Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Christopher Kliewer
"I wanted to take other classes that interested me."
-This quote is from Mia Peterson, a special education student. She felt trapped in only being allowed to participate in special needs classes. She should not be limited to what classes she wants to take just because she has a disability.
"Mia finished school in segregated placements but then returned after graduation to take content-area courses originally denied to her"
-The fact that she went back to school to take classes that she originally wanted shows that she has a great desire to learn. She should have been allowed to do this in the first place, but if she needed extra help in special ed. then she should be there.
"After all, his psychological tests had, at the age of 7, suggested that he functioned at the cognitive level of a 2-year old, which translates into a severe mental disability."
-This quote is referring to a student named Lee. The teacher states that no one can tell the difference between Lee and the rest of his classmates. This shows how Lee is treated the same as every other kid in the class.
This article does make the point that kids that have special needs need to be in the same class as everyone else. I do not exactly agree with this because if they need more help then they should be in a classroom where they can get extra help. Having them in a class with the rest of the kids may not allow them to succeed like the other kids because they may need more help than the rest of the class. They might not be able to get the help because of the limited amount of teachers in the class. I feel like they should be in a room where they can get all the help they need with things.
Yes also if they are all in the same class then they might be segregated even more because the kids may make fun of the fact that they are slow learners. Kids can be cruel.
ReplyDeleteI see what you are saying and I agree to an extent. I think that students that need the extra help should be taken out of the classroom and given the attention they need; at the same time I believe that children with special needs need normal interaction with people outside of the special needs room. Those are the people they will be encountering after highschool, so it is good to have a head start in socializing! =D
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jackie... if we want students to get used to the "norm" and being in society, then they need to be exposed to all different things they are going to experience in life...but without the harmful stuff.
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