Recinceptualizing Down Syndrome

• The article I read this week was called “Citinzenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome”. The article was a great read! I really enjoyed being able to learn about special education. It is not a field that I really see myself in, but now that I understand the importance of integrating all learning types into the classroom, I think it is so important that every teacher learns at least a little bit about special education. Mia, the person who this article focuses on primarily, talks about how she was segregated from her other peers and put in “special Ed” classes. These classes did not interest her and she was frustrated. After she graduated, she later returned to take content classes, such as journalism. She now writes for a Self Advocacy newsletter for  people in the Down Syndrome community. I thought this story was very inspiring and really opened my eyes to the issues of grouping students like that. Who are we to deny someone from taking a class thy are interested in? It’s proven that children learn better with all sorts of learning levels in classes, so why not integrate? I think, and the article kind of confirms, that it is a societal and judgment issue. We have a stigma against people who may be different then us, and it seems easier to just group them all together and let someone else’s take responsibility. But that does nothing to better society. I think that kids can be really mean, but that also if they are exposed to people with different abilities and are able to work with them in a safe space, it can help teach them empathy and work to desensitize them to these differences.  A quote that I loved from this article was “dialogue cannot occur between those who deny others the right to speak and those whose right to speak has been denied to them”. We need to take into account people who’s voices may have never been heard in order to become better educators and build better citizens of a global society. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.today.com/today/amp/tdna122258

This is an article that I thought was really special about visibility in the Down Syndrome community. Lucas was voted Gerber Baby of the Year! I hope that we can continue to normalize the special needs community, because there is no reason why we can’t all just work and be together! 

Separate and Unequal

Separate and Unequal really resonated with me. The idea that Brown V. BOE suddenly fixed the racial and socioeconomic divide in education is false. Yes, integration crossed the first hurdle, but we still have a lot of work to do. In this article, Hebert suggests “Schools are no longer legally segregated, but because of residential patterns, housing discrimination, economic disparities and long-held custom, they most emphatically are in reality.” I don’t doubt this to be true. Just attending my service learning project has allowed me to see that a school of 68% Hispanic children, is funded far less because of the area it’s in and the public it serves. He also states, “If you really want to improve the education of poor children, you have to get them away from learning environments that are smothered by poverty.” To me this is a no brainer. Children need to learn and grow in an environment that inspires them. I’m not saying that when you are poor, you have no inspiration, but when a child looks out the window and sees “cash for gold” stores, liquor stores, and not a patch of green in sight, it can change their aspirations. 

     https://www.the74million.org/article/integrating-schools-by-income-not-race-why-more-cities-are-embracing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/

This is a really interesting article I found on how Cambridge, Mass is integrating via socioeconomic status. Basically turning all of their schools into “magnet” schools and allowing parents to have a say in where their child goes, instead of based on what area they live in. It has allowed for a greater diversity and funding for all schools. 

In the Service of What?

     This article explains to us the importance of Service Learning and how it can have a profound effect on ours, and others education. Throughout this semester we have all had the pleasure of volunteering and I didn’t really realize until I was doing it how it really tied all of our learning together. To be able to see things in action that we were talking about in class has helped cement the learning in my mind. This article also states that service learning “fosters an authentic experience based learning opportunity”. This is exactrly what service learning has done for me and the article provides real data of how it has changed students lives. 
     I think if we made service learning a curriculum requirement, we would see young people who are more in tune with the challenges of the world and engaged in the critical thinking process that allows us to feel empathy for others. I think the most profound part of the article for me was when Mrs. Johnson’s class has to actually reflect on their experiences and it causes them to become more meaningful. It is not enough to simply volunteer, sometimes, we have to reflect to really develop that empathy for the community we are helping. Reflection, although not the star of the show so to speak, does cause students to gain a deeper understanding of their work.