Sorry this is just getting onto my
site, I had some set backs this weekend!
This weeks reading was interesting
to me for a few different reasons. One of the first things that caught my
attention was in Hehir’s article “Eliminating Ableism.” The definition of
ableism that he first gives is, “Laura Rauscher and Mary McClintock (1996)
define ableism as ‘a pervasive system of discrimination and exclusion that
oppresses people who have mental, emotional, and physical disabilities… Deeply
rooted beliefs about health, productivity, beauty, and the value of human
life…” (Hehir, 2005, p. 12). One of the first times I had heard about this word
was in my Deaf Studies class I took at Northern Essex Community College. The
teacher was Deaf and he used ASL (American Sign Language) the entire three-hour
period. Because we were beginners there were interpreters in the class the
entire time. He talked to us about ableism and how it affected the Deaf
community and him as a person. This was so eye opening because here was someone
standing in front of me telling me about his life, you cannot get a more specific
example than that.
In his life he had experienced many
moments of ableism against him, one included a moment in a restaurant when the
waitress did not think he was able to read a menu just because he was deaf.
Moments like this are really insane to me, I cannot imagine someone doing this
to me, and I think that is something else I learned from these readings and
examples. I do not know what it is like to experience true ableism, but it is
my job as a teacher to make sure it does not occur, ever. So the more I learn
about this and hear about it, the better, because I will never know what it is
like to have a disability on a more severe level. I mean that in no offence to
anyone, but I know what it is like to be called “four eyes,” but I do not think
this is nearly as bad as what some people go through every day.
Another thing that I took from the
assigned reading is that women and men have different values when it comes to
appearance and opinions. “Women not only judge themselves in a context of human
relationship but also judge themselves in terms of their ability to care”
(Gilligan, 1982, p. 17). In comparison to this, men are afraid to be seen as a
weakling or afraid. These ideas have been around for ages and are not going to
change over night. They need to be worked at and people need to see the
advantages of each other’s ideas. Men do not hold relationships in high regard
because of what they have learned from many years of society pressuring them.
Between Hehir and Gilligan I was
pleasantly surprised to learn new things and refresh my mind on concepts that I
have heard of before. I really think that over time we as teachers can help our
future students to understand that they do not have to follow society’s ideas
and values, they can make up their own as they grow and learn.
Works Cited.
Gilligan, C.
(1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hehir, T. (2005).
Eliminating ableism in education. In L.1. Katzman, A. G. Gandhi, W. S. Harbour,
J. D. LaRock. Special Education for a New
Century. Cambridge, MA; Harvard Educational Review, 11-38.
It is so true that we will never truly understand what our students, with or without a disability, are going through. It is terrifying to hear the story of your professor, the fact that people actually assume such nonsense is depressing. The best thing we can do as educators is to be aware of our students and understand how to establish an environment where our students feel safe and welcomed to learn.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though I had a similar reaction to the reading this week as you did. Eye-opening all around.
Although it's lamentable that your teacher's life was so drastically impacted by the effects of ableism, it's good that he was able to impart some knowledge to you about the subject. Stories like that help us to recognize parts of our society in which prejudices and stereotyping are still very much alive and well. Since our own students of course will come to the classroom with varying levels of ability and capability, we need to be sure that we don't allow such prejudices to negatively impact the learning environments we are responsible for.
ReplyDeleteAs I'm sure you've heard me say a million times, my brother is autistic. When he was younger, he had some severe issues with his hearing and his vision because of a fever that caused his brain to swell when he was a baby. The doctors could never be sure if part of his disability was caused by the fever as well but the point is, he had it really rough growing up. He was not just disabled in a mental capacity but also a social and emotional capacity. When I was in high school, I had a very narrow understanding of autism and what it meant to be autistic so I often misunderstood my brother. I was also someone that misjudged him. Prior to him reaching high school, I was not so sure of his academic abilities. All I could see was his disability. It clouded my ability to see what he was truly capable of. The summer before he started high school, we were hanging out in his room one day when he told me he wanted to play piano. I went out the next day and bought him a keyboard (the best I could do) and within hours he was playing songs. My brother is a savant when it comes to auditory memory and recognition. He can hear a song once and he can replicate it. After that I never questioned his abilities again. I have a greater appreciation of what it is like to be disabled from my brother but I still have a lot to learn.
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