Talking Points #9

"Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome" Christopher Kliewer

1. "I started to notice that I didn't like the classes I was taking called special education. I had to go through special ed. almost all my life. I wanted to take other classes that interested me. I had never felt so mad, I wanted to cry."

This quote really made me think of what's going on in our society and schooling for students with down syndrome or other disabilities. It's not fair that she wasn't taking other classes that interested her. I think it's important for all individuals to be able to at least attempt to take classes that interest them in order to make learning more fun.

2. "Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community. Though many of us have 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 to got learn to get along as individuals and as citizens."

I agree with this quote. It is so important to be able to form relationships with others who make up our society. We are always interacting with different people and in order to live and build a successful society we have to learn to live together. This relates to the Johnson reading, who also says that in order to build a successful society we must get along and then solve problems together.

3. "Along with recognizing an individual's ability to think, Bogdan and Taylor (1989) suggest that respect and citizenship require a realization of the person's individuality. This is as true in school relationships as it is in our wider community relationships."

I agree with this quote as well. People must recognize an individuals ability to think, but also recognize their individuality and that everyone is different. Furthermore, it is something we have to do both in school and in our community.


This article was interesting. Everyone is different, but most people want similar things in life. It is important that everyone in society works together and learns to get along. If people can get along then our society can work on improving and becoming a better place for us to live in. However, this can't be done if people can't accept individuals with disabilities or of other races, etc.. It's important that people realize, we are all here in society and we should learn to get along in order to better our society.