I you inclusion

Movie
Original title	I. You. Inclusion. - When demands meet reality
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	2017
length	90 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0
Rod
Director	Thomas Binn
script	Thomas Binn
production	Philipp Lutz
music	Nils A. Witt ; Beray Habip ; Gilbert Gelsdorf
camera	David Stevens ; Nils A. Witt ; Eric Poss ; Thomas Binn ; Moritz Esser
cut	Nicole Schmeier

I. You. Inclusion. is the name of a documentary by Thomas Binn. It was shot in the municipality of Uedem in the Kleve district on the Lower Rhine and was shown for the first time in 60 German cinemas on May 4, 2017. Main venue is the sibling Devries School, a Catholic denominational school . The primary school has three classes and, in terms of size and orientation, is representative of many other primary schools in Germany, even though many of the facts shown in the film represent specifics of the North Rhine-Westphalian school system.

The film is being promoted by Mindjazz Pictures . Originally, Binn wanted to offer it to a television station. Shortly before he resigned, he found a partner in Mindjazz Pictures who helped him distribute the film. Many cinemas showed the film during 2017.

Story of the movie

The 90-minute documentary Me. You. Inclusion. After starting school at the beginning of the 2014/2015 school year, she accompanies a primary school class at the Geschwister-Devries-Schule in Uedem for two and a half years. In this class there are children with and without support needs, although the answer to the question is not certain from the start for all children whether they have special needs, and if so, which ones. Five students are also shown outside of class. The students belong to the first official inclusion class in North Rhine-Westphalia, i. H. the first year in which all children have the chance to attend a regular school.

The film presents children with concentration problems, learning difficulties or an attention deficit, whose problems the educators employed, but also the non-professional "integration assistants" employed in addition, can only get a grip on to a limited extent, even though the school was a project school for joint teaching until the 2013/2014 school year 15 Has achieved good results for years.

The career of Matthis, whose mother is also the chairwoman of the class guardianship (that's how the chairmen of the class parents' council are called in North Rhine-Westphalia), is described particularly intensely. Matthis learned to speak late and is therefore in speech therapy treatment, also so that everyone around him can better acoustically understand what he is trying to say. As a child who started school shortly before his sixth birthday, he is one of the youngest in his class. Before starting school, his mother decided that he should be given the same instruction. At this point in time, Matthis' mother hoped that her son would be able to reduce his development deficit relatively quickly through inclusive teaching. In fact, it turns out that he doesn't just need language training. Achieving a different official classification than that of a student who only needs to be encouraged in language development proves to be difficult in practice. As a result, the school does not receive any additional teaching hours for the comprehensive support of Matthis and other children for whom (additional) support needs only become necessary relatively late.

A key scene is Matthis' attempt, together with his mother at home, to enter the time given in numbers on the illustration of the face of an analog clock. He cannot do that even with help, although supposedly "everyone else in the class" can. The mother, who appears to be absolutely loving, insists that Matthis has to make an effort because one has to be able to handle an analog watch. She herself, she says to Matthis, allegedly “would be too late for the farmers' meeting” without looking at an analog clock (she is an occupational therapist full-time, but the family runs a farm).

The work of the class teacher and a special school teacher are also presented in the film. Both fail, just like the parents of the children in the class shown to be cooperative, time and again due to insufficient framework conditions. The fact that in most of the lessons the class teacher (apart from the film team) is the only adult in her class creates the impression in the audience that an unacceptable form of "inclusion" is being practiced in Uedem. The adults interviewed criticized the fact that the class teacher was relieved by too few and insufficiently qualified staff, that there was generally too little of everything that was needed and that the authorities were working too slowly and too bureaucratically.

The general plot of the film consists in the performance of a play by the pupils in the class, a fable through which the viewer should learn that everyone is “different” and that they cannot or only with difficulty carry out activities that others find easy. This is an arrangement of the piece Ich bin anders du also by Daniel Kallauch .

Person of the screenwriter and director

Thomas Binn, 47 years old, began his professional life as a tile and air heating manufacturer. In 2004 he completed his studies in the Netherlands with a degree in social education (focus on audiovisual media). Since 2003 he has been working as a freelance writer, filmmaker and photographer. For a long time, Binn has been involved as a “freelance teacher” in projects at primary schools. Thomas Binn lives in Kevelaer .

According to his own assessment, Binn would not have received permission to produce long-term documentation in the Uedem primary school if he had not previously worked closely with the headmaster in a boys' project at the school.

Intention of the film

The intention of the filmmakers is to use their long-term documentary to “provide an insight into those who otherwise only look at the subject of inclusion from the outside [,] and make the discourse accessible to a wider public. [They] want to make children and teachers heard and also invite politicians to speak with a more public debate. Especially in view of the upcoming [state and federal elections], [they] expect a willingness to exchange views, to make clear offers and productive proposals.

[The filmmakers] want the discussion about how good inclusion can be achieved in school to stop taking place in a socially marginalized manner. "

Thomas Binn, together with the parents of the Cologne association “mittendrin”, makes it clear that the film should not cause the “justified demand for sufficient staff” in the school policy debate to turn into an attitude that inclusion must be stopped or slowed down.

reception

About the film was u. a. from moviepilot.de , filmstarts.de , kino.de and cineplex.de informed. North Rhine-Westphalian daily newspapers and Spiegel Online as well as berlin.de , the “official capital city portal”, also took up the film and its topic in their reporting. The " Association of Education and Upbringing (VBE)", a cooperation partner, offered several discussion events about the film in the run-up to the film premiere; “Often it suffers from the lack of understanding of what inclusion means for those involved. We have often accused politics of making decisions out of the ivory tower. With the film and subsequent discussion rounds, we are now proactively offering the opportunity to find out more about the reality in German schools, ”said the VBE federal chairman, Udo Beckmann, in April 2017.

The reviewer of the Bremen Weserkurier is "shocked" by the film: "[T] he film leaves the viewer with the feeling that the system is far from being fully developed."

After a preview of the film organized by the “Thuringian Teachers Association” in Erfurt , the chairman of the association found that Binn had correctly grasped the problem of inclusion practice. In Thuringia , the conditions are even worse than in North Rhine-Westphalia, as primary school teachers almost always have to give “inclusive” lessons alone.

According to the “Baden-Württemberg State Working Group, Living Together, Learning Together”, the author does not recognize the core of the problem that inclusion threatens to fail in practice: “[T] he few special education hours are NOT explained by the fact, as the director once says that more and more schools have to make inclusion, but because North Rhine-Westphalia, like most other federal states, absolutely wants to maintain the parallel special system. ”The working group also criticizes that the adults who have their say in the film are overly critical because the children behaved “completely normally” (in the sense of the teaching of the listed play, according to which having certain skills should not be overrated).

Bernd Ahrbeck, professor emeritus from the Institute for Rehabilitation Sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin, applies different standards when it comes to assessing the success or failure of inclusive lessons: "After school, life asks everyone the same questions: Can you read, write, do arithmetic and can you behave appropriately? The relativization of educational goals in the sense of arbitrariness and colorful diversity is often in stark contrast to the requirements of adult life. After all, the school should prepare children for adult life. "

Web links

I You inclusion in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Silke Fokken: Ms. Hess can't do that at all . Spiegel Online interview with Thomas Binn. 4th May 2017
Sebastian Dalkowski / Sarah Biere / Thomas Binn / Phil Ninh: Inclusion - Difficult enough RP-online
On the way to an inclusive school in North Rhine-Westphalia - The “First Act to Implement the UN Disability Rights Convention in Schools” (9th School Law Amendment Act) and accompanying measures . Ministry for Schools and Further Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. 2015
,I. You. Inclusion ': There is still a lot of need in schools! RTL guide. March 12, 2018

Individual evidence

↑ Release certificate for I You Inclusion . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 166625 / K).

↑ i . You. Inclusion - the film - in the cinema from May 4th. Retrieved August 4, 2017 .

↑ Aktion Mensch : New in the cinema: “Me. You. Inclusion"

↑ Mindjazz Pictures: About Us

↑ Bad testimony for the longed-for inclusion Westdeutsche Zeitung , May 9, 2017

↑ Mindjazz Pictues: Cinema Dates (August to December 2017)

↑ Interview with Thomas Binn . wdr -audio. April 28, 2017, 4'52 to 5'56

↑ Thomas Binn: About me

↑ Susanne Klein: "A successful system was destroyed" . Interview with Thomas Binn. sueddeutsche.de , May 9, 2017

↑ The film . Homepage of the BINN media production

^ Franz Schmahl: Film about inclusion . kobinet news . April 26, 2017

↑ VBE: To get an idea - with the film “Ich. You. Inclusion " ( Memento of the original from August 1st, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . April 28, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vbe.de