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That it is part of human diversity and that people with disabilities like non-disabled people bring gifts, have issues. When you look at disabilities from a dimensional perspective
And you look at dimensions such as mental health, physical capabilities, facilty in learning how to read for instance.
Those things are all dimensional. We all exist somewhere on those dimensions. What happens too often to children with disabilities in the educaitonal context.
Too many people see diability first and don't look at all the ways in which people function in different dimesions
I see that changing very slowly, and I just read a dissertation, wonderful dissertation, of a doctoral student here at Harvrd, Jen [Zooly?] She did a terriffic disseration on low track
English classes and in those low track Enlgish classes there are a lot of kids who have learning disabilities, and on one level it was really sad to read becuase the children had interalized
by 9th grade a conception of themsevles that was very very negaitve. That was, I think, largely produced by the schools. That was reinfroced by their placement in classes that had very low
expectations for them. So we still have a long way to go. Who wouldI see as change angents was the question I was asked as it realtes to this issue. From my perspective from the world of
educaiton of children with disabilities there is no question that the power of parents has been huge in terms of changeing paradigms
In the 50's and 60's when oparents of children with intellecutal disabilities began to oragnaize schools ebcasue they didn't want to send their children to institutions
and beleiving for instance that their child could learn how to read and their chidlren could learn the other things that other children were learning in school. Maybe not at the same rate
But were capable of learning. That was a radical concept in the 50's and 60's that was rejected by the medical and education professions. But was a challenge that largely parents of children
with Down's syndrome and other types of intellectual disabilities challenged. By the 70's it was clear that there were lot's of children that even back then with intellecutal disabilities
Who were getting some form of education, usually segregated, but still better than no education. I taught at one of these schools back in the early 70's, 1971, I student taught at one of these
schools. Our Lady of Mercy school in Worchester. Our kids all learned how to read. The nuns, run by nuns at the time, beleived in the capabilites of these children.
That was radical back then, Well that's now mainstream
But that notion was pushed first and formost by parents with allies among educators. That continues to be a very stong force in the area of education of children with disabilities
the power of parents. Increasingly I see people with disabilies playing a much greater role in the education sphere. People like Judy Heumann
For instance, former assistant secretary [Special Education and Rehabilitation Services] and my boss in the Clinton Administration
And many many people who were active in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, people with disbailities themselves, people in independant living centers
Like Marca Brisco in Chicago, people like that who have taken an active interest in the education of kids with disabilities, I see that role being increasingly played by audults with disabilities
one of the other things I have seen is that role being played by kids with disabilities. There's a great piece in the Boston Globe this week about a first grader with cerebal palsey
at the Henderson School, I love this story I knew this story. The principal called me when it happened. A first grader wanting to have a say in who the second grade teacher
Would be that the school was about to hire. He wanted to be involved in the interview procress, to make sure that the 2nd grade teacher they were about to hire would know about
How to educate children with disabilities and have the right attitudes towards him. He's in the FIRST grade! I said to myself, boy this is a changed world.
I gotta watch this litte guy, hes going to be something.