"I wanted to take other classes that interested me"
I think it's so sad that someone in this country can be denied an education that they want so badly.....denying educational opportunities to somebody because of their percieved inadequecies is not only unfair, but outright discriminatory. It would hurt noone to give people a chance, worst case scenario someone can be switched to different classes if the one's they are in are too advanced for them to handle. This is just another example of how children in our country become labeled and sorted into little boxes that there is no escape from.
"so what if you don't fit exactly like your supposed to? You know, it's not like I fit many people's idea of what a teacher is supposed to be like"
This is my favorite quote of the whole article.... imagine how wonderful our educational system would be if all teacher's thought this way in regard to all children!
"It's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and thats what learning is"
This quote is so true. Education is not all about textbooks and standardized tests, it is about the learning experience, learning life skills, learning to work with other people, especially those who may be different from us.
This article was very interesting to me. I do have experience with people who have down syndrome, my sister-in-law has down syndrome and I have had the pleasure of attending many events with her that were specifically for people with down syndrome. One of the major things I have noticed is the huge differences amoung those with down syndrome, some are capable of living on their own, and some are not, etc. There is a huge range of capabilities amoung people who have down syndrome, which makes labeling them as capable or incapable at particular things impossible. Individuals with down syndrome have many abilities and qualities that would be a wonderful addition to any environment, especially a classroom. It makes me so sad to continously be reminded how narrow-minded and short sighted our educational system can be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I know! We as people of the U.S. are suppose to have our rights - we are suppose to have and decide our own future - yet the people with disabilities are not given the opportunity to do so? How can we go by the Declaration of Independence if the country does not let us?
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting to me is why (in the video that we watched) children who had physical disabilities, but were otherwise high-functioning, were denied access to the regular classroom. It seems sad to me that they should be put in special ed. because of an unfortunate accident, like the girl who was injured by a bomb. I can totally understand the basis for wanting to segregate students with mental disabilities, but there is absolutely no excuse for segregating people that are physically disabled.
ReplyDeleteI liked all you quotes and I also got upset when I read the first quote, it is not right to exclude a child with a disability from a class.
ReplyDelete