"Humility, Freire agrees, is central to democracy. "How can I dialogue," Freire asks, "if I always project ignorance onto others and never perceive my own? How can I dialogue if I regard myself as a case apart from other-- mere 'its' in whom I cannot recognize other 'I's"?"
- I honestly love this part! What Freire is saying is so true, humility is a big aspect of being able to accept people. You have to a humble person to try to come across different people, and try to understand the path they walk through everyday. You can't be ignorant, not recognize your ignorant, and expect your words to mean something if you don't even see yourself as someone apart from everyone else but still recognize them as you do yourself.
""To value another is to recognize diversity as the norm. It establishes the equal worth of all school children, a sense that we all benefit from each other, and the fundamental right of every student to belong.""
- To be a teacher, student staff in any school you have to be able to go about your life with diversity never being an issue to you. Being accepting, makes your students feel included, and they want to learn, it gives your classroom/work environment a good feel. Everyone feels as though they belong, and makes you a better person.
"Schools have traditionally taken narrow position when defining and judging student intellect. The presence of a thoughtful mind has been linked to patterns of behavioral and communicative conformity associated with competence in logical-mathematical thinking and linguistic skills."
- This part of the article made me realize how true this is. Student knowledge it based on a standardized test, that shouldn't be the only thing that proves your smart or competent. Schools do take narrow positions when it comes to stating how smart a student is, they base it on reported test scores, and our reported GPA. Instead of thoughtful minds being linked to anything else, there always linked to being smart with math and language skills.
"Through citizenship, they came to be recognized as thinking, creative individuals who added unique and valuable dimensions to the group. To reiterate, such recognition does not constitute the condition on which judgement of membership are based. Rather, citizenship by right is the core from which human value emerges. At the same time, citizenship is based on an assumption of human value. It is a reciprocal relationship and can only be understood as such."
- This quote got to me, because its saying how without judgement these kids with down syndrome weren't being judged anymore and become a part of the group. They came to be great additions to a group because even though they were different they still have great attributes as does anyone. Citizenship is a big reason why they were "accepted" but citizenship on its own its just an assumption that we as humans all have an value more than anything.
Talking point: Did this article change your mind at all about diversity of all kinds in your classroom? Would you be a teacher that includes or excludes different students?
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