Group Differences Forum Reflection

I enjoyed the group differences forum. I feel as if it allowed me to consider possible differences in my classroom that I have not encountered before. I think that there was great classroom discussion that allowed me to see different points of views on controversial issues. I really enjoyed discussing the issues of poverty and race. I have lived near an urban, poor environment for all my life, but I have always been in the suburb point of view. This suburban point of view has really made me create stereotypes and opinions about city schools and the surrounding communities. It was nice to experience people who have a different point of view, and I feel as if it has helped start a change in my own opinions. These children do not ask to be provided a lack-luster education in a poor, corrupt school district. It has really inspired me to possibly work in one of these schools and make a difference for these children.
However, I feel as if my groups portion of the group forum was seen as sort of non-important. We worked on providing thought provoking questions that would cause the class to consider how they felt about the education of students who have disabilities. We were only provided with less than ten minutes to discuss our topic. I feel as if the lack of focus on students with disabilities is evident in the teacher education program. While students do participate in a special education class, is it enough knowledge to go out into the classroom and provide individualized instruction that maximizes the education of students who have disabilities? I highly doubt so. I feel it is important for general education teachers to reflect upon their strengths, weaknesses, and opinions about working with students who have disabilities. I wish that my group would have had more time to offer valuable reflection opportunities. The amount of students who have disabilities present in the general education classroom are rapidly increasing. It is highly likely that issues aligned with ableism will be encountered. Like you had mentioned before, the forum came across as busy work.
Also, I think it's very interesting that each chapter we covered had a section on the content's application to students who have disabilities, but they were never mentioned in class. I think that this ableism topic was the only time, besides Kalee and I's teacher projects, that special education was ever mentioned. It would have been nice to have more time to discuss it.

Ableism

For the group differences forum, my group read an article entitled Confronting Ableism. Throughout the article, the author was urging that people need to accept people who have disabilities as they are instead of trying to change them. The author uses examples and testimonies from individuals who have disabilities to argue that society spends too much time trying to make these individuals ignore their disabilities. For example, the author urges that instead of attempting to teach a child who has visual impairments to read, braille should be instructed. Instead of forcing people who have disabilities to adapt to how people without disabilities live, we should instead focus on how to best educate the children in reference to their disabilities.  The argument for me was a little shaky. The author urges that children with disabilities should have individualized educations that focus on their needs and build upon their abilities; however, in the same argument he is urging that these students need to learn in the least restrictive environment, which he deems a general education classroom. It seems to me that if the education system focuses on providing what these students need to succeed that placement in learning environments outside of the general education classroom will be necessary. However despite this misunderstanding of motives, I do agree that people who have disabilities should not be educated solely based on making them the same as people who do not have disabilities. It is important to take a student's disability into consideration when providing them with their educations. What comes to mind when I am thinking about this issue is assistive technology. People with disabilities are provided with these accommodations so they can access the curriculum. Their individual needs are being considered; however, they are participating in the same instructional activities as their peers. This article did surprise me because I had never heard of this issue before in any of my special education courses. To me, it just seems like common sense that a child's disability is considered when educating them. However, after reading this article it seems like my assumption was incorrect. Reading this article has made me realize that in my future career I may have to urge teachers and parents to accept the disability instead of ignoring it. Children who have disability deserve a better chance at an education, and expecting them to learn the same way as children who do not have disabilities is cheating them out of a proper education and future life.