Christopher Kliewer & Ray McDermott & Herve Varenne

Tiffany Scoco

Dr. Corinne McKamey

Fned:346

7 November 2018

Citizenship in school: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

By Christopher Kliewer

“Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community. Though many of us have a certain level of control over who we meet and interact with, none of us can come close to claiming complete control. So we must learn to work with others and this holds true whether we ultimately are destined to lead a multinational computer software firm, inspire a civil rights movement, raise caring children, bag groceries, or chat and feed squirrels with an old man on a park bench. We have got to learn to get along as individuals and as citizens.”

This quote is saying that in order for us to be successful we need to be able to form relationships with one another. Strong relationships contribute to a longer life, good coping skills and healthier lifestyles. Being able to express yourself as well as your thoughts and opinions with others helps you grow and learn. Relationship building is an important life skill for everyone and no matter what career path you choose you will need to be able to communicate and form relationships with other people. Its relevant to the article because the author is talking about how forming strong relationships helps children learn and grow.

“Shayne, however, did not see Isaac, or any of her students, as defective. In her classroom, which contained 6 students clinically identified as disabled and 10 students considered nondisabled, Shayne and her associates worked to create a context that supported all children’s full participation.”

This quote is saying that some teachers consider children with disabilities defective but this specific teacher saw her children as children. Which I 100 percent agree with, you should not consider any child as defective. Just because they aren’t on the curriculum based level doesn’t mean that they are defective or you should treat them as such. Children with down syndrome learn at a slower rate than regular education students but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn or you shouldn’t teach them. You just have to use lots of visuals and teach at a slower rate. No child should ever be considered defective. Its relevant to the article because the author is talking about children with down syndrome and how they are viewed in a school.

“Colleen served as lead teacher in Lee Larson’s second grade classroom, which included 27 students, 3 of whom were defined as disabled. Lee was introduced in chapter 3 struggling with his glue bottle. Through incidents like the glue dilemma did at times distance Lee from his peers, he was generally considered a full member of the class. Colleen noted: If you came into the room and were told there was a retarded child in the class, a child with special needs, I don’t think you would pick Lee out. The kids really agree that he’s as capable as they are. Intellectually the same.”

This quote is talking about a child named Lee who is disabled. He was having trouble with his glue bottle, which helps set him apart from his classmates. Children with special needs have a hard time with fine motor skills and this was apparent with Lee having trouble with his glue bottle. His teacher said for the most part you can’t tell that Lee has special needs but if they do an activity that requires fine motor skills, like using glue, it is apparent that Lee has special needs. I personally do not like the fact that they use the word retarded. I do not think this word is okay to use to describe children with special needs. This is relevant to the article because the author is talking about children with special needs.

Link to article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JcBFAuLc-0bXVmZVR4ODI0RHc/view

Culture as disability

By: Ray McDermott & Herve Varenne  

“Common sense allows that persons unable to handle a difficult problem can be labeled "disabled." Social analysis shows that being labeled often invites a public response that multiplies the difficulties facing the seemingly unable. Cultural analysis shows that disability refers most precisely to inadequate performances only on tasks that are arbitrarily circumscribed from daily life. Disabilities are less the property of persons than they are moments in a cultural focus. Everyone in any culture is subject to being labeled and disabled.”

This quote is talking about how it’s usually easy to spot someone with special needs. Everyone gets a label and once you are labeled as something it's hard to change people's thoughts and opinions of you. People are labeled disabled if they are unable to perform daily life tasks. Everyone in this world gets labeled as something and judged based on that label just like people from other cultures get labeled and judged.This is relevant to the article because the author is talking about how culture is a disability.

“Culture is not so much a product of sharing as a product of people hammering each other into shape with the well-structured tools already available. We need to think of culture as this very process of hammering a world. When anthropologists instinctively celebrate the coherence of culture, they imply that all the people in the culture are the same, as if stereotyping is a worthy practice as long as it is done by professionals.”

This quote is talking about how people from other cultures are usually the ones making stereotypes about another culture. Cultural fit is the likelihood that someone reflects and adapts to the core beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of an organization. We try to make people ‘fit’ by ‘hammering them into shape with the well structured tools already available.’ Stereotyping should only be done by professionals, it shouldn’t be made up information or rude information just facts. This is relevant to the article because the author is talking about how culture is a disability.  

“When culture is understood as the knowledge that people need for living with each other, it is easy to focus on how some always appear to have more cultural knowledge than others, that some can be a part of everything and others not, that some are able and others not.”

This quote is talking about how culture is knowledge. We all need the knowledge to live coherently with one another. We all need to be open to new information and accepting of one another. This quote is relevant to the article because the author is talking about how culture is knowledge.

Link to article: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DhKAyXew382ZqbeuGoPUWTNZ3Dr10uNH0mfTQKu-moE/edit

Talking point:

I don’t think that we should use words like retarded, fragile or defective to describe children with special needs. I am aware that these children have special needs but that doesn’t mean we need to call them or refer to them with these dirragority words. We can say things like special needs, disabled or the scientific terms like autistic or down syndrome. I find these words very offensive, I don’t like them and I will not use them.