Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

Sorry my post is late, this awesome weather is totally getting to me and making me lazy! For this blog post I will choose three quotes.

"Acknowledging students with Down syndrome as thoughtful, creative, and interested learners with personal identities that distinguish them from all other people suggests an individual value that enhances any context containing the child. In classrooms that recognize all children as citizens, teachers and peers have rejected the image of community burden attached to Down syndrome. Rather, the student is recognized as a participating member of the group."(pg 87)

I really liked this quote because it really is true the people tend to categorize others when they think those people are different which isn't true at all. All semester we discussed how others learn differently and this is the same case. Just because a person is labeled with Down Syndrome doesn't mean that anything is wrong with them they just learn differently then others and I think the description above is perfect.

"School citizenship requires that students not be categorized and separated based on presumed defect. The phenomenon of categorization at the expense of individual value has been described as a "disability spread" in which we extrapolate the characteristics we associate with the notion of disability to the particular individuals we meet. These perceptions are often based on stereotypes and what we think we know about a particular disability. They are expressed in predictable ways. For example,"All people with Down syndrome are happy." (pg 85)

 As mentioned above I do believe that society has shaped some people to place them in categories that they "fit into". This also has to do with stereotyping and we also talked a lot about stereotyping in this class and as future teachers what we need to do to stay away from labeling our students.

" School citizenship rejects the idea of a gap between normality and Down syndrome, In the movement toward classroom membership, "diversity is viewed as normal, people are considered of equal worth, relationships are of mutual benefit, and belonging is a central societal theme." (pg 95)

I really liked this quote and it stuck out to me because I agree and in future strive to be an authority that rejects the idea of a gap between the "norm" and another disability.