From the makers of Choices (reviewed in our July-August 1992 issue), this new program is also about inclusion, or placing special education students into mainstream classrooms, and offers profiles of two Illinois students: Becky, a developmentally disabled 6th-grade student in Rockford, IL, and 4-year-old Larissa, who attends a day care in Chicago. As in the earlier film, interviews with parents, fellow students, and educators underscore the benefits of inclusion. While the program convincingly shows the advantages to both the special education students and their chronological peers, Families, Friends, Futures is not an unbiased look at the subject. Like Choices, the video was made for the Department of Special Education of the Illinois State Board of Education, and contains no commentary from the other side of what is definitely a debate. Too--while inspiring--Families, Friends, Futures doesn't really offer any new insights beyond what was covered in Choices, and it's more expensive than the earlier program to boot. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)
Families, Friends, Futures
(1993) 23 min. $60. Comforty Mediaconcepts. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 9, Issue 2
Families, Friends, Futures
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