Educating Peter Documentary

Educating Peter Documentary

From watching Peter’s documentary, I learned that disability is not inability; Peter, having Down syndrome, was very restless and looked scary to learners and the teacher at the start. Peter often pushed and kicked students and even tried to strangle a classmate, but the teacher was always on the look. However, after five months in school, Peter began changing because the teacher changed the way of teaching to help Peter. At seven months, Peter was changed; he could read, run, hold things, and even do better in class. The outburst moved from frequent to one outburst at the end of the day. The most exciting thing I learned was that Peter was assisted mainly by the girls in adjusting and adapting to the learning environment. For example, while they were at the cafeteria, the girls took the mother role of Peter and often began by serving Peter (Neil 18:00). It was inspiring that regardless of Peter having Down syndrome, he was able to learn comfortably just as other normal learners after seven months.

Ideally, if Peter were a student in today’s classroom, nothing much would be different; only the level of care and assistance would have increased. The teachers and learners are now much more comfortable studying with students with special needs. This is because it is a federal requirement that all students learn in the same class and reach their potential like other learners (Hallahan et al. 159). Therefore, the only progress is that more rules have been introduced, and special needs learners are given more special attention than before. Teachers are not scared of special needs learners today because there are often 2-3 or more special needs students in a class. Currently, the inclusion model has seen general education classrooms still face the same challenges. Students still fear interacting with exceptional learners. Learning is often disrupted as most students stare at the exceptional learners; hence, there is minimal concentration as a teacher takes time to contain the situations caused by exceptional learners.

Work Cited

Hallahan, Daniel E., James M. Kauffman, and Paige C. Pullen. Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education: Pearson New International Edition. Pearson Higher Ed, 2013.

Neil, Mason. Educating Peter – 1992 (720p) [30 minutes]. (1992). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EikuC2hJ5hs.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

From your current knowledge of Special Education up to this point, I want you to write 1-2 paragraphs about something you found interesting in the documentary, “Educating Peter”:

Educating Peter Documentary

Answer these questions in your response:

1. If Peter were a student in today’s classroom, what would be different? How have things changed/progressed throughout the years?
2. Can you see how general education classrooms still face the same challenges today using the Inclusion model?