I was surprised to see that when Eugenics was introduced, many intellectuals, artists, scientists, writers of the time believed in it. The aftermath of it sent shockwaves through society causing mass sterilization of people with disabilities from low or working class is Rachel minor minorities and culminating in World War II with the Nazi concentration camps that “murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, and other social group states believed were polluting the human breeding stock” (Smith, 421) 

Because of eugenics we now have IQ tests, and it is these IQ tests that classify and categorize students into their own special classes and limit their interaction with the other students. Until recently this is how schools functioned, sadly the segregation between the children with disabilities and without wasn’t the best learning environment for everyone.

Which brings us to the “normal curve” which grossly misrepresented human intelligence and is a poor model for conceptualizing how we think and behave. It doesn’t make sense to judge all of humanity with a “statistical norm.”

I believe that the idea of “the average” man or woman is completely subjective. The spectrum of the “normal curve” has “the exceptional” on the other side is “the normal.” In the middle is “the mean” which represents both differences and similarities, sharing traits and behaviors within categorical groupings.

Standardized test scores have often been used to create a general consensus of intelligence levels and students. However not everyone is good at standardized test-taking, and therefore it isn’t always the best way to test a student’s ability to absorb and remember information.

As a child, I remember hating standardized tests even though I was constantly reading books and making art. I’m thankful that today there is more awareness on other ways of judging a student’s ability and intelligence, and thus helping them work with their specific disabilities.

Burke has autism and through great effort managed to be well educated and greatly helped occupational therapist. Some of the treatments were listening therapy with classical music, movable movable brain image, NET (neuro emotional theory), Kinesiology, and learning how to type in class when speaking was too difficult for him. 

They also discuss an ideal learning situation we’re someone like Burke can feel comfortable to learn in a good environment with the support of teachers and peers. Some examples of an ideal learning environment for an autistic student are: teachers who love the subject they are teaching, being in an environment with little distractions, and still being integrated with the other students. Burke doesn’t believe that special education students should be segregated, and says “teachers need to become as a conductor, and guide me through the many places I may get lost.” (p. 172) 

Inclusive teaching is successful when there is a clear dialogue between the teacher who understands the needs of the student. Normalcy is a construct, and can be shifted to accommodate special needs students. School reform will happen once the ideas of normalcy/difference are discussed and “essential to the creation of democratic schooling.” (p. 173) 

Burke has autism and through great effort managed to be well educated and greatly helped occupational therapists. Some of the treatments were listening to therapy with classical music, movable brain image, NET (neuro-emotional theory), kinesiology, and learning how to type in class when speaking was too difficult for him. 

They also discuss an ideal learning situation we’re someone like Burke can feel comfortable to learn in a good environment with the support of teachers and peers. Some examples of an ideal learning environment for an autistic student are: teachers who love the subject they are teaching, being in an environment with little distractions, and still being integrated with the other students. Burke doesn’t believe that special education students should be segregated and says “teachers need to become as a conductor and guide me through the many places I may get lost.” (p. 172) 

Inclusive teaching is successful when there is a clear dialogue between the teacher who understands the needs of the student. Normalcy is a construct and can be shifted to accommodate special needs students. School reform will happen once the ideas of normalcy/difference are discussed and “essential to the creation of democratic schooling.” (p. 173)

In Kraft’s Stakeholders and Inclusion article, I found that a great deal of collaboration between stakeholders (art teachers, special education teachers, and parents) is crucial for the creating, developing and implementing of an inclusive art class for all learners. Due to the art class being a popular placement in general education for students with alter-abilities, art educators may be called upon to participate in multiple IEP teams. I personally see art as a language that has the potential to actively engage all participants in this case especially those with profound disabilities.  I think it’s a very positive thing when the stakeholder’s come together for the sake of the disabled and abled students.  I was disappointed to see that many of the art teachers’ colleagues didn’t view them as regular education teachers because they teach art.  Not only do the art educator have stacks of IEP’s that accumulate to a high degree in the inclusive art class but they have to have knowledge of each students’ special education modifications. In the end it’s the art educator who is ultimately responsible for student learning in his or her class. I found Michelle’s outlook on how she might adjust the environment or change the ways in which she has the class discuss and consider art to be very positive.  She was able to identify the barriers of participation as environmental rather than as inherent within the student and his or her disability.

 

In the Biklen and Burke article a four-year-old boy with autism is introduced.  Due to his disability some very important questions are posed.  “Would he become an active participant in school life as a teenager?” “How would his peers receive him?” “Would teachers in his future grades have ways of involving him in the academic curricula?” With children classified as autistic, it’s not uncommon to link early expressive difficulties to a presumption of incompetence. Schools are often the sites where labeling of students with autism and other disabilities most often occurs. In the interviews between Biklen and Burke, it’s clear that Burke has had an extremely difficult time with his handicap in school and he has a desire to be loved and loved for his autism. He has had a lot of complications communicating through a facilitator who promptly cues his body to get to his communication device. Even though his speed of typing is much faster now, it still takes an enormous amount of time in order to type a response to a question. I found it to be particularly upsetting that once diagnosed with a disability, the student is then pushed aside and put into special classes or special schools on the assumption and not proof, that he or she cannot benefit from the same academic instruction enjoyed by non-disabled peers.

Another point is how Ladson-Billing speaks about Education debt, and instead of calling it an achievement Gap, we have failed. Segregation is alive and well in the public school systems. One thing my white privilege kept me from ever realizing is how minority students are the ones who have to sacrifice and bend: to have to travel across town in the buses–how they lose out of being part of the full experience of the school sometimes because of it. Education isn't just about the classroom learning experience; the whole experience: the social experience, sports, and clubs and all.  

The Permission to Fail Piece also by Billings I loved the example of the teacher Mr. Carter, out in California. How he figured out a way to teach his students to expand their writing even though they didn't want to write–didn't like to write. They were writing without even realizing it because when someone connects to something and approaches a project in a creative way that students connect with, giving them equity in their work, you will get better results. I may not be able to pay down the education debt that they are owed, but at least I can teach in a way that gives them a little equity back.

Upon reading Garcia and Kleifgen's "Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Chapter 9," I understood how important it is to have an inclusive classroom that meets the needs of all students.  If I were to teach my assessment from Assignment # 4, I would like to know the personal background and culture of my students.  That would only serve to be beneficial in understanding where they're coming from. For example: There shouldn't be high expectations when testing ELLs or bilinguals who aren't proficient in English.  There's no validity in testing something that they don't know. I believe that testing should be a means for informing teaching and developing learning. It's important to note that emergent bilinguals come into schools with very different schooling experiences. Also that schools teach students to use language for tasks that are different from those they perform outside of the classroom. 

When reading about Jeehayae, a newly arrived student from Korea, I imagined how I would handle having a student like this while teaching my assessment.  I found it particularly interesting that Jeehayae has an extensive knowledge of reading and writing in Korean but when applied to similar tasks in English, she would do poorly.  I learned that it's not about the capability of this student but rather the kind of teaching required to help her become as proficient in English as she is in Korean. When it comes to the standardized testing for emergent bilinguals there are concerns because the tests don't measure what it intends.

These tests are constructed for White, middle-class, monolingual populations and they always contain a built in content bias.  They also don't include activities or concepts from the worlds of minoritized students.  Because my assessment would be about the concepts of race and gender in Kara Walker's work, I think that it would be crucial for students to have a frame of reference that isn't White or middle-class. If I were testing my ELL students I would highly consider the performance-based assessments mentioned in this article.  These tests ask students to produce a product such as a portfolio or perform an action.  This would be better for bilingual students because it provides a wider range of opportunities to show what they know and are able to do in both language and content areas. 

Performance-based multimodal assessments are less language dependent than are traditional tests, enabling teachers to better distinguish between language proficiency and content proficiency.  The most important takeaway from this article for me was that "there's no relationship between the language used on tests and that used in real life." Clearly, monolingual constructed and administered tests cannot validly measure the complex language practices of bilingual students.