Paul Daugherty's Memoir 'An Uncomplicated Life'

Students with Down Syndrome portray a better success rate when being in a normal classroom, rather than a special-Ed classroom. Most schools doubt students with Down Syndrome, so the schools put students in special-Ed classrooms. Also, the normal classroom teachers do not want to change their way of teaching to help the students with disabilities. In Paul Daugherty’s memoir An Uncomplicated Life, Daugherty and his wife are gifted with a girl, Jillian, who has Down Syndrome. Jillian is placed in normal classes after her parents fought with the school system for this decision, but some of Jillian’s teachers do not follow the demands her parents want from her teachers in order for Jillian to succeed. Since Jillian has Down Syndrome, she needs

A dedicated teacher could provide Daugherty a stress relieved school night and pleasing meetings with the school. To aid Paul Daugherty in his struggles, a dedicated teacher for his daughter, Jillian, would allow Daugherty a school night full of joy and accomplishment. Specifically, Daugherty’s frustration appears when Jillian loses a book or does not bring a book home from school, through extreme exaggeration, Daugherty expresses, ”On nights when the homework careened off track, I could lose touch with Jillian’s guts and determination. I’d fall down the rabbit hole and into despair” (136). Clearly, when school nights do not go smoothly for Daugherty, his grasp on hope is demolished. Daugherty detects that bad school nights will end up being long and stressful without the tools Jillian needs for her completion of her

The meetings are called Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings, and consist of teachers and Jillian’s parents. In the meetings everyone talks about Jillian, from the educational viewpoint. Sometimes, the meetings are good but many times they are bad. For instance, many IEP meetings are difficult to be in because many teachers see Jillian as a kid with Down Syndrome that is not capable of being in a normal classroom, through a simile, Daugherty explains that those teachers “see Jillian as an itch they’d rather not scratch” (121). Undoubtedly, some teachers do not want to teach Jillian because they do not want to have to work hard to make Jillian successful. Since Jillian does have Down Syndrome, sometimes learning is a little bit harder for her and teachers might have to modify their way of teaching. Some teachers do not want to modify their way of teaching to better Jillian because that would be more difficult than teaching a regular student that does not have a disability. In the IEP meetings, teachers that do not want to teach Jillian do not see Jillian for who she is; instead they see her as a kid with Down Syndrome. Daugherty has to fight for Jillian in order for her to be put in a normal classroom. A dedicated teacher would see Jillian’s potential in learning and therefor Daugherty would not have to fight to find a teacher