I would like to start off saying that I LOVED this article. I have been thinking a lot about special education because of the child who is in my room this year. She came in non-verbal and would spend her day running around and screaming in both protest of the expectations now on her and that we couldn’t understand her. Having some knowledge of sign language because my grandparents are deaf, I started to sign to her which helped! I educated all students in sign language and started using it with everyone so that she wouldn’t be singled out. It also helped because I would use the same sign for both English and Spanish, so when the language changed on a given day, the sign didn’t and everyone was able to make the connection. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what is fair/right or what the best placement and strategies could be. Which has led me to think about expectations. This ties in well with the article “Eliminating Ableism in Education” because “Penny remembers an event that made it clear that she had entered a new world of lowered expectations” due to her son having some disabilities (Pg 1). She was even told that it was expected to have a period of mourning as if it was a loss of a child, of which she had actually experienced so this comparison was shocking to her because it didn’t feel at all the same as they were alluding to. This shows the Abelist mentality of our society - if one is not “perfect”, one is a, dare I say, a COMPLETE loss!
“Penny’s early instinctual reaction to the negative assumptions held by many of the service providers she encountered led her to seek the advice of adults with disabilities” (pg 2) It is here that I wonder what kind of school she attended as a student, working class, middle class, affluent or executive elite as cited in Finn, from Literacy with an Attitude. Her actions lead me to believe she went to an affluent school as she broke off in protest!
Two quotes that stuck out to me when reading about Penny’s experience were (both from page 2): “disability only becomes a tragedy for me when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives — job opportunities or barrier free buildings” and “Penny recalls her counsel: “Don’t assume he has the same educational rights as every other child. You’re going to have to fight for that.”
Furthermore, the author mentioned “assumptions undermine the educational attainment of these children '' This led me to think about what the alternative classroom would look like for my student who is non-verbal. Would they have the same high expectations? She can read, reason, make complex patterns, she makes jokes in her own way with her facial expressions and short phrases. Would it be assumed she didn’t understand what was going on and therefore not pushed? Would she be allowed to do whatever she wants because “that’s just how she is”?
Pg 3
To that assumption I think of Nick Vujicic, the man born with no arms or legs, and Paul Alexander, “The Man in the Iron Lung”.
The Deaf Community
I was shocked when I read that a student who was deaf was denied the right to use or receive content in ASL! Would they have made that ruling if an English interpreter was denied in a Spanish speaking classroom? Where is the common sense, logic and consideration for others?!
I chose to read about the deaf community given that I have grandparents who are deaf and I have been thinking a lot about what the effects of learning ASL would be for non-verbal autistic students. I was SHOCKED to learn that Alexander Graham Bell was against learning to sign when he himself had a wife who was deaf….that led me to wonder a lot about the character of the man and how that marriage may have been…..definitely negatively judged him for that! 🤨😬 Lip reading is beneficial, sadly it’s really the only way my grandmother and I can communicate. She uses ASL and her voice and I use a few signs, facial expressions and slow speech so she can lip read. My grandparents were sent away to the school for the deaf, her family didn’t learn much sign language and my great grandmother always wondered if she did the right thing by sending her away and my grandmother is still upset about being sent away.
I wondered if hearing parents of deaf children are being educated about ASL and its importance. Much like students who experience rich conversation and are read to, tend to do better in school, it is the same for deaf children who learn ASL sooner rather than later.
It’s a HUGE topic among the deaf community about whether one should put cochlear implants on a child. It’s easier for hearing parents to just say yes, because they won’t have to learn a new language (except that they still should for SOOOO MANY REASON). They see it as an out from learning ASL and giving their child an opportunity in life.
There is a general distrust among many deaf people of the hearing community and a lot of anger about how they are pushed to the side. This can be seen in the part of the article where deaf applicants were passed over for the Presidency position of the School for the Deaf. I was enraged when I read that and so relieved when I read about them fighting back!
“There is considerable emerging evidence that unquestioned ableist assumptions are handicapping disabled children and are cause of educational inequities.”
“Well-bodied” humans are the ones disabling others!
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