{"id":444,"date":"2010-12-08T09:19:50","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T09:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/stories-of-people-with-down-syndrome.html"},"modified":"2010-12-08T09:19:50","modified_gmt":"2010-12-08T09:19:50","slug":"stories-of-people-with-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/stories-of-people-with-down-syndrome.html","title":{"rendered":"Stories of Real People with Down Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m sometimes skeptical of news stories about individuals with Down syndrome. I wonder whether the individuals are really being celebrated for who they are or if telling a heart-warming story about the kid with the disability who overcomes the odds is really just a way of making the rest of us feel good without actually engaging the issues at hand. <\/p>\n

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But a few items have come to my attention recently that seem worth passing along because they highlight individuals with Down syndrome who have been recognized by their communities and families as real people with great worth.<\/div>\n
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First, the short film, Deedah and Me<\/a>. This touching story gives us a glimpse of life with Jonathan, through the eyes of his older sister Charlotte. Charlotte adores her younger brother, but she doesn’t sugar-coat the difficulties he faces as a child with Down syndrome. Click here<\/a> to order a copy, and click here<\/a> to read a Perfectly Human post by Phil May, Jonathan’s dad. <\/div>\n
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Second, an article about a young woman with Down syndrome who was voted Homecoming Queen: “In a kingdom called Fletcher High, she defies Down label<\/a>” (although I have to say I’m not a big fan of the title). What’s great about this story is the way it articulates the challenges Cara faced initially in her high school as well as the way she became a recognized and integrated part of the school community. She didn’t become Queen out of sympathy but because she was an important representative of the school community. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Finally, and this is just plain cute, a 7-year old boy raps about his younger sister with Down syndrome in this Youtube video: Just the Way You Are<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m sometimes skeptical of news stories about individuals with Down syndrome. I wonder whether the individuals are really being celebrated for who they are or if telling a heart-warming story about the kid with the disability who overcomes the odds is really just a way of making the rest of us feel good without actually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-what-im-reading"],"yoast_head":"\nStories of Real People with Down Syndrome - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/stories-of-people-with-down-syndrome.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stories of Real People with Down Syndrome - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m sometimes skeptical of news stories about individuals with Down syndrome. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}