This reinforces that children of color who are more likely to not have access to resources or networks are so much more in danger of being a victim of this system. Parents who might not have a strong grasp on English, or if they are immigrants who tend to not challenge the systems at work do not have the resources to fight the system for their kid. Thus the children never have their problems addressed are the doomed to live of riddled with pain.

This statement really highlights the severity of the issue at hand. Clearly there is little to no emphasis or urgency in the current system to address and support children with special needs. In doing so, they can miss critical windows of development that can set them back years and you cannot make up for it later on. Its unacceptable for this to be in the industry standard as the wealthiest country in the world where we cannot support those in the most need.

This has started to make me wonder how placement into special education works. The way I thought it worked was that children were diagnosed with some kind of disability warranting them to be placed in this kind of class. However, based on the readings it kinda sounds like the school has the say whether or not a child require special education. If that is the case that is kind of surprising that it is not specialized professional making the final call on this.

This statement emphasizes the mono-cultural that exists in the American education system. Typical White characteristics are viewed as normal, while deviations from this norm are seen as inferior. In this case this can cause students of different backgrounds to be inaccurately placed in classes for children with developmental needs. Teachers need to be more mindful to understand the culture of the demographic they teach to better understand the kids to avoid this mistake.

I have thought about this a lot, in high school my main focus were on acing my classes to get where I wanted to be. The journey did not matter to me so much, but just the end result because I just wanted a good grade in the end. Additionally, in college through fulfilling me GE requirements it forced to me broaden my horizons and learn some things about people that I did not delve deep into before. There is not emphasis educating students in things that will benefit them and others on a human level, that is just not the purpose of school right now. I believe school should not be a means of students to just learn STEM, its good but we should teach people awareness and empathy for the good of society.

This is a very powerful statement that we should be applying for all facets of our life. Growing up, there was always the kids in the special needs class that you would separate from yourself. They were always the "special ed" kids. Its thinking like that make it easy to marginalize them because internally we do view them in the same light we see ourselves and our other peers. It would greatly benefit if we can change perspectives, especially for students about this.

This is something not talked about often enough. Raising kids is already hard enough but when children have special needs then there are several challenges and hurdles parents must make for their kid to succeed. It can be daunting and stressful but I'm glad this parent has access to counseling. A lot of less affluent parents probably don't have access to this kind of thing whether it be from lack of time or lack of money and they have to cope with it themselves adding another stresser on their plate.

Personally I am not close with many people who have had to "come out" and I did not know this. I have watched a lot of shows though so I am guilty of thinking that "coming out" what this big thing. It does make sense that coming-out is a constant occurring. In a hetero-normative society people will assume that you are straight unless you go out of your way to point it out. Its also sad that Ngo had to come-out to his mother repeatedly because his mother would not accept him for who he is. I have heard too many stories of parents kicking out their children for not conforming to traditional gender norms.

This phrase really stands out to me. A lot of people straight up will not accept facts and data that does not support their world view. From vaccines and climate change to this when people believe a certain thing often times reasoning cannot be used to change their minds. This emphasizes why it falls upon educational institutions to be responsible for teaching students about these things. Children of parents who are against queer people will make the lives their children worse by not allowing them to find out about themselves causing self hate and confusion in their life.

As a Vietnamese American I can agree with this point of view. A lot of Vietnamese immigrants coming to America come with traditional values because that is how it was over there. Most of my peers parents expect them to fit in the mold, go to school, have kids that kind of thing. Not many people I know do not deviate far from this path. I feel like this is a common experience for a lot of Asian Americans, but that's just anecdotal evidence.

This is why changes have to be done through Congress and not with executive order. Executive orders are only good for however long a president is in office as everyone can be undone by the next administration. Congress will stand as long as its constitutional which is a much safer bet. This passage is especially relevant today as the U.S. Department of Education had most of its funding and powers stripped highlighting how you cannot really put faith in the executive branch to facilitate changes like this.

One issue that is repeated time and time again is that faculty are not equipped to handle students of different race, gender, cultures, and what not. For this to be solve you truly need passionate people who are driven to create that environment and make this space. One way I believe that this can be achieved is increasing teacher pay. You have to attract the talent and the driven people, that's why CEO's are supposedly paid so much, but teachers are more important than CEO's because they are shaping and preparing the future youth. It think it stems from a funding problems as well and there are not enough resources allotted for teachers to get trained in this field as well. Teachers already do not have enough funding for school supplies for their kids I doubt the school will go out of their way to train their staff in this if they do not have to.

Something I learned in UPPP8 was the concept of addressing problems with an intersectional mindset. Issues today are multifaceted as they can stem from several factors like gender, race, socioeconomic status you cannot simply look at an issue with one perspective in mind. You have to take account for all factors of a problem when devising a solution or else you won't adequately address the issue. This topic comes back is this passage when it discusses how minority queer people are more likely to have violence towards them where a person at an intersection of minority and queer have different problems that have to be addressed.

A lot of more conservative states do not believe that it is school's place to teach students about sexuality, gender, and things of that nature and that it should be the parent to decide what to teach their children. While I can understand that sentiment, it is not that path to progress where inclusion and understanding of people to be created. Limiting children from being educated in these topics will perpetuate discrimination and freedom of expression.

This is what Pope Francis really stand out from his predecessors and is what people are really hoping that the next pope, Pope Leo XIV will continue on. The Catholic church leads one billion Catholics around the world and Pope Francis commanded inclusion during his papacy, from allowing the blessing to same sex couples, and reiterated who is he to judge a gay person who follows God. Rhetoric like that from the leader of the Catholic church has so much influence in moving the world in the direction of inclusion of all people.

Ever since I was three or four, I was already aware of the distinction between boys and girls. One of the memories I still have from that preschool is the instructor telling me that the boys should play with boys and girls should play with girls, which was problematic for me because my best friend at the time was a girl. Its really strange for gender to be emphasized like that, especially at an early age where kids are not super aware of the concept of gender in the first place and I feel as though will only lead to trouble in the future.