Talking Point #9 Connections

Kliewer brings up a lot of good points in this article, some new and some very familiar. Some of the new ones were about people with disabilities and how people treat them. Just because someone needs a little help in certain areas or with certain things does not mean that they deserve to be treated any different than anyone else. I totally agree with this and tried not to treat the students with disabilities in my high school indifferently, but a lot of people did and it's truly sad. People that have disabilities did not choose to have them, they were born with them for the most part and the fact that people judge and make fun is not okay to me. In the article Kliewer talked about Mia a girl that has Down syndrome, not being able to take certain classes because of that and being stuck in special education classes. This amazed me; she has just as much right to take a journalism class as anyone else if she wants to. People need to stop judging people, especially those with disabilities; just because someone is disabled does not mean that they are stupid or incapable or having the same cognitive thoughts as anyone else.
Kliewer also touched upon a few other topics that we have previously discussed as well. When talking about the little boy Issac in Shayne's school reminded me about Promising Practices and the Afterzone. The Afterzone is a place for students to go after school and cook; they make all sorts of different foods and research the different cultures that they come from. So not only do they get to have fun cooking but they incorporate math, writing in journals, science, etc. In Shayne's school they have learning at heart but they are making it fun for the children as well with such things as "Where the Wild Things Are" play. I find this very important; learning should be made fun for the students even if it is in an unconditional way.
The article also relates to Finn as well when talking about students being separated based on abilities. Just because someone does not score well on a test does not mean they are dumber than someone who scored significantly higher. They both talked about how school should be more of a community where everyone works together. In Shayne's words "Don't think, that those special needs kids drain anything. That class would not be half what it is if anyone of those kids got segregated. We're all together in there."