Personal Journey: Encountering Disabilities in a Small Town

I grew up in a small, close-minded, community that had insignificant minority people throughout it. I did not have a lot of experience with racial and ethnic groups. I did, however, have some experiences with children as well as adults who had learning disabilities as well as autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome, and fetal alcohol syndrome. When I was in elementary school, I had a classmate who had down syndrome; she was in and out of our classroom periodically throughout the day. In junior high; I was a peer helper during leadership class and in high school, I was a peer helper. During high school, I also was a Special Olympic instructor which was very rewarding. Right now, I feel that I could someday handle the responsibility of meeting

I often found myself questioning why other students other than the one who had down syndrome would have a teacher sit with them, or leave the class for some time. I remember one situation where I had asked to have a turn leaving the class; all my teacher had said was “not today” I took that answer and never asked again. When we entered our junior high school, I was never in those students math, English, social studies or science classes. I would see them during gym and some in music class. I now know today that the school separated us based on our capabilities in the classroom. I was never with the smartest people, but I was never with the general class. I feel that we should have had more classes together with those students, so they knew that they were still included. I do not think that the junior high school was practicing inclusion, to the best of their abilities. High School is more challenging to do so, but if the students are whiling to work and get the extra help that they may need, I feel as if they should be included in any academic class. I went back to my high school for the two observation days, one class that I sat in on was an open general class. This class consisted of multiple learning disabilities, three students with autism as well as students who just really did not care about their education. The teacher prepared presentations with lots of

I fear that I will not do an exceptional job at meeting the needs of some of my future students. Which would personally affect me and my everyday life, and I know I would work extremely hard to help and find a solution that works best with the individual. Referring to the assigned video, I to want to be part of students supportive community, in efforts to see he/she reach their fullest potential. Keeping up-to-date with technology that can assist students and their learning will be a priority of mine when I have students with different disabilities because keeping them in the classroom with their peers will allow them to build confidence in