The OBSERVER’s June 13 edition listed a web poll asking, “Should special education students be integrated into regular classrooms?” Of respondents, 55% answered no; 45% answered yes.

I’ll address the poll itself first. The question was ill-conceived and offensive. First, obviously the diversity of children’s individual needs is far too complex for a generic, “yes/no” poll.

Second, your question objectifies children with disabilities. Imagine being a young person with dyslexia, or autism. Imagine picking up your hometown paper and reading that the editorial staff has asked your community whether you should be allowed in to the “regular classroom” with your peers.

Then, imagine reading that your community has voted no.

As the mother of an almost 4-year-old with Down syndrome, I am offended and hurt, both by the question and by the community’s response. Yet I’m also confident that your poorly designed “web poll” does not actually capture the community’s perspectives — at least, not the community we’ve found. I’m also confident that the poll’s answer is wrong.

According to the National Council of Disabilities’ 2018 report, “The Segregation of Children with Disabilities,” “There is no research that supports the value of a segregated special education class and school.” Yet a strong body of research shows that children with disabilities benefit academically and socially from inclusive classrooms.

Like every parent, I want Evan to be prepared for as wide a range of options as possible. Today, people with Down syndrome are artists, Zumba teachers, teaching assistants, gymnasts. They work at coffee shops, start small businesses, go to college. All of these options require academic and social skills that the research shows will be best developed in the regular classroom.

But what about Evan’s classmates? Won’t his presence slow the rest of the class down? Actually, research shows that children without disabilities in inclusive classrooms see either a neutral or beneficial impact on their academic achievement. Often, the need to modify a lesson for a child with a disability leads to better teaching for everyone.

And that’s just academics. Children also go to school to learn about the world, and everyone in it. Children with disabilities were never in my K-12 classes. I remember seeing them in the hallways, but we never spoke to them. We never knew their names.

Shortly after my son was born, I turned down a sidewalk and saw a young man with a visible disability walking toward me. For a split-second, I surveyed possible routes, wondering if I could choose a different one. I wondered if I could avoid simply walking past this man.

In the next moment, I felt so sad — so aware that people might someday feel the same way about my little son.

But today, when I dropped him off at preschool, a classmate hugged him, then pulled him down to play with the cars. He can’t ride a tricycle yet, but the other day when I picked him up, another child was pulling him on the back of his.

Evan’s speech is hard to understand, but he and his friends play with walkie-talkies anyway. He plays the little class piano while his classmates stand around singing, one friend accompanying on the guitar.

His classmates are 4; they know he’s different. They are learning that someone who’s different can also be fun. They are learning when and how to help. They’re learning not to be uncomfortable with difference, the way I was that day on the sidewalk.

Hopefully, if they are ever asked a similarly offensive question in a web poll, they’ll have the empathy and the wisdom to answer differently.

Heather McEntarfer, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of English at the State University of New York at Fredonia and a Fredonia resident.