Citizenship in School
Cheistopher Kliewer
Reflection

The word "sped" stands for Special Education, however the acronym can be used negatively as well as positively. I admit that i have not been diagnosed with Down Syndrome but i have been called a "sped kid" before, It tugged at my heart strings. This questions the morals being a good citizen in life especially at school, schools are supposed to have a comfortable atmosphere.

Shayne Robinson, a teacher at Shoshone School where they accept children with disabilities and without  disabilities. Robinson said, "Its not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here- kids, teachers, parents, whoever- its about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's what learning is. I agree with Robinson because  my experience as a special education student shed a vast amount of light on the treatment of students with disabilities. There was a boy a grade below who went to school with me was paralyzed from the waist down. He was made fun of constantly in elementary and middle school as he would wheel down the hallway, I always felt awkward because these people did not think of the effect it had on him. I did not say anything to them however i wish i had. At one point I realized how alike this person and i were even though he had a physical disability while i had a learning disability. It did not always work but i felt better because i knew to look beneath the surface of my past peer. I feel that Nelsy's comment, "we tend to focus more on their apparent differences instead of their similarities to us which then leads to the creation of these dominant barries which disables us to see that we are all humans" connects because there is a wall between students with and without disabilities because the simple fact that only some suffer from it. That wall is thickened as students who find humor in someone else's pain because they could not pronouce a word or play basketball on two feet.

Within the special education students, none of them were diagnosed with down syndrome. I never felt I understood fully of what it was until I attend Youth Leadership Forum. YLF is a forum that is comprised of students who excel in school that deal with a learning or physical. These students are brought together so they can feel accepted in a judgement free zone. We work on volunteer work to help an organization in need. I met this guy named Joey. I slowly figured out he had been diagnosed with down syndrome. He does have to deal with outer disadvantages such as physical features with a flat face, small ears, and slanted eyes. Despite that it did not seem to bother him as he happily greeted me on the first day. I noticed he was a social butterfly as he talked to almost everyone every chance he was handed. During my encounters with him he was always kind and caring, he would ask how i was doing and if i was having fun. Joey meant no harm at all, he was simply being himself living life. By the end of the week I was able to better pick away all of the exteriors of people because i knew there is something valuable underneath.

Update to Promising Practices Reflection


I found it difficult to connect any of the theories we have discussed in class to the opening speech between the panel of the six judges. I thought there was too much content discussed to figure out if there were Delpit or Johnson or any other theories because it was very difficult to pay attention for length of this speech. The language they had used in certain sections was hard to decipher while listening as they continued on. 

However one of the sessions i attended was about Anti Bullying, reflecting back on the content stated i

 realized it had a Delpit basis. The importance to explicitly explain the rules and codes of power. Both of the speakers explicitly stated that bullying needs to stop because of the emotional and physical affect it has on young people. For example these speakers took the time within their teaching schedule to make time so they could teach their students how bullying hurts. These teachers used their advisory time on a weekly basis. Where they first started small by gavin each student around the room stating a personal aspect about themselves. Over time the students could explicitly state that "I like the color pink" or I think i like girls" and feel a little more comfortable saying that in a public space. 


Another session i attended was about the geared towards the importance of having arts in schools. The speaker spoke about her personal story of incorporating art in school systems. I believe that Rodriguez's theory of sacrificing private identity for public identity shone through because because the speaker stated that all students have a story to tell through an artistic way such as dancing or painting or even writing. The students that lose out on these artistic opportunities to use their  use their creative juices is cut so it forces those students to lose a part of their private identity to only a gain a public identity. The percentage of elementary schools that offer artistic classes had dropped from 87% to 83%. It is horrible because no children should be told they do not have an opportunity to dance or sing because that could be a significant part of themselves. No has a right to shut down someone's artistic ability because it is always a part of them so why should they suffer by lacking any artistic opportunities. If someone told me that they were going to try to cut a dance class i was taking i would make a stand because i simply cannot go out with dance. It affects my whole life because through dance i gained self confidence and discipline which has pushed so far in my life. Art does more than paint beautiful dances or pretty pictures it even can save people from dangerous paths in life.  For example, the president of the National Art Education Association said that "I found out who i was because i was able to explore my identity in the visual arts."

If there was more Deplit and Rodriguez moments in our world it would be much more colorful. The atmosphere would drastically alter  because people would be able to be comfortable being themselves.

Promising Practices Reflection

Week 10

Before the speakers reached the content of the topic, each speaker was introduced. Their name, where they came from, where they went to school and how they are affiliated with Promising Practices. I felt that is was almost too much because the more i heard the more challenging it became to remember each speaker. I believe that each person could have been announced with their name, their degree and how they work with promising practices.One introduction of a speaker was not correct. After the speech an official came back to fix this person’s introduction despite the effort I did not think anyone was paying much attention because after a certain time span your attention span gives out. It stated that an adult’s attention span is about 20 minutes.  The speeches should have been more geared around that aspect because any speaker would hope the audience would listen to their speech. If the speakers stopped for questions in between instead of at the end

the audience would be more interested since they would hear a conversation instead of one voice. In my personal opinion i love when speakers allow questions during their speech because it becomes more interactive so i become more focused. 

I was not aware that we would listen to a panel of officials for an hour and half. I found it to be very difficult to digest because there were six different voices. It became difficult when on speaker would began to speak for only another speaker to take the floor. Which made it hard to follow along to the content. After the talk was completed, they allowed the floor to be open for questions. My head was so stuck on comprehending that I lost my train of thought to form a question. When questions were asked I feel that some of them were not answered as well as I expected, one speaker seemed to ramble on about his opinion instead of answering the question.

 

When i was in my first session it much easier to pay attention to the one speaker versus the previous six i listened to. I liked that it was promoting art in school because i am very artistic. The activity we were assigned was to paint either a flower or a bird. I found it to be very relaxing as i soon lost all attention for everything but the paint. I do however not like other elements of this speech, for example we did a drawing exercise. We began by folding the paper in half, then we drew a witch's silhouette on one side. As she was explaining this activity she said that people with disabilities cannot complete this activity successfully and continued on to say that we as teachers should not assign this to students under the special education umbrella. I was very offended by this statement because she said it like she knew what she was talking about.

This professional did not even quote where she discovered this statement. In my perspective i can say that what she said is not valid because i am dyslexic but i am very artistic. I have been dancing for 12 years and painting and mixing color schemes come naturally to me. From my dancing experience i have learned the concept of direction and sequences of dances as well as the musicality of dancing. This has helped me academically because sequences in a dance translates to a sequences of events in a essay and learning steps like the shuffle ball change helped me understand how to flow directions in all aspects of learning. I would have been a little less offended if she had quoted her source because you always need to have the "why" to back your belief.

The session on Anti Bullying was also a great example of showing "why" because the two speakers expressed their passion throughout the whole speech. They seemed so hopeful and proud of their goal as they kept the emphasis on making time to show how important anti bullying is so prevalent during this session. I believe that is true because they said they have made such progress with their students as they began by making small groups of people so it was inmate that allowed the students to see others for who they are. I began to also see how difficult this is to teach because many kids will not want to follow it because they might think its stupid so it might time for you to make this idea seem cool. This would be a great way to weave in a LGBT lesson because it could show how bullying hurts others. I began to think how complex this is because these speakers work with middle school age children so the content might be harder to teach. Children progress at different times so certain concepts might be comprehended as soon. one factor i did not enjoy was that one of the speakers took over the floor a lot, at one point i feel that she took the words the other speaker was about to say. As a result it became a little dull to listen to one voice for the majority of the time.

Overall this conference was beneficial in some ways, such as new ideas for teaching and treatment towards our peers and teachers as well as dealing with the emotions of diverse occurrences. Along with the exception of confusion of other speeches, but over time some of it might click in my thought process. It could even become a new tool for my "toolbox."

"Separate is Not Equal"

Brown v. Board of Education

The decision of the Supreme Court in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning point for the history of race relations in the United States on the 17th of May. The court had stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity in education on the law of the land. Even though this was a significant stepping stone in our history, it did not end the vicious cycle of racism. In the article, "Separate and Unequal" Bob Herbert states that "long years of evidence shows that poor children of all ethnic backgrounds do better academically when they go to school with their more affluent- that is middle class peers. However schools stay more segregated because of many patterns such as where residence of children. When colored student do transfer to a new school, some feel discrimination by others because students judge them by how different they might be. For example the economic inequalities between social classes affect the student body, one student might judge another student because of the finical background he comes from, the student might  not live in a huge house and wear top of the line clothing.

In my personal opinion, I think this unwritten segregation rule we follow is not right. If a young person, white or black or hispanic desires a quality education from a good school they should be given the opportunity without being looked upon as less than equal to other students. The article states a simple solution to this problem, which is these children should attend another more resourceful school. Despite that simple solution, the article, "Separate and Unequal" states there has been 80 instances where the economic segregation brings upon racial and ethnic integration that has caused bitterness. It is fusrating people are not giving others a fair chance, they are simply unwelcoming. It is exactly like when there was an uproar of anger when Barack Obama was elected president because some people believed that America cannot be controlled by a black man. I believe this questions the 13th amendment when i began to read Jocelyn's blog. She states that 13th amendment encompasses that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”  If we have a rule that states all people should be given equality why do we abuse it, its in our constitution for a reason.

The two videos of Tim Wise continue to explain this point, as the first video's main point is all about rascim's existence, the idea that its easily seen, such as a teacher favoring a white student over a colored student. The idea of a African American who loves to play basketball and has trouble off the courts especially in school. "You have to be exceptional to break that glass ceiling (Tim) to be accepted."The continuation of this video states why accepting to the norm of being white or black. Tim states that being accepted as the black person who is not book smart but great on the basketball court is all based on stereotypes. Using race as an excuse which is not valid because there are many successful colored people as there are white people, for example Martin Luther King was successful just like Abrahma Lincoln was even though they made different accomplishments throughout their lives. In the video it stated that 75% of white people believe that black people live off welfare because they are lazy and unmotivated.

Talking Points
"What is the significance of the 13th amendment when no one seems to use it, people of color should be allowed anywhere whites are welcomed since we are all welcomed."
Tim Wise said "Why can't both black and white people be treated equally because all people are equal?" Can we break though this glass to see the reality of equality?