Down Syndrome

Yara Star 

Mrs. Shukairy

Writing 1

10-30-13

Down Syndrome

            If you were diagnosed with Down Syndrome, would they want to be in a classroom full of special aid teachers and students or would they want to be in a normal class and treated equally? I’m sure people would want to be in a normal class. People want to be treated equally and not feel that they are different because of their disability. People don’t want their looks or actions to tell who they are. They want to be independent like the other students and work on their social skills for their future. Most people think that if they are in a mainstream classroom, it would help them build their future. Kids with Down syndrome should be integrate in regular classrooms because most students would benefit from such interaction.

            Parents hope that by placing a child with a disability into a classroom with normal kids, they would get a better education and become more independent in society. If they go into mainstream classroom parents hope they would have a bigger group of friends, better social lives, and they could improve their speech, language, and behavior. Many parents choose to overlook the negatives in hopes that their child will get a well-rounded education.

            This topic affects me because I have a little brother and his name is Zaid. He was born with Down syndrome. My family and I didn't know that he was going to be born with a disability and neither did the doctors. When he was born my family and I knew that we had a big responsibility coming our way. We got therapy for him and he went through a lot. He is five years old now and he is still in special education class. He doesn't speak properly so that’s why my mom doesn't want to put him in a mainstream classroom. She thought it over and she asked for my opinion. I told her that it would be best for him if he would have classes with the regular kids because he would benefit from them in so many ways and also that teachers are going to help him till the end.

            Some believe that students with a disability should not be permitted into mainstream classrooms. They believe that the student will cause a distraction by not being at the same level with the class. Another reason is that they might be harmful to others and themselves. The student with the disability might hit other students and that might result in bullying when it was not meant and was supposed to be an accident. This position is weak because everyone should be equal in their way and they should not be judged by what they look like, but how they really are on the inside. Regular kids will benefit from the kid with Down syndrome. They will benefit because they might have a family member who has a disability and they will learn to handle and treat them right. They will have experience from their classmate and they will get along just fine without and harm or mistreatment.

            All in all, everyone was born to be somebody and kids with Down syndrome or any other disability such as Autism, Cerebral Palsy, blindness or deafness, etc. everyone was created with a brain and it is there for a reason. It means that you can think and you have feelings. You are just at a slower pace than other students. Kids with Down syndrome should come together in mainstream classrooms or regular classrooms because all students would benefit from such communication. In our English classroom, we are reading a book called “ Petey” and it is about a boy who was born with Cerebral Palsy and he was misdiagnosed as an idiot by the way he looks. After that we watched a documentary about a boy named Peter with Down syndrome and how he was put in a mainstream classroom and how he developed through his life till he graduated from high school.