Sunday, April 17, 2011

Schooling Children with Down Syndrome

In Christopher Kliewer book (?) he argues for that children with disability need to be educated with the rest of their classmates and not segregated.  Kliewer sets the back drop for his argument against the basic outline of democracy and community.  He basically says individual involvement by everyone in a community as democracy, is the reason why children with learning disabilities should be integrated into the larger school community.  He goes on to explain how citizenship is important to learning and learning disabilities, using Shayne and her experience with Where the Wild Things Are as an agent to highlight his point.

      - This made me think of our FNED class, Dr. Bogad is always saying how she has tried to build a      sense of community in the classroom.  Between the comments on the attendance sheet, sitting in a circle and provoking class discussion, I believe that our class is a stronger community then other classes and we are learning better because of this.-

     Kliewer goes on in an attempt to redefine intelligence using a Soviet social scientist's theories about the people that surround a child with down syndrome when they learn. He also writes about how this sense of community helps the disabled child believe in themself.   Kliewer's overall thesis is that everyone especially the child with down syndrome learn better when surround by diversity thought and individuals as part of a larger community.

3 comments:

  1. I think you do a great job at getting to the main idea of the article this week. I like how you make the connection between "inclusion" and "community". Creating a classroom community is the only way that inclusion will really be effective. Without this sense of togetherness the kid with disabilities will just be sitting in the back of the classroom (with an aid doing easy worksheets), physically present but no more included than if he or she was in a self contained classroom.

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  2. When I was doing my blog I found alot of sites that talked about how the community within the classroom needs to be good for the child to learn. I think that it really relates to what you are talking about here and how community and inclusion are alot alike. Once the dynamic of the classroom becomes better for children with diabilities to learn, then learning will become easier and less stressful on families, teachers, and the actual child.

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  3. I love how our class is like a little community, I think Kliewer could be proud of Dr. Bogad and how our classroom is setup. Having our classroom this way helps our social skills and to me is more inviting to anyone.

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