For Kliewer’s “Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down
Syndrome” I have decided to comment on it in a reflection. Prior to my
grandmother’s retirement, she was employed by the city of Boston as an
assistant teacher in a special education classroom. Due to my mother’s poor
health my grandmother primarily raised me and had no choice but to bring me to
work with her when I was a child. I remember it as if it was yesterday and it
causes me to question Kliewer’s idea of inclusion in “regular” classrooms. My
reasoning is based off of the behavior I observed as a child. The children in
the classroom were in diapers, violent, and some were even in wheelchairs. I am
struggling with the idea of children with severe down syndrome/disabilities
like those I shared above being integrated into a “regular” classroom. However
there are children with Down syndrome that is not as severe who I can see being
integrated into regular classrooms. An
example of this is a child in my kindergarten class who is extremely smart
however due to his down syndrome he cannot be left alone. I was working with
him today on blending and sentence reading and he flew through it faster than
most of the other children in the class. So in a sense I am torn, I believe
children like Caiden should be allowed in regular classrooms. However on the
other hand I remember how unstable my grandmother’s classroom was due to the
children’s behavior and special needs and I cannot fathom them being in a
regular classroom.
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