This topic is something I am very passionate because I plan on being an elementary school teacher and this effects many schools in the US. Through mainstreaming, children with Down Syndrome improve their education more than if they were placed in a special education classroom, there by impacting not only the school, but also other students, their parents, and the teachers. I had a child with Down's Syndrome in my class in elementary school and it was such a great experience for me and I can tell it was the best choice for him as well. One of my best friends growing up at home had a cousin who faced the struggles of having Down's Syndrome; his name was David. David was always over at her house and we would always include him in our games or if we wanted to watch a movie and it would always seem to make his day. I've never met a more genuine, kind-hearted person in my entire life. David would always go out of his way to do nice things for people and could automatically tell if something was wrong or if you were not in a good mood. David is one of the reasons I chose this topic for my research. Down's Syndrome children are not given their chance to succeed in a normal classroom setting and mainstreaming can give them that opportunity.

My first resource is a documentary movie called "Educating Peter". Children with Down's Syndrome a lot of the time face the problems of having a low self-esteem. The low self-esteem comes from the children thinking that they can't do what all the other kids are doing. In "Educating Peter", Peter Gwazdauskas was a little boy in the third grade who was born with Down Syndrome.  Peter was mainstreamed, being placed in a regular third grade class.  During the film, Peter becomes frustrated with himself and yells "I'm stupid" to the class. This is an example of how lowered self-esteem is an issue for some children with Down Syndrome. It takes longer for these students to learn certain subjects and, as a result, causes them to feel less intelligent. The documentary tells the story of his journey growing up and learning how to interact with "normal" children in the classroom. It shows how much Peter grows as a student and a person by being able to interact with children that are not struggling with his disability. The "normal" students learn just as much from Peter as he does from them and it's an incredible story.

My second source starts off with a quote by George Evans saying, "Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way." The article then goes on to say that all children can learn article, no matter their mental state or ability. The author talks about having Down's Syndrome students in some of her classes and how the "normal" students were great about working with the student who had Down's. By mainstreaming children with Down Syndrome into a general education setting, it helps the other students learn how to accept and be patient, as well as learning how to interact with someone so different than themselves. The "normal" students learn more about patience and how to react when something is new and unfamiliar to them. They also learned about the quality of acceptance and that all students should have an equal opportunity to education, despite their academic ability. This article mainly discusses the benefits of mainstreaming not only for the Down's Syndrome child, but also the other students and the teacher.

My third source is a published essay on the benefits of mainstreaming Down's Syndrome children into the classroom. The author of the essay says, "students who were mainstreamed had greater communication skills and overall higher satisfaction with their learning than those who were put into Special Education classroom." She then goes on for many pages on why mainstreaming is the best option for most children with Down's Syndrome and supports her claims using sources of her own. This paper has many statistics that are relatively new and that is a great thing to have in a source for a research paper.

This research paper definitely has a side to argue for. Depending on where you come from and what your educational experiences have been, can strongly influence how you view this issue; if you view this as an issue at all. 
