Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

For this Weeks reading we had to read Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome. This reading out of all the many readings that we have had to read so far this semester, has had to of been my least favorite. I was not engaged in this text at all whatsoever. I tried my best to read it but then I realized the reason I didn't like the reading was because I wasn't interested in it at all. I believe that because I had no personal connection with the article, it was hard to see where the author was coming from with all of the different points that he was trying to make. I presumed that was the reason why this was one of my least favorite readings.

Although I didn't like this reading I managed to find some interesting points that Kliewer mentions on the very first page of the article, that I agreed with. Kinglsey claims that we need to break the barrier for people with disabilities which I believe is true. In order to break the barrier of people with disabilities, other people need to not be so judgmental and stereotypical of people that have disabilities. I believe in order for this work these two groups of people need to come together and by doing that students and students with disabilities should come together in a school setting. Just because a student has a disability doesn't make them any different from a non-disability student besides the fact, of course, that they have a disability. Just like we talked about last week with grouping students who have a higher I.Q with the better teachers and the students who aren't that smart or need more help, are placed with teachers that don't care. These teachers believe that there students are "stupid" and because of that judgment, the students placed in a lower class setting are loosing out on their education. I feel the same way with students that have a disability. Students that have a disability are typically placed in the same section of the building but teachers and aids must also remember that not every student has the same disability, therefore some students are capable of doing a lot more and shouldn't be labeled to be placed into those types of classrooms. These students should have reign but also some guidance in pointing them into the right direction.
A student that has a disability usually has no control over this happening to he or she, so why punish them even more to being limited to doing certain activities and learning certain things? It's not. I can remember back in high school, there was one part of our school which was called the 300's and that was were all the special education classes were, people with disabilities. After being in my Senior year in high school, I remember this one girl who I never even knew had some type of disability because she dressed and acted so normally but because she was in those classrooms and walked with the students with disabilities I knew she was. She tried so hard to fit in and be one of the popular girls that it broke my heart to have to see her be limited to meeting certain people in high school because of whatever type of disability that she had.


Below is an article about how children with disabilities have it harder in school than others. http://psychcentral.com/lib/teens-with-intellectual-disability-have-it-harder/0007894