SPECTRUM HISTORY

The following is Sara's personal account of meeting Muska:

In 1968 while finishing an MA degree, I accepted my first teaching position at a community college. On February 21, 1969 I attended a large southeast district conference at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Muska Mosston was the keynote speaker. His presentation on Inclusion in Education changed my life.

Muska presented his Inclusion Concept. His energetic, interactive, and logically sequenced questioning approach with the audience was both cognitively and emotionally compelling and convincing. This interactive audience approach was novel in 1969. His questions led the audience to conclude that the higher the rope was raised the more children were excluded from the educational experience—thus Exclusion in Education results when tasks are designed with only one level of difficulty.

He then asked the question: What can be done to the rope to create a condition for inclusion – a condition where all students can be INCLUDED in jumping over the rope?

Although the audience provided several possible and workable solutions, Muska led them to refine their thinking of Inclusion to the adjustment of the rope. Some of the preliminary responses were:

• Keep the rope low

Muska’s response: Psychologically we have learned that this option reduces motivation – therefore, what can be done to the rope so all students are included and motivated?

• Have the children go under the rope

Muska’s response: This option changes the task. The task is for each child to go over the rope

• Have multiple ropes at different heights

Muska’s response: We are a poor district and we have only one rope! What adjustment can be made with just this one rope so all are included, challenged, and motivated?

• Before jumping over, have each child tell you the height they want.

Muska’s response: This option is possible; however, more class time is spent waiting as students indicate and adjust the height rather than experiencing and engaging in the task. What can we do to the rope so that all children can select their own entry point into the task of going over the rope?

I was sitting in the last row of a room with 1000 people. I whispered “slant the rope”.Muska’s response to this option: When multiple heights are offered by “slanting” the rope, each child is offered an opportunity to engage in the task based on where they can participate. Thus by offering multiple levels of difficulty within the same task, students were Included in the task and were offered opportunities for continued participation in the educational experience.

The power and the elegance of the concept of Inclusion in Education challenged everything I had been taught and opened my thinking to new possibilities and experiences in teaching and learning. Most of all, Muska’s presentation created a desire to learn more about the Spectrum of Teaching Styles.

After the presentation at a publisher’s reception, Muska and I were introduced. We spent the remainder of the evening until 5:00 in the morning in the coffee shop of the Peabody Hotel talking about education. That was the first of 35 years of conversations with Muska about the Spectrum.