Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

"I started to notice I didn't like the classed I was taking called special education. I had to go through special ed. almost all of my life. I wanted to take other classes that interested me. I had never felt so mad, I wanted to cry" (Peterson, 1994, pg. 6). While reading this article, I thought to myself of the time I went on my internship in high school at Crayons at the Trudeau Center in Warwick working with classrooms of special education. When working with those children it was a lot different than other classrooms I have been in. The teachers were different, the classroom setup was different, and the children were looked at as different. The difference between this classroom was that in was integrated. There were students that had special needs, and there were ones that did not.

The two children that I babysit are considered "special needs" but instead of keeping them in a classroom they take them out of their room and bring them with a special education teacher and a resource specialist. The children always talk about how they "hate going with that stupid teacher because she treats them like they are babies."

In my high school as well we had a classroom special for children with down syndrome, special needs, behavioral needs, physical problems, etc. The children were with us throughout our entire high school career and we got very close to each and every one of them. They were even able to walk the stage with us at our graduation and it was such a great feeling not only for them, but for us as well.

When learning a little more about each of the students in Shayne's classroom, Issac had down syndrome. She did not let that hold him back in any way and did what she could to help him succeed. She even let the entire class act out his favorite book, "Where the Wild Things Are". She had 6 students in her classroom that were considered clinically identified as disabled and three of them had down syndrome.

It was said in this article that Shayne focused on individual goals rather that goals as a classroom. Which I think in a classroom like that, it is a very good thing. It is good to focus in on each individual child because they need that little extra push that teachers with a large classroom cannot necessarily give. Teachers need to be able to treat children in a way that is respectful, caring, and helpful to each and every student. Regardless of their academic achievements, race, family background, and religion. Each student should be able to walk into each classroom every morning with a feeling of excitement that they will be told they did something "good" today.

Follow this link to read more about inclusion in the school system:
Implementing Inclusion in Schools

Literacy with an Attitude

When reading the article "Literacy with an Attitude" by Patrick Finn, the first thing that I connected it to was to the movie we are watching in class Freedom Writers. The article touches upon topics such as inequality in the classroom and how many people do not pay attention to all of these inequalities and brush them under the rug. Those children in the movie, just like in the reading knew of the injustices that they faced every day but they said nothing about it and keep living in the way that they do. We as people, do what we do best and pretend the problems cease to exist.

This reading stated that working class students have the expectation that they do not want to succeed in life and will skate by doing the bare minimum in school. This article touched upon the facts that teachers in fact dump lower learning students off on teachers that work with special education students, and students with learning disabilities. I have heard this first hand with the children that I babysit, both of them have learning disabilities and their mother tells me that the teachers do not give the children the attention that they deserve because they simply cannot keep up and just dump them on the resource teacher. Finn states that, "The reality was that as the year wore on there were spaces available in "lower" classes to dump troublesome students from "higher" classes. And so by Christmas there were likely to be more than twenty in the 8-14s and 8-15s (lower levels)" (Finn 3).

Finn spoke about how he had made such a difference in the children's lives that he taught, just like in Freedom Writers how Ms. Gruwell changed the lives of her students every day she stood at the front of the classroom. She made them feel like THEY mattered. When the entire world was telling them that they were worthless, they had a sense of being in that room. She taught them things they never would have learned outside of that classroom because many other teachers had expectations that were in place for how those types of children would act.

I could also argue that this article relates to the White Privilege article that we read previously. The teachers did not want to deal with any students that are not like them, whether it be by race, gender, education level, etc. I see this every Friday at my Elementary School that I am at. The teacher will ALWAYS work with the students that grasp the material and are attentive. I however, always work with the students who are considered lower level, and not as behaved. I do not mind, because i know that every student in that classroom is capable of greatness. It just takes the right person to take it out of them. Whether it be Patrick Finn, Erin Gruwell, Dr. Stevos, or even me for that matter. It starts with one person. It is important to break the mold as children and students.

Becoming Something Different

When going through this reading it seemed to be the same story I had read before in other readings. It was talking about a child growing up and learning in a school system that did not appreciate the cultural differences that the child had. This reading immediately connected me to our former readings by Kozol and Rodriguez. All dealing with children that do not speak English as a first language. We are introduced to Esme Martinez who is learning the english language and developing to be proficient in her second language. She is unable to learn at the speed she wishes and finds herself constantly frustrated with the level of work she can do. But on the same token she is unable to express herself in the only way that she knows.

One of the differences that I saw in this rather than in the previous readings. Her parents were more understanding and did what they could in order to help and motivate her. While being in school she was trying more and more to let go of what she knew and try and learn new things about her American culture that she was trying to figure out in Middle School. She refers to herself as an American and tries to lose that Mexican heritage in school. She speaks as little Spanish as possible when she is outside of school and at home.

I think that schools truly make a difference in the way people act at home. If they have a teacher that will not give up on them and help them. I think that ESL classrooms always help students to better their learning. ESL classrooms let children be themselves while learning how to speak the language. In my elementary school that I visit weekly there are ESL classrooms and children in my room leave for about an hour a day just to go with the ESL teachers.

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/advantages-pull-out-esl-classes-18279.html

Between Barack and a Hard Place

In the video "Between Barack and a Hard Place speaker Tim Wise discusses many topics such as racism, white privilege, and schooling systems that favor the white students. Wise being a very powerful speaker made me think while I was watching ever minute of this speech. He made a statement that I too have most likely said in my head, "I don't need to talk about racism, I have many black friends." People think in their head that if they have a few close friends that may not be of the same ethnicity as them then that is their way of being tolerant towards "all of them" as a whole. Tim stated that many people will just tell you what you want to hear and make you think that you are accepting and just tell you that they have african american friends when in fact, they do not.

In his discussion he stated that many people believe that Barack Obama being elected into office twice is going to end all racism in the United States. He argues that Obama's political success could instead "deepen the denial in which so much of the white public has been embedded for generations." Race always has been an "explosive issue" in the United States. He states that people point to Barack Obama as, "a validation of the American ideology that anyone can make it if they work hard and have an example of how institutional barriers against people of color have all vanished."

I believe that people have racist thoughts everyday still even this day in age because of how we are brought up as a society, how our families act, and how the country as a whole acts. Tim wise stated that he too has admitted to having racist thoughts as well. Wise touched upon research that he has done stating that people in different professions will not treat African Americans the same way they would treat someone white.

I see this all the time at my internship, the African American students all sit together, the spanish children all sit together, and the white children all sit together. They still keep them separated and ostracized from each other.

In the Service of What?

… "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" like the late John F. Kennedy once said, what can WE do to better the place in which we live? The choice is ours to make really. Service learning is a form of education that not only provides classroom time, but time spent out in the community doing service for others in need. Many school systems and teachers are trying to promote service learning in their communities because it is a great way to get students learning but out of the classroom doing good things for others. Service learning classrooms or projects can be done individually or as a group, the choice lies with the teacher. Service learning classrooms teach children how to give up their time and energy and help those who are in much more need of it than they are.

When in High School and all of my life growing up, my community was very "service based". We literally could not graduate without completing 30 hours of community service of our choice. We would always go to local soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and help fundraise by bringing in food, clothes, household needs, and any other things others might need. We would clean up the lakes near our school that would get covered in trash by all of the people driving by that would throw stuff out of their window and into the water. When it snowed, we would go and shovel out neighbors that may not have been able to do it themselves. I would even babysit family friends of mine that needed someone desperately to help out. Sometimes I would even volunteer at my grandmothers Nursing Home. Not everyone in this world understands what it is like to be unable to do something for their own or not able to have what others may have but if we give a little bit of time and dedication to something, we may be able to change the way someones day turns out.

I make sure every time I go to my classrooms at Harry Kizarian Elementary School I have a smile on my face and I am ready to help all of the children I am working with that day learn something new or help them perfect something that they may be having trouble with. Though I am not giving them something physical to hold in their hands, I am giving them something to help better their future. I think that is is important to be the person that wants change in this world, and if more people like us,  (because I know we are such a kind class) could help out in any way possible in their communities there would be a much stronger bond between each and every place in which we live. 

I think that more school systems and communities should have service based learning within their classrooms. It is the best way to teach students in the classroom and have them actually doing what you are teaching them while they are learning it. 

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

"Many students do not want to believe they have been manipulated by children's media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been handled by the media." I think that because Disney movies and cartoon movies were so much of our child hoods we set that as the standard for what we wanted to be. I know I'm not the only girl that dressed up as Cinderella almost every year for Halloween. Then as I grew up, I would start dressing like Snow White because I realized I looked the most like her-- because she had dark hair. (Great comparison I know) They had what we wanted as a young age, they had long beautiful hair that never looked messy, a beautiful prince just waiting to kiss them and change their world, and a huge palace in which they would live once they lived "happily every after." We also learned a lesson that I never put a lot of thought into, you can never trust "old, ugly, and scary looking women." Isn't that horrible? We always saw the villain as an older women who was never as beautiful to us as the princess, and us as children feared them. Princesses were predominantly white, never until recently did we see a princess of color. (I mean unless you count Princess Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan).

It is said in the reading that, "The impact of racism begins early. We are exposed to misinformation about people different from ourselves." Which is very true, I grew up watching mainly white people on TV and in movies. I did not think it was bad, I just thought that they all looked like I did. The world is changing. They are making a lot of remakes of older movies and shaking things up. I know this Christmas Eve I took my little cousins to see the new Annie that came out. I saw the older one and of course she was a young white girl. In the remake, she was African American and I thought the movie was great! Many people are creatures of habit and did not like the fact that they changed the original story line. Everyone watches these old movies or television shows, so I think it is necessary to make changes and show a different take on things. I know Disney is planning on making many changes in the upcoming years to show a different race in one of their princesses! Yay! Not only is this just with the princesses, it is with all Disney characters in all movies, parks, and television shows.

The media is a huge thing for children as they are growing up. I would watch things like that all the time and I know when I was younger, my cousin who was adopted would constantly wonder why none of the princesses looked like her or were from where she was from? What could we have told her to make her feel better while teaching her a lesson? I would love to know what some of you think we should have said?

Speaking the Unspeakable:

I think this day in age this is a topic that people are more open to talk about in a public setting, even school. I know when I was going throughout school, we always had assemblies and weeks when we spoke of what the school called "diversity". We had speakers come in from all over the state and talk about their stories whether they were gay, straight, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual. My parents are not as open to talk about these types of things as my friends and I are. They have been somewhat sheltered from it all because it was something that was NOT discussed in their day (both of them going to catholic schools of course). I think it is important to talk about things that are different from your "norm" because not talking about sexuality that is different from your own creates phobias of others.

In the article it states that, "it can be argued that teachers should take the responsibility for helping pupils to recognize sexuality and thereby work towards a greater social justice." The way that the first teacher handled coming out to her classroom of young students could not have been better. It is not something that you can just tell students and expect them to understand. You need to teach them all the different ways that people can be together. But on the other hand of it, teachers are scared for their own safety if they DO come out to the classroom because not everyone is understand like we hope for them to be. It is sometimes the easier way out to stay in their "private space- or in the closet."

Teachers within the "No Outsiders" project have displayed fears of discussing sexuality inside the classroom. They were unsure of how to properly address the topic of "sexuality as a classroom subject". The article said that these fears came from within a notion that schools are a place for child's innocence and a place to shelter and protect them from the outside world. But in reality not talking about it with children shelters them in a bad way and they will not know what actually goes on in the outside world.

I think that talking about sexuality in the classroom when children are ready for the topic is best for the teachers and the students. I believe that when children do not know of certain situations they begin to fear them and will never truly learn about them but only form negative thoughts to go along with the situation. Children are very understanding and a lot smarter than we give them credit for. Children need to learn differences and understand what it is to accept them.

This video is a GREAT way to show how much the world has changed and how much more accepting the world as a whole is becoming and it is starting with CHILDREN: Children Reacting To Gay Marriage