Kliewer and McDermott & Verenne

Kliewer: Citizenship in school: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

“Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities” (Kliewer). I find it so disgusting that people actually think that it is okay to have all these negative attitudes towards people with disabilities. These kids want nothing more than just to fit on and feel normal but unfortunately it is so hard for them to be accepted. These kids are so smart and unique in their own way that they could be so resourceful to other children. 

“It’s not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We’re all here—kids, teachers, parents, whoever—it’s about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that’s what learning is. Don’t tell me any of these kids are being set up to fail” (Kliewer). These kids want a safe place to be able to learn the best they can, and school needs to be a safe place for them. The education system is not set up for these children to be labeled and made fun of because of the way they look or their disabilities.

“According to Shayne, the notion of Down Syndrome often obscures our ability to recognize the child as a child. She or he becomes a walking pathological syndrome, a mobile defect on the loose” (Kliewer). Nobody can see past the down syndrome and see the child because they just see the disability. In school kids can only see the child as having down syndrome and therefore the child is treated differently. No child should be looked at just for their disability and as a child instead. 

Varenne & McDermott: Culture “as” Disability 

“The easy use of the term sufferoften carries an invidious comparison of the “disabled” with those seemingly “enabled” by the conventions of a culture” (Varenne & McDermott). People always think that those who have disabilities suffer because they cannot do the things that “normal” people can do. This culture that we live in thinks that people with disabilities really do suffer because they are so different from everyone else. Breaks my heart because they are like everyone and they can do what “normal” people can do it just takes them a little longer. 

“We must not confuse our ignorance of life with a physical difference

for an account of that life; nor should we forget that the particulars of our own ignorance are likely a more crucial determinant of the disabilities manifest in some lives than any differences in the physical makeup of the people” (Verenne & McDermott). We should not worry about what another person’s physical make up is, but we just do not want to be seen with them in public. It would be back for their reputation if they were seen in public with them. 

“Unfortunately, deaf persons on Martha's Vineyard were not treated well by outsiders who could not sign, and the fortunes of the deaf declined as the island opened up to extensive tourism. That they could not hear was made worse by outsiders who pitied them, wrote them up in Boston newspapers, explained their origin in scientific tracts (one popular claim: their deafness was a result of a melancholy suffered by their mothers), called for a remedy of their situation, and suggested a eugenics program for their erasure. An irony can be found in the fact

that perhaps the people best able on Martha's Vineyard to read such reports were deaf. Although most Vineyarders went to school for only 330 Anthropology & Education Quarterly Volume 26,1995 five years in the 1800s, by mandate of the state educational system, the

deaf were supported through ten years of school, and when faced with a difficult reading and writing task, the hearing would often go to a deaf person for help” (Varenne & McDermott). People are so ignorant toward others that cannot communicate with them and those poor people that cannot hear what the nasty things the tourists are saying. If there was a better communication then there wouldn’t be this problem the others treating people so poorly.