• Author: Christopher Kliewer

• Title: Citizenship in School: Reconceptializing Down Syndrome

• Argument: Kliewer argues that the need to put people with disabilities in regular classrooms for atleast part of their educational day, if not all, is imperitive to their functuality in soiety, happiness, and acquiring of sckills. He goes on to imply that far beyond a "burden" to the room, all the other students could benifit form having the unique and sometimes alternate learning styles in their midst. He says we need to see them as individuals first, and people with disabilities second.

• Quote #1: "democracy can only occur when no person's voice is detrimentally silenced." Kliewer is saying that everyone's voice is important, especially in the learning envirement, and people with down syndrome are no exception. This really applies to all underrepresented groups, though, that by silencing anyone you are loosing a big part of what education is supposed to be about- learning about your world and learning to respect and appriciate everyone in it for who they are.

• Quote #2: "community acceptance requires oppertunities for individual participation in the group, but oppertunity cannot occur outside of community acceptance". This is where the attitude of teachers and students around a person with unique abilities really comes into play. If a person's pedology does not reflect the acceptance they preach, the room cn feel as cold as if the person made no outreach at all. You cannot look at a person and tell them that the room is open to them and that they are welcome in it, but put them where you designate and deny them equity, or opprtunities to cater to their abilities. Indeed, to have a person be a functioning member of a classroom, the room has to be open to them, both in though and practice, before they can start being comfortable with the idea of belonging and someday participating.

• Quote #3: "the presence of a thoughtful mind has been linked to patterns of behavioral and communicative conformity associated with competance in logical-mathmatical thinking and linguistic skills." This makes me think of how the childeren that "act up" are labled as "bad", treated as the "bad kid" and are forever carryign that stigma inside the room which is a detrimental block to learning and teaching. Everyone learns in different ways, and people with unique abilities make this more clear then anyone. There is a story furthur along in the text where a boy is asked to sort blocks and spoons. He sorts them by tasting them, and does the excersize correctly, but becasue he didn't accomplish it by sight, he is given a failing grade. We need to learn to appriciate that everyone has their own way of learning, and that this is okay, and necissary to the classroom envirement.

• My Response: I completely agree that community needs to be made to include everyone not just in ideology but in pedology, that poeple learn in their own time and by their own method, and that we can't deny people's idvidualism but must first see them as a person. I am a big fan of having all childeren in a classroom together so they may all learn form eachother as well as from the teacher, becasue they may, and ushually do, have hidden curriculums amoungst themselves that the teacher can;t teach, like the rues of society and making friends, that will help later in life. I was always unhappy, being someone who does not perticularly excel in the was tests assess my knowlage, with the fact that the whole school experience has become "preparing for the next major exam". Instead we need to learn to value our classroom for the uniquenss that every person brings with them, and access our student based on their ability to get something out of school at our her own level.