Kliewer

Special Education in Schools

I feel that Special Education in schools is a necessity in order to help kids grow and learn that may be developmentally younger than their age or have been diagnosed with diseases and conditions that may restrict their function. During high school, I met a student who was diagnosed with Down syndrome. He was one of the kindest and sweetest students who never forgot your name and always loved to played to basketball.

One day, I arrived into the gym for batting practice with my softball team and he was standing in the middle of the court not ready to leave. He was not purposely refusing to leave as he wanted to go against what his teacher was asking him to do. Instead he just did not want his basketball practice to end, you could tell he was frustrated that he had to leave. I felt bad, because I wanted to help him but had no idea. I walked over to him and started talking to him. First I asked if he knew who I was and he smiled at the ground and said Of course I know your name, its Reilly. I asked him what he was doing and how practice went. He told me how they completed a super cool drill and he wanted to do it again before their next unified basketball game. He proceeded to tell me that his next game was tomorrow and he was ready to win. His teacher then came over and asked to get off the court but he did not want to and proceeded to break down. Watching him breakdown was tough to see as I was not able to help him or even make him feel better about leaving.

The next day in school he apologized to me because he delayed my softball practice by about two minutes but I assured him, it was no big deal. He was one of the kindest students, I have ever talked to. Yet, there is this stereotype that lies over his head that determines he is unfit for society. Yet over
the next few weeks he told me how he was able to work at Marshalls, and a local breakfast place. I found it exciting that him and many other students are breaking the stereotypes.