The first quote that stuck out to me was from a teacher at a small school was taught a young boy named Isaac Johnson. Her quote starts, "It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here- kids, parents, teachers, whoever- it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's what learning is. Don't tell me these kids are being set up to fail." This quote made me actually have faith in society for once. More people and teachers need to have this kind of attitude especially towards kids at a young age. The younger the child, the more they will follow the example they see and the attitude they have towards them. Isaac and the other students will now have a better chance to succeed because someone actually believes they can succeed.
The second quote that I liked and that I could relate to was "I don't tend to see Down Syndrome as something. If you look at those three kids running around the room, they are incredibly different from each other. They are different in terms of what their bodies are like, how they best communicate, what they are like socially, their interests. And with those three kids in the room it would be hard to say 'This is how you should teach kids with Down Syndrome'. They are not all alike." I worked with a special ed classroom my senior year. There was 2 students in the class with Down Syndrome. They were two very different students socially, academically and in all other aspects. One student could speak pretty clearly and the other student needed you to give him 2 options and he would choose the hand that corresponded with the option he wanted. The first student I talked about was on the swim team while the other student would not be able to work as well on a high school sports team. You could not in any way teach these two students the same way just because they both had Down Syndrome.
Thank you for sharing about a student you tutor who have Down syndrome. I remember in elementary there were a few Down syndrome students who were always taught differently from the rest of the classes in the school. They actually have their own class and have a special teacher who taught them.
ReplyDeleteI like and agree to your point that even though multiple people have down syndrome, you can't treat them the same way because they are each their own person who should be treated as special for who they are as individuals and not as a common group of people who all have down syndrome
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