In this Blog I would be reflecting on the essay
Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome by Christopher Kliewer. I
found this essay to be very interesting. Reading this essay reminded me of my
high school. I attended a high school that had a birch vocational. The ground
floor on one sided was known as the birch side. Compare to that section it was
basically empty than all the other sections in school. To me the students seem
isolated from everybody else then I started to realize the students who were in
birch did had the opportunity to be in the so called regular classes. Usually
when the birch students are in a regular class they have an assistant with
them. I am glad my high school gave the birch students the opportunity to be involved
with the whole school community, like Kliewer stresses the importance of
citizenship. When I read this,
“Many of the projects
that emerged from the stories, however, involved fine motor abilities that
proved frustrating for Isaac. For instance, the children had made panoramas of
the Night’s Kitchen using recycled garbage or had constructed bulletin boards
depicting personal interpretations of Max’s dream through drawings, paintings,
and cutting and pasting.” (Pg 76)
I automatically thought
about one of the class day when Prof. Bogad talk about how it would be nice to
see something or have something that represented who or what you are. For
example, when students are reading a book it is the norm to see a family with a
mom, dad, brother, and sister. It would be nice for the child who has two moms
or two fathers to be represented in the book. For this quote I just
automatically thought if they found a different way to do something for a book
he loves so much that can work. It is representing him and understands his
abilities. I connected with another quote,
“Shayne also focused attention on one of her classroom
associates, Anne, who, as described in Chapter 3, had been left out of her high
school transition planning conference. In this meeting, her committee had
decided that Anne, who has Down syndrome, would become a preschool aide. Anne
did not particularly care for young children and was unhappy with the prospect
of spending her life working with them. As Shayne explained, "Anne wants
to be a Hollywood director. Period." Shayne realized this desire grew out
of Anne's love of movies and so took it upon herself to find a video rental
store that would hire Anne. Shayne noted, "At least it's a move in the
right direction. I mean, it's not Hollywood, but it's movie-related. That's what
she loves, and she knows every movie that's ever been made." (Pg 78)
I personally related to this because I when I was in high school I was on
the student government committee. My advisor for student government was the
autistic teacher. This gave me the opportunity to work with autistic students.
One of the things they do is operate a school store in the morning. This gave
the students the opportunity to apply life and working skills and they enjoy
it. I am glad Anne had a teacher like Shayne to help her find that opportunity.
That teacher never gave up and pushes forward for her.
While reading the story I kept thinking that birch, disable, or students
with Down syndrome should be incorporated into regular classes. Reading these
stories and from experience incorporating and making everybody a part of each
other community makes each other grow. Everybody can learn from each other. I
think everybody should know and realize by now that everybody is different in
their own way. People would like to argue and say teachers should see every child
as the same and teach them without any judgment and the same. I say no a
teacher should see every child different and in a unique way. Everybody is
different and they learn differently, so teachers should be able to see their
students like that but do not make bad judgments about it.
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