Citizenship in School: Re conceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Christopher Kliewer

REFLECTION
I chose to reflect on this piece because I have learned more from this piece than any other article we have read. I want to become a special education teacher and reading this made me think about the many situations I will have to face inside the classroom and with other students and teachers. There will be students with many disabilities, besides Down Syndrome and I need to learn how to handle these students and teach them and inspire them in the classroom. There were many points brought up about the importance of spoken word and communication and these points reminded me of the Silence Dialogue article and how these students will never be understood unless they are heard somehow. Some of them cannot physically be understood but by observing them and watching what they enjoy to do, teachers are able to communicate with them in other ways besides oral words or listening to them speak. I am affected by this article because the teacher that incorporates Where The Wild Things Are into her lesson plan is really inspiring. She takes one interest of one student and uses it to follow many standards that are required for the children to learn; they are able to be artistic in the making of the play and they are able to practice their reading and writing skills in reading the story and writing a script for the play. It is so important to keep all the students happy and I think it is especially important to listen to those students who may not have a strong voice in the classroom, those with disabilities unlike the other students. I hope to work in a classroom with mainly special education students but learning how to work with special education students as well as not disabled students is equally as important.

Points to bring up in class: Throughout school there was a handful of students that I knew who were disabled for many reasons and they were put in mixed classes as well as classes where there were only disabled students. My questions are only for them because I would not be able to answer it. I really wonder what it is like to be in a classroom different than the ones I have grown to know. Some students had an aide with them all through school, others only had the aide for certain classes. How long are they able to have the aide? What did the aide do?

I have added a link describing that the number of babies born with down syndrome has actually decreased over the years.

http://www.downsyndromeprenataltesting.com/gone-150000-fewer-people-with-down-syndrome-in-the-u-s/