1). Depending on the type of school, special needs students can be segregated from others and placed in their own learning based classroom. However, some argue that special needs students positively impact themselves and the others around them when being placed into the mainstream classroom setting. Special needs students should be placed in the traditional classroom setting because they positively impact students without disabilities, as well as

Many children have had learning disabilities for many years. Each year more and more of these children are being helped. Schools are working to improve their special education programs and to have all kinds of students work together in the same classroom. The practice of inclusion was started because educators felt that special needs students would achieve more in traditional classrooms with non-learning disabled students than they would in special education classes. However, research findings suggest that there really is no difference in academic achievement levels for special needs students when they are placed in regular classrooms.

The key to any successful school district is the administration. Teachers essentially provide structure, organization, and the background of a child’s future. To educate students with learning disabilities, it is essential that the staff has the training and resources needed for the appropriate people, place, and time (Lazarus) (What is Inclusion, 2001, n.p). It is unrealistic to expect that regular education teachers will always be aware of the latest research or be able to readily adapt the school's

According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities should be placed in a “least restrictive environment.” One of the main ideas of this act was to improve the learning experiences of students with disabilities by giving them learning opportunities outside of a special education classroom. The number of students with disabilities being placed in their general education classrooms is increasing more and more each year. The U.S Department of Education’s 27th annual report to Congress on the implementation of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2005) indicates that the number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms has risen to almost 50 percent. This is about a 17 percent increase from the 1997 U.S

Every child has the ability to learn, but the way a child learns and processes knowledge can be very different, especially for a child with special needs. (Mainstreaming Special Education in the Classroom) As a society we owe all children the chance to reach their full potential, thus we must set up an environment where this accessible. Integrated education unarguably allows the must vulnerable and excluded children this chance. According to Inclusiveschools.org, “Inclusion” does not simply mean placing students with physical or mental disability in general mainstream classrooms, but rather offers fundamental change to school community and how children learn altogether. Effective models of inclusive education according to various sources, is the right model of education for special needs students because it allows greater access to mainstream curriculum, preparation for integration in an inclusive society, and promotes a tolerant and inclusive society. (Full inclusion: Has its time arrived?, The Benefits of inclusive Education.)