Notes

There were two films that were asked of us to view for this chapter. The first one that I understood to be extra credit was educating Peter. This film seems to be so life changing in many ways, but this situation does have its pros and cons. Inclusion seems to be a great thing for both Peter and the students. They all get to see what it is like in a regular class room and the non- special needs students get to interact with Peter and vice- versa. The instructor playing a huge part in Peter's education is great for her and Peter's experience. The con for this would be the outbursts that Peter has on a daily basis. This is something that the teacher and students are not used to. The surprising thing is that the students are able to handle these random situations much better than the teacher. I believe it is a result of them being able to relate to Peter, not in the sense that they have experienced Down Syndrome, but in the sense that they are about the same age and it is much easier for them to pull off Peter than the instructor. If I were a parent, I would be happy knowing that the students have enough respect to help Peter learn right from wrong on a daily basis. I would also be happy that Peter sees them with amazing eyes. As a teacher, on the other hand, it would definitely be a little hard teaching the class with a distraction like Peter everyday, but it would be an amazing challenge. I would feel comfortable teaching the class, but I would definitely feel better with the help of someone that can communicate better with students like Peter. This would help me, as a teacher, learn how to do so myself. When it comes to specific social skills, I think Peter learned some of this from his classmates. Things like "I don't like that, I don't like it when you hit me, What do you say when you hit someone?" and other phrases like this help Peter learn what others like and don't like to happen.
On the following segments of graduating Pete, I noticed a completely opposite life that he has. The inclusion that he has going on has its pros and cons. Its good that he is getting out in the world and learning about maintaining jobs and other skills, but he does not seem to retain much of what he learns. Everything that goes on around him does not seem to stay in his memory. For the age he is at in the video, his social skills are not as good as they should be which also makes it difficult to be included in the real world. I would definitely react in a worried manner as a parent in Peters class because he is not making friends and seems to progress even slower than what he should be doing. If I were a teacher in this class, I do think I would need help in order to keep Peter going and hopefully learning at a faster rate in order to be ready for the world. I do not think I would be comfortable teaching the class as it is in the video because it is hard to see many of the students completely ignoring Peter and him not having many friends or social skills. This could be contributing factor to his outbursts in the day. I don't think there were any social skills taught in the class room but during the work day and at the different jobs he was at, I think he learned a lot of social skills.