Sunday, April 1, 2012
advertising disabilities
When I started to read David Sedaris' "Go Carolina," I began to have flashbacks of my elementary school career. I started to remember the kids I went to school with that would have to go to another classroom to be helped with subjects like math and reading and coming back with bags full of candy as their reward. Those same teachers would come in from time to time as well to help those students in class and it was obvious why they were there. When Sedaris said, "I didn't see my sessions as the sort of thing that one would want to advertise" (8), I started to think about how the students in my class must have felt when they were individually helped in class with other students around and how they must of felt being called out of class. I can say, and I am partially ashamed of myself to admit this, that I faked needing help in elementary school and was called out to the other classroom and felt fine knowing the other students saw me leave because I think they also knew why I had faked needing help, the candy. The candy was Lego sweet tarts that were the absolute coolest things and they were so good so I decided that in order to get my own bag, I would need to have someone help me. Unfortunately, the charade didn't last because the teacher and aides quickly realized I did not need any assistance with my math or reading but I still got my candy. Back to my point, I know how I felt when I was individually called out in the middle of class and knowing that other students really did need that help, I wonder if they felt the same way as Sedaris. Is having a speech impediment or learning disability still something people feel ashamed of having? I don't think it should be but then again, my ADD didn't start effecting me until high school so maybe I just don't see it that way.
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I only went to public school in kindergarten and fifth grade (otherwise I was home-schooled), but I do remember students who were pulled out of class when I was in fifth grade. They weren't students with learning disabilities, however; they were ESL students. I remember that they were pulled out rather discreetly; I think my teacher simply said that it was time for them to go. And then there were the "gifted" students. The three of us went to the "gifted" class on Fridays and came back to the "regular" class about half an hour before school let out. Everyone was fine with the ESL students; nobody thought that they were "weird" for having to be pulled out of class. I do remember one of my classmates telling me, "When you're gone, we just do fun stuff all day!"
ReplyDeleteI do think that students are more used to other students being pulled out of classes these days; they are also more used to students having in-class aides, etc. I think that's a good thing.
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