Talking Points #9: Kliewer

1.) "How absurd to be judged by others at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support ow who don't listen to the voices we have."

- This statement is completely true. It goes back to the saying of put yourself in someone elses shoes. People should not be judged on how fast they learn or what they can and can't achieve, but the person they are to other people.

2.) "Dialogue cannot occur... between those who deny others the right to speak their word and those whose right to speak has been denied them."

-This idea of a discourse is something that all too often doesn't happen between people with disabilities and people without, and it needs to. The talk of a discourse, as mentioned in Carlson, is something that needs to happen in order for people to come together and function as a society.

3.) "Such acceptance as the aim when children with Down syndrome join their nondisabled peers the classrooms, and many school and individual teachers have entered into this effort, which seeks and finds community value in all children."

-I agree completely that children with Down syndrome should be allowed in an all inclusive classroom and not have to be separated from children that will probably, in the long run, help them grow.

This article is one of my favorites because it was something I can relate to having a cousin with Down syndrome. I see my Aunt's struggle to keep him included in classrooms when the school system wants to separate him, and it is unfair. Children with disabilities that are not profound enough to need a special classroom or school should be allowed to join in with others as a foundation for growth. This reading tied in greatly to Carlson in that it talks of creating a discourse and that if the minority in a society is heard and talked about they won't be such a minority any more, just a diverse community.