Talking Points #8

Citizenship in School:

Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

Christopher Kliewer

Kliewer argues that students with a disability should be put into the same learning environment as other students instead of being placed into special classrooms. Students with down syndrome just have a title and are not able to show that they are capable of having the same success as regular students could have.

1)"How absurd to be judged by others at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support or who don’t listen to the voices we have."
This quote is very important because Kliewer is trying to get other people to realize that students with a disability is just like you and can do whatever you can do. He doesn't want people to use words to describe other people because they never experienced what people with disability have to go through everyday of their lives.
2)"Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities."
The hardest part now is to erase history and change the way people interact with disabled people. Some people think that if they are in a wheelchair they are unable to communicate and that's not the case. People need to think outside the box and realize that there is something wrong with them but still able to communicate with you and not to have this stereotype of people with down syndrome.
3)"Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community."
To have success in a community or in a job setting requires you the abled body person to reach out to others who are disabled because they will be the ones who will be with you later on in life in a job environment. Forming relationships with everyone is important because if you don't you are leaving people out and their input is very important for anything in life.

Conclusion:

Kliewer is saying that disabled students need to be brought into regular classrooms instead of being put into a excluded section of the school where no regular students walk by or teachers but just those of that section. Disabled students, people with down snydrome are able to interact and do all the same work in a regular classroom as a fully abled student is. They are excluding these students because they don't want to hold the other students back. Having students with a disablity in your classroom makes the classroom more lively and more interesting. Kliewer is trying to reach out to people to show them that having down snydrome is not as bad and still able to be successful.

Talking Points #7

"One More River to Cross"-
Recognizing the Real Injury in Brown:

A Prerequisite to Shaping New Remedies; from The Institution of Education.
Charles Lawrence

Lawrence argues that Brown vs Board of Education was a failure because the courts didn't realize that African Americans were scared of being segregated in schools. The only reason why segregation was started was to make African Americans inferior and have no power at all. The court system had no idea of what they were doing when this was brought to them.

1) "Black children will remain 'less qualified' until we gain representative influence in both the institutions of preparation and the institutions for which they are being prepared."
This is a great quote because there is absolutely no reason to have black children be called "less qualified." People need to change the way we think about black people and their children. They are just as qualified as white people are. Teachers need to teach them just how they will to other children in their class, it shouldn't matter the color of their skin.
2) "The first is that segregation's only purpose is to label or define blacks as inferior and thus exclude them from full and equal participation in society."
This is saying that segregation is the purpose of blacks not being able to have the equal opportunity they should have in society. Blacks are being labeled as inferior people that are unable to do anything that they want to do. They are scared to go out in society to get a job and to live life freely.
3) "Once it is understood that the injury results from the existence of the label of inferiority, it becomes clear that the cure must involve the removal of that label. The mere placement of black and white children in the same school does not remove the brand imprinted by years of segregation."
I thought this quote was very powerful because it says a lot, it is saying that African Americans are scared to be in schools with white because they have been taught that they are inferior to everyone else. There is no way they can get that out of their mind from all the years of segregation, its been drilled into their heads that they will live and be like this forever.

Conclusion:
I believe that there is no way to change the way African American's think of them selves in schools after being segregated for many years. They have been put through so much and the court system didn't realize what the right thing to do. The court system wasn't even sure what to do which is unprofessional. African Americans who went to school with white children just played with them selves because they were drilled into their heads that they are not good enough and that they are inferior to everyone else and won't be successful in society with everyone else.

Talking Points # 6

"Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route"
Jeannie Oakes

Oakes believes that students should not be grouped based on their abilities. Grouping students together with the same abilities is not an effective way because those students will excel while the other students who don't have the same abilities are at the bottom and not doing well. Students should be mixed with different abilities so they can work together and help each other.

1)"Moreover, the nature of these differences suggests that students who are placed in high-ability groups have access to far richer schooling experiences than other students."
This is a very important quote because students who are at the top of the education scale are doing much better in school and getting all the opportunities they want. On the other hand the students who are on the bottom of the todem pole are not getting what they need and that is help for them to succeed. When i was in school I got help and I was at the bottom of the todem pole, but I also had a learning disablity problem. So it kind of helped me out, but those kids who don't need to be heard that they need the teachers help.
2)“Students who need more time to learn appear to get less: those who have the most difficulty learning seem to have fewer of the best teachers.”
Students who are not at the top in education and are at a slower learning stage get the worst teachers in the school compared to students who get the best teachers. Whenever there is a group project the teacher will always work with the students who are at the (top tier) because they want to see them succeed at what they are doing. Students who are at the bottom should be able to get the same type of education with a teacher who is good compared to someone who is not. They should not be favored because of their education level.
3)"In low-ability classes, for example, teachers seem to be less encouraging ... while students in higher-ability classes seem to be much more involved in their classwork."
Teachers who teach low abliity classes tend not to be as interested in their work as other teachers who are taeching higher ability students who are engaged and ready to learn. Students won't learn well if there teacher is not encourging them to do well or to get them interested in the course. I believe that it matters how the teacher teaches the class if the student will like it or not, but teacher who teach low-ability students need to get them just as engaged and encouraged as they would do to the higher-ability students.

Conclusion:
After reading this article I look back at all the years I have been in school and I see how teachers acted. Most of my teachers got everyone invovled and mixed up the groups so everyone can be with each other, it didn't matter if you were a low-ability student or a high-ability student. Students should be able to work everyone just not who they are being "grouped" with but as everyone in their class because some day in real life they will be working together. Teachers also have a big part in the way students do their work in the classroom. Teachers need to be just as excited about what they are teaching and energetic to low-ability students as they do to high-ability students because low-ability students don't want to be associated with the slow learning students but as a normal student who can learn the same way as everyone else.