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Disability Day Contest Angers Parents
Categories: Education, Special Needs
Disability awareness effort falls flat. Photo: sxc.hu
School officials loved the idea and sent a note home to parents: "There will be prizes for the best students dressed as a person with a disability. Get your thinking hats on and see what disability you can represent!"
Not surprisingly, this did not go over well with parents who recognize the difference between raising awareness and making light of disabilities. Just how does one dress like a disabled person anyway?
Other interested parties weighed in with their displeasure as well. Paralympic gold medalist Matt Cowdrey gave the school the benefit of the doubt when it came to their intentions, but agreed that this was not the best way to raise attention.
"People with disabilities want to be treated and should be treated no different to anybody else in the community," says Cowdrey.
School officials backpedaled as fast as they could, insisting that the note parents received didn't explain the fundraiser clearly. Principal Barrey Niven said the intention was for students to come to school with bandaged arms or legs in order to get a feel for what it is like to be disabled. But even that explanation didn't calm the outrage and the whole pretend-to-be-disabled idea has wisely been scrapped. Instead of bandages, students will mark "disability day" by wearing bright colors and badges with smiley faces.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
LS 5-05-2009 @ 12:41PM
Once again, an over-reaction causes a good idea to be buried in political correctness.
I get that the idea need a little refining - that's what the adults are supposed to be for.
Instead of scrapping the entire idea and replacing it with the pathetic and overdone "bright colors and smiley faces" (what's so 'smiley' about disabilities?), the kids who dressed up should have been required to work with a partner, and do a small presentation on the findings of their dressing up.
For example... if a student chose to represent herself as a blind person: wear a blindfold, and use a cane for half the day. Also, her partner is there with her, to help guide. During the second half of the day, she discusses her experiences during a school-wide assembly. How did it feel to not be able to see? How did it feel to have to rely on someone else to guide her? How did she handle her classwork for the day? Was she scared that suddenly she couldn't see objects in front of her? Was she more aware of sounds around her? Textures? Smells? Was there anything that was unexpected? (perhaps she was more aware of the sweet-smelling flowers on her teacher's desk, that she never noticed before)
The partner could report, as well... how did she react to her (blind) partner's surroundings? Was she more likely to do things for her? Did she feel like her partner was now less able to do things? Or did she simply find ways to adapt situations so they were easier for the blind person?
This could have been such a stellar teaching moment for these children. It could have fostered a deeper understanding of what a disability really does to (and for) people. We are always looking for ways to instill compassion and understanding in our kids. This could have been the perfect chance.
Instead, it was reduced to the superficial: bright colors and smiley faces, to paint over all the "bad stuff" so you don't have to see it. Way to go.
(Oh, and before anyone wants to slam me and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about? My husband is blind, which is why I chose that particular condition)
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Uly 5-05-2009 @ 7:53PM
LS, there is a very serious problem with those form of simulations, and it's not "political correctness" (since when did it become taboo to say "politeness", anyway? That's all it is, being *polite*!) or anything like that.
People with disabilities have had years of practice coping. People simulating disabilities haven't. Children who are blindfolded come to the (false) conclusion that blind people can't navigate without assistance and can't function in the real world. Why? Because THEY can't function without seeing. But blind people, who have to function without their sight, can, and really don't need pitying and condescending offers of "help" everywhere they go because ignorant people have been carefully taught that they can't function. They also don't need potential teachers and bosses assuming they're not able to do jobs they're perfectly capable of doing, because the one time said teacher/boss tried being blindfolded and was assured that it was "just like being disabled!!!" they came away with the conclusion that losing your eyesight is one of those things that you're brave for not keeling over and killing yourself when it happens.
Something really useful would be to have actual disabled people come and discuss their experiences and discuss actual accomodations they can actually use.
As far as "what's so smiley about being disabled", that's the whole point. It's not like you lose your sight or your ability to walk and you spend the rest of your life moping about.
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/departments/spotlight/002843.html
LS 5-05-2009 @ 10:09PM
Uly... my point was not to teach the kids that it's no big deal, OR to show them that blind people can't function, or any of those other things.
I know first hand how difficult it is to become suddenly disabled. One year ago this week, my husband was blinded, permanently and completely, in a car wreck. I have spent an entire year watching him learn everything again - how to walk, how to eat, how to function, how to read, even how to get around a bathroom by himself. Through it all I have been "mean" to him, requiring that he do all that he can by himself, offering as little help as I possibly could get away with, requiring him to learn to do for himself, while watching him like a hawk to make sure he didn't hurt himself.
I can tell you, kids are smart. Allowing them a small taste of a disability, within parameters, would not be harmful to them or anyone else, especially if it was handled in a respectful way. I agree with you, that having people with disabilities come in and talk to them would be beneficial, but so would going through a short experience. People do it all the time.
Haven't you ever role-played with your kids? How do you teach them, for example, to deal with a bully on the playground? Do you just say, "walk away"? Or do you physically "bully" them, allowing them to practice techniques on you, so they can handle the situation when it comes along?
It's the same with a disability. So often, I see people move away from my husband, or jump to do things for him. Or they won't talk at all, or they talk to him like he's a child. Why? Two reasons.... one: Society has taught them that he is different, and they must treat him differently. Two: they've never been around a disabled person, never had any kind of experience whatsoever, and know nothing about it. Therefore, they are uncomfortable, possibly nervous, and scared to death of (yeah, here it comes) political correctness... "do I point it out?" "ohmygosh, am I STARING???" They don't understand that disabled people KNOW that they're disabled, and probably don't care in the way that others think they do. If they are treated politely... "I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, but do you need any assistance?" ... they are likely to respond in kind, "No, but thanks for offering". ESPECIALLY if it's a child making the effort.
I stand by my assertion that allowing the kids to actually have an experience, rather than just "pasting a smile on it," is the way to go. Kids learn so much more by doing, rather than by being lectured. A physical experience will teach a person so much more than simply wearing a tee shirt and a smiley button. Really, what did they learn by doing that?
Glenn 7-31-2009 @ 8:45PM
LS is totally whacked. If you can't understand the difference between teaching kids to be sensitive and understanding toward people with disabilities and giving a prize to the kids dressed as your favorite disability, you've got more problems than having a blind husband.
This is absolutely NOT an over reaction by the public over a really dumb idea by the school. It was simply a really dumb idea by school officials.
penny 5-05-2009 @ 11:10PM
I actually did something very similar to this in my middle school sign language class(early 80's here). We had to choose a disability and spend a weekend being "disabled". It was a real eye opener for most of us, and we learned how we, and the business around us could be more handicap friendly. Recently I had surgery on my foot and had to spend 6 weeks on crutches that was horrible, but again a real eye opener, and I think my kids learned a lot too, especially when I went down after encounter a piece of paper on the floor!
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