Talking Points (#8)

Citizenship in School:

Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

By: Christopher Kliewer

Kliewer argues that all people able bodied and disabled are individuals and should be treated that way. We are all people and all deserve the right to be treated equally.

"Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities."

We all know that there are many different stereotypes in the world today. One common stereotype would be about the disabled people. We need to stop thinking like this because we will never see a change if we don't. We are all people and none of us deserved to get judged just because we may look different or we may not learn as fast as "average" person. We need to break these barriers because we are not treating everyone equally and that is wrong. Every human being is an individual and deserves to be treated like one.

"Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community. Though many of us have a certain level of control over who we meet and interact with, none of us can come close to claiming complete control."

I feel it is true that success in life requires an ability to from relationships. I believe this is a good attitude to have because this is how we form is good stable community. Everyone is different and if you just interact with people who have a lot in common with you, your missing out on so much more in life. We all have control of who we hang out with and who we interact with however i feel that everyone deserves a change and you could miss out on so much is you only interact with a certain type of person.

"Along with recognizing an individuals ability to think (Bogdan and Taylor) suggest that respect and citizenship require a realization of the person's individuality."

Once again I agree with that idea that we all deserve a change because we are all individuals. This means that everyone is different in their own way. Everyone person had something different about them and we should not be judged by these differences. We are all different however we all have the ability to think, this is was makes us people and we should not be put down because of our differences.

I actually really enjoyed this article. It was long, but it was very interesting to me. I think that i could connect with article because I see this type of stereotype in my own classroom. I have taught dance for the past 5 years and for 2 out of the 5 i had this little girl Katie who had down syndrome. She was the cutest little girl ever and she loved to dance. The one thing that bothered me was the way the other girls in her class looked at her. The treated her as if she were someone different. They could complain in Katie was in the same group as them, the never wanted to be her partner in class, and it was very rare that one of the girls would randomly start a conversation with her. I felt horrible about this but I didn't really know what to do about it. After some time the girls got used to the fact that Katie needed a little more attention and that she didn't learn the dances as fast but they started to treat her more like an individual rather than just someone different. Reading this article helped me understand a little more. And being a Special Education Major, I really learn some new and helpful information.