The 21st day of the 3rd month was chosen for World Down Syndrome Day because the syndrome is caused by trisomy of the 21st chromosome. This video was created to encourage "normies" to reexamine their presumptions about the syndrome.
One way to support change is to wear colorful or mismatching socks (because socks are shaped somewhat like chromosomes), and the oddness may generate useful commentary and discussion)
My mom knew a married couple with down syndrome back in the early 80s. The husband would come into her husband's jewelry store on occasion to buy a present for his wife (my mom's husband always cut him a very generous deal). From the conversations they had, it turns out he and his wife lived in an apartment complex that had carers on staff, and some of them were not nice. One story that always stuck with her was that the man and his wife wanted to have a baby, and their carers told him for that to happen, he'd have to put his shoes on her side of the bed. So he did every night.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite films is "The Peanut Butter Falcon." It involved Shia LeBeouf and a Down Syndrome actor...and they warm every part of your being with the tale.
ReplyDeleteHowever, having had a beloved cousin who had Down Syndrome, I am not convinced of some of the things in this video. While there are different degrees of impairment with Down Syndrome, I can tell you assuredly that my sweet cousin (now deceased) could NOT have handled Shakespeare.
BUT THAT'S OK. We can stop pretending that a crippled person can become an Olympic sprinter. And we can likewise stop pretending like every Down Syndrome child is, in effect, no different from a child without Down Syndrome.
In the public school system, it gives the powers that be a warm and fuzzy feeling to believe that placing children with difficult learning disorders in a room full of standard students is wonderful and effective. I doubt that. For one thing, it forces teachers to have to teach, in effect, multiple lessons (one for each level), test differently (or at least grade differently), and the leads, eventually, to a disabled student getting the same diploma everyone else gets...even thought they did not--nor cannot--do all the same work.
This does not mean that these precious kids are not to be given every advantage we can give them. But it's just the case that they are not as able as a standard student. They're just not! It sounds cruel to even say it, I know. But when we cannot teach them the same or grade them the same, exactly who is being hurt by that? I would say that much of the time we hurt THEM. Why? Because they have been led to believe they got the same education as everyone else when they didn't. Teachers often give them a pass because the requirements are such that they dare not fail to give the child a passing grade, since that might bring about questions from the parents as to whether all the requirements placed on the teacher were met. I know that when one of the special education teachers was working with me to put in grades for one of my classes, I was getting ready to give a special education teacher less than a C, if I recall. She pointed out that if the parents were not happy about the grade, they could start looking for some flaw in how I did things. I gave the student a C.
I have never ran very fast. But to get placed on the track team anyway.... Well, you get the idea. We can all handle SOME differentiation, but a better education would be received if such students were in classes where they didn't have to be left out while the teacher taught at grade level.
Lest I be taken as oafish, it is the case that advanced students shouldn't have to be held back while I teach to the class average. Group students so that the teacher can focus on teaching THEM...instead of several additional sub-groups (groups within the group).
HOWEVER, if there is any one thing that Down Syndrome students bring is having the kindest of attitudes and spirits. I delight in trying to help them. They are the finest example of how good children COULD be. No one on earth was closer to angelic perfection than my sweet cousin. Her tears were a small tragedy; her laughter utterly contagious.
Having worked in the ID field (Intellectual Disability, or so it's now called in California) in residential care, sheltered workshops and independent living skills training, I have to say this video is well intentioned but not benign. Firstly, our goal in approaching disability is not to achieve zero assumptions, but to arrive with the resources needed to do careful assessments. The point of an assessment is to try to match a person with relevant services; this involves identifying limitations. I'm not arguing we don't have crappy social services in the US. We do. I'm saying assumptions are not the issue. Next, there's the magical thinking I see on the conservative side. I swear to God these people really don't get disability, other than for quadriplegics. The entire realm of ID, brain injury, mental illness, etc., seems to be conceptually inaccessible for what I think are ideological reasons. That is, the brain injured homeless man is just lazy and needs to pull harder on his bootstraps. Maddening!!! The brain injured homeless man needs a stupidly expensive assessment, a well matched social worker and a house. But, we'd rather let him rot on the streets. Can't afford It! So, back to the video: I think the video promotes a version of denial of disability as a real, tangible, empirical phenomenon within which there are LIMITS. Of course there are higher and lower functioning versions of every disability, but there's no magical solution to limits. To think so is to fall into denying disability altogether and this is where the right wing, government program-haters have a field day. I'm curious how this video got made. It reminds me of similar directions decades ago. Rinse and repeat.
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