Snow Shovel Epiphany about Inclusion

It's January 22 and we are in the midst of an epic snowstorm. We could get a foot of snow before it's all over (that's epic in the South), and for my husband, it is a winter paradise because he gets to break out the snow shovel. My husband, David, loves to shovel snow. In fact, I would say he is a champion snow shoveler. I have no doubt that he could win American Ninja Warrior if snow shoveling were involved. Today I decided to join him to see if I enjoyed it as much as he. He started at one end of the driveway and I started at the other end with the plan to meet in the middle. After what felt like an hour (but was really only ten minutes), I had gone 10 feet and he had gone 1/3 of the driveway. I was thinking I had reached my snow shoveling capacity, but then David looked at me and said "You tired already?" Something sparked within me. I stuck out my chin and said, "Of course, not. In fact, I won't stop shoveling until you do". So I kept on shoveling until David stopped. There was just something about his challenge and his faster pace that made me want to push myself past what I thought I could do.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about an inservice I attended with Dr. Richard Villa about Inclusion. It challenged my thinking about homogeneous vs. heterogeneous groupings. Is it in the best interest of the student to group them by ability level? If not, then why do we continue to place students on "tracks" from middle school through high school. Why put all the "advanced" students in one class segregated from the "remedial" group? If I had been shoveling with someone like myself today, we both would have stopped shoveling after ten feet, but because I was with someone with a greater capacity, I was pushed to go further. Heterogeneous groupings provide a win-win for all.

• An opportunity for higher level students to experience the deepest level of learning and retention because they are presenting and teaching others. 
• An opportunity for lower level students to see models of how far they can go and to be inspired to aim higher and farther. 
• An opportunity for teachers to think critically about their instruction as they continually differentiate to meet the needs of all students in their classrooms. 

What magic are we missing in our classrooms by ability grouping our students?