"Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Snydrome" by Kliewer

Kliewer argues that students with down syndrome should be given the equal opportunity of learning the same way that students without down syndrome do. They should be integrated in the same classrooms as non-disabled students, provided with the same learning materials, they should be given the chance to learn in a mainstream learning environment. By providing these opportunities to students with disabilities every student would be able to grow, develop, and learn from one another.

Passages of interest

• "It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here, kids, teachers, parents, whoever, it's all about us working together."
• "If you came into the room and were told there was a retarded child in the class, I don't think you'd pick Lee out. The kids agree that he's as capable as they are. Intellectually the same."
• "Culture of segregation surrounding people with disabilities actually teaches underdevelopment of thinking through the isolation of children from socially valued opportunities...Altering the culture of disability requires that a child be recognized as an active learner, a thinker, and a problem solver."

Comments

First off I want to say I like the story about Issac in this piece. The fact that the teacher took the initiative to find a way to conform the student with a disability within the classroom setting with a lesson plan that let ALL the students actively learn was a major role there. Not only that, but the fact that she recognized Issac as a human child, not a disabled child and let him learn on a level that showed he was grasping the lessons being taught.

I related this article to when we read Johnson and related to SCWAAMP...he said that able bodied individuals were privileged while those with disabilities were silenced. Incorporating the children into the classroom will not only allow them to achieve greater academically then if they were in a special education classroom, but it will also give the other children the chance to look at the others with disabilities as one of them and not a special education child. I believe getting support from the community and being accepted into that community is a wonderful thing.