Monday, April 13, 2009

Talking Points #9

"Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome"
BY: Christopher Kliewer

In this article, Kliewer argues that students with disabilities should not be overlooked by us but embraced by people without disabilities. Students with disabilities should be integrated into mainstream classrooms in order to give them confidence and not feel separated.

1.) "How do we erase these negative attitudes?" In light of the fact that "people without disabilities are judging us." (Kingsley 1996, p. 6)

This is a quote by someone who has Down Syndrome. What he means to say by this statement is that he does not want to be judged by people who are showing him little or no support. And if they are supporting him, it is out of unwillingness. They don't really care.

2.) "If you came into the room and were told there was a retarded child in the class, a child with special needs, I don't think you would pick Lee out. The kids really agree that he is as capable as they are. Intellectually the same."

This quote stands out to me because the speaker does not believe that anyone could pick out the difference between Lee and the other kids, and the kids believe he is just as smart as them. In other words, if no one knew that Lee had a disability, this conversation would not even exist. I think this is another one of Kliewer's strong points.

3.) "In essence, a gap exists between the performance of students with Down Syndrome and the performance expectations that define a useful individual. Students with Down Syndrome are placed in school structures that supposedly remediate their defects in order that they can eventually join the wider community. But this, of course, leads to perceptual school separation, and ultimately, the need for community placements that mirror the rigidity of segregated special education.

So, what our administrations are trying to say about students with disabilities and the reason why we separate them, is because they want to try to build them up to fit in with the real world later on in life. But, actually it is just an excuse to keep them separated, because you are not going to catch up with mainstream society without being there.

This was another eye opening article, because I had not thought about this situation in this perspective. I did not even know that people with disabilities would be able to adapt to the real world eventually. I think that this is why we still have these special education classes because most people just do not know. I think that many more parents would fight for their children if they only knew.

This article was easy to understand but kind of reiterated the same point in different circumstances. It does drive the point home. This kind of relates to any other articles that we have read on diversity. Even though people are different, we should be given equal opportunities, and we are not.

Have any of you ever had someone with a disability in one of your classes?

5 comments:

  1. Great post, Brandon. And a great question at the end. Yes. I have had many students with disabilities, though some more severe than others. The first time I had a student who used a wheelchair, I really had to think about how to adapt my activities in class (like moving around the room in stations, etc.). I learned a lot!

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  2. Yes I have dealt with a little boy that has autism at the camp that I work at in the summer time. His name is Niko and he is probably the funniest kid at the camp. He must play games on the computer at home and they must be Sesame Street games because he can tell you the whole game from top to bottom. He even says please click in the corner to go to the next page. He is awesome and he has been going to that camp for 2 years now and he is one of my favorite campers. He only goes to certain counselors and I am one of them. I don't know if maybe he is scared of the other ones but I know that kids with autism have social skill problems also. And there is a lot of young kids that work there and they do not have the patience to work with kids like that. It isn't that easy but I love it.

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  3. Once when ui was taking my core 4 there was a kid (don't want to say his name because maybe some people in our class know him)who is disable. i can't say specifically what's his condition. But the thing is that he wanted to be nice with the teacher and every day before the teacher got in the classroom, the kid would acomodate the teacher's desk and chair and open the window for him and stuff like that. But the teacher didn't seem to like all that and he would get so mad that his face would turn out RED. I did not like the way the teacher treated that kid. I think when i teacher has a student with any disability, s/he should be more tolerant.

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  4. in high school there was a boy who had down syndrome and he was put into regular classes, but i dont thnk the teacher liked that at all because if this boy misbehaved once, the teacher bit his head of, i feel like that should probably not hapen because this boy didnt understand.

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  5. No but, my sister works with people with disabilities and has since I was about ten.

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