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.