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‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)
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Gemeinsam sind wir grosse Klasse
by Franz-Joseph Huainigg
Age Range: 6-8
Gemeinsam sind wir grosse Klasse was included in the ‘Reading the Way’: Inclusive Books from Around the World Research and ‘Reading the Way 2’ projects. The book is not available in English but is referred to as Together we're Fantastic throughout the RtW Research projects. (Full report in the Education Zone of this website)
Together We’re Fantastic focuses on the benefits of inclusive education, depicting a day in a classroom and demonstrating how much all the children can learn from each other. Amongst the children is Max who has Down Syndrome. One of the other children Bernhard has difficulty accepting Max, feeling he has no place in their class, because he does not understand everything. However, all the other children rally around Max. OIW considered Together we’re Fantastic to be a book with plenty of substance and some powerful messages about the importance of inclusion.
It is interesting to note the perspective of the author Franz-Joseph Huanigg, who set out to write such stories in the belief that it was important for disabled people (especially children) to learn from them and to know that they were not alone in the concerns and challenges they faced.
OIW embraced this intention and welcomed books which helped to develop understanding and reduce isolation and exclusion. There was some strong support for this argument and agreement that stories such as this can be useful as information books, although there was a feeling that they might be too didactic and seen to convey a 'negative image of disability'. OIW concluded that there is a need for such books to be viewed within an appropriate context and as part of a wider landscape which also features many other, natural, casual and positive depictions of disabled children.