Disability, Exclusion, & Schooling

"As a new teacher you are stepping knee-deep into a river of history rushing a watery past over the present and beyond...Looking to the educational past is akin to picking through family stories to better understand who you are in the world. And in a sense, you have entered a family of educators connected through a shared history” (Valle & Connor, 2011, p. 7)

[supernewnycteacher]

The history of Eugenics as the narrative and construction of disability is one much akin to the history of race relations in this country. Being a practice of the privileged, carried out on Othered (dis)abledbodies, its mechanisms and practices have been well-hidden and otherwise made invisible to one not directly impacted. As a result, learning the truth, the history which existed but which I was never taught, is fraught with conflicted feelings of disbelief, shock, sadness, guilt, and ultimately responsibility. Throughout this project I will grapple with some of my emotional struggles over this influx of information and how I now fit into and participate in this system and with this history. 

[disabilityhistory-blog]

Ableism is connected to all of our struggles because it undergirds notions of whose bodies are considered valuable, desirable and disposable.

Mia Mingus, “Changing the Framework: Disability Justice” (via disabilityhistory)

[supernewnycteacher]

These are the pieces of the history I am stepping into and the inheritance I will gain as I enter the teaching profession. We live in a world where there are clear hierarchical distinctions and power imbalances where (dis)abled bodies are recognized as Other. We must look toward the Eugenics movement for answers and according to Smith (2008), “Eugenics created bodies and minds as commodities to be cured, rehabilitated, or eliminated” (p. 425). In order to feel the necessity of curing, rehabilitating,and eliminating one must feel a certain level of disgust and fear of those (dis)abled bodies. This fear of the abnormal or Other has not disappeared and I often find it within myself. This fear is often a fear of not knowing how to communicate, how to relate, how to understand, and also how to teach those with whom I find so strikingly different. In my media analysis project I examined the podcast “Juicervose” by Radiolab, a podcast which follows a few families and their severely autistic sons. I have cut out a clip from the podcast, one which was not touched upon in my media analysis.

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Smith, P. (2008).  Cartographies of eugenics and special education:  A history of the (ab)normal. In S. Gabel & S. Danforth (Eds.), Disability and the politics of education:  An international reader (pp. 417-432).  New York:  Peter Lang.  

[supernewnycteacher]

This clip describes a visit to a school in District 75 of NYC where there are a number of severely autistic and other similarly identified children. The children struggle to communicate to their teachers and caregivers. This clip is difficult to listen to, I can hear the frustration in the child’s voice and the discomfort of the radio hosts. Today, children are identified as having deficits through the tradition laid down by Eugenics: “The linkage between visible defects and subnormal intelligence proved critical to the development of eugenics methodology. Without this pairing detection was much more difficult” (Snyder & Mitchell, 2006, p. 80). Listening to this child trying to make himself heard and understood could indicate a lack of intellectual ability or a wealth of it. It is easy to assume that there is none because of his outward appearance and the sounds that he makes. This child seems (ab)normal, he is uncomfortable to be around. It is my fear that I will become a part of this tradition both as my role as a teacher and as a result of my fears and discomfort with those that are different. 

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Abumrad, J. (Host). (2014, Sept. 18). Juicervose [audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.radiolab.org/story/juicervose/.

Snyder, S. L. & Mitchell, D. T. (2006). Cultural locations of disability (pp. 69-129). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

[supernewnycteacher]

As a white, middle class, able-bodied woman attending a private institution for graduate school I sometimes feel overwhelmed by privilege. If offered a list privilege, I can easily check off the boxes. Most of our readings in this course have drawn on the concepts of power and privilege, consistently asking the question of who benefits and why? In order for a group to be privileged, there must be another group placed in the inferior position. One must benefit and one must be deficient. Brantlinger (2006b) states “To gain a monopoly of winning positions, dominant groups must set, get consensus for, and enforce normative standards that are used to designate themselves as competent and Others as inadequate” (p. 200). These normative standards are both set and maintained by the dominant group. They are also seemingly invisible. Their invisibility makes it difficult from those in positions such as mine to grapple with responsibility and accountability. To what extent am I a cog in the blanket of normative standards and privilege? To what extent am I responsible? I have always tried to tell myself, when examining my privileges, that those dominant groups could not have established any of this on purpose, with malicious intent: “It is implied that those who benefit are mere puppets controlled by external forces. In these theories, deliberate intention and informed, anti-oppressive agency remain invisible. Yet if there are no intentions, there is no responsibility (or accountability), and hence little possibility for equitable change” (Brantlinger, 2006b, p. 208). Brantlinger makes a difficult point, that if those of us with privilege and power continue to refuse to recognize it and name it invisible, there is no possibility for change. It is only when I, and others, go through the process of identifying and assuming responsibility for our privilege will we be able to recognize our actions as those imbued with power and begin to change the way we conceive of difference. 

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Brantlinger, E. (2006b).  Winners need losers:  The basis for school competition and hierarachies.  In E. Brantlinger (Ed.), Who benefits from special education?  Remediating [fixing] other people’s children (pp. 197-232).  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

[supernewnycteacher]

Special education, which focuses on the needs of individual students, is undergirded by a model of human variation that tends to efface individual differences

Dudley-Marling, C. & Gurn, A. (2010).  Troubling the foundations of special education: Examining the myth of the normal curve.  In C. Dudley-Marling and A. Gurn (Eds.), The myth of the normal curve (p. 19).  New York:  Peter Lang.

[teachingtheexceptional]

The Elephant in the Classroom

For teachers who have a chronically disruptive student.

Just put the student under the…NO, you cannot put that student under the elephant!

[supernewnycteacher]

Armed with the need to evaluate and fully comprehend my own role and beliefs of difference in this large system of power, I must acknowledge my future as a teacher certified in general and special education. Throughout the process of special education and inclusion, “Teachers and schooladministrators participated as co-conspirators in the identification of potential inferiors presumably trying to pass for normal in the general classroom environment” (Snyder & Mitchell, 2006, p. 95). Teachers label students who do not fit cohesively into the normative standards of school. These students must be abnormal or have disabilities. These labelled students then begin to receive a variety of services which separate them from their normative conforming peers. Unfortunately, according to Harry & Kingner (2006), “Most of the children we saw referred for behavioral problems were of the ‘pain in the neck’ variety” (p. 47). This cartoon illustrates this tendency of teachers. It is easy to find certain students too difficult to work with and to include within the classroom. The Elephant represents to me the “pain in the neck” student who will undoubtedly be in my classroom. It is also the label I could place upon the student and the removal of that student from the general education classroom. In this scenario, it is I who has the labeling power. I could help make the call that could change the child’s life and opportunities forever. It is one my largest fears as a teacher, what will be my reaction to students who are difficult and with whom I have no answers or ideas?

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Harry, B. & Klingner, J. (2006).  Why are so many minority students in special education?  Understanding race & disability in schools.  New York:  Teachers College Press.

Snyder, S. L. & Mitchell, D. T. (2006). Cultural locations of disability (pp. 69-129). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

[supernewnycteacher]

Billie (not her real name) was a camper of mine last summer, I wrote this letter to her as well as to many of my other campers as a reflective exercise. I wanted to reflect upon my strengths and weaknesses as a counselor so that I could attempt to address them in my future roles. Billie represents to me a student (or camper in this case) who was difficult and hard to understand. She was not labeled or diagnosed as having a disability but she was of the “pain in the neck variety” Harry & Klingner (2006) described. Because Billie only attended camp for one week, I do not know what other ways I would have tried to communicate with her and include her in the group. It will always be a question in my mind. This experience with Billie has made me wonder whether I have the concept of inclusion which Connor (2010) describes as, “Many people believing that the students who most closely approximate ‘normalcy’ are the best candidates for inclusive classrooms” (p. 157). Now Billie was a ‘normal’ camper in every other sense of the word, except that she was difficult and rather obstinate. My fear is that when placed in a position of power over a group of students, I will be unprepared to handle what will be thrown at me and will be one of those teachers who looks forward to when the difficult, different, (ab)normal, and (dis)abled children are no longer in my classroom. 

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Connor, D. (2010). Adding urban complexities into the mix: Continued resistance to the inclusion of students with cognitive impairments (or New York, New York:  So bad they segregated it twice). In P. Smith (Ed.), Whatever happened to inclusion? The place of students with intellectual disabilities in education (pp. 157-187). New York, NY: Peter Lang.  

[unicef]

We must include children with disabilities because when all children are a part of society, and not apart from society, all of society benefits.

REBLOG and/or LIKE if you agree!

For more information: http://www.unicef.org/sowc2013/

[supernewnycteacher]

Just last semester, the following phrases and opinions were coming from my mouth and my mind when asked what I thought about inclusion:

General educators often claim, “I haven’t been trained in special education” (therefore implicitly stating, “I cannot teach those children”). They frequently ask, “What about the ‘regular’ students? Doesn’t inclusion take away from their education?” Even within general education classes, many teachers proclaim, “I can’t get to them all, so I just teach to the middle” (Baglieri et al, 2011, p. 2138).

It has been a mental battle to begin to grapple with these opinions as well as my agreement of the Unicef’s photograph and phrase. The battle to create true inclusion and least restrictive environments follows these same sides. It is easy to see a photograph or statement like the one above and agree with it, without having to contemplate how agreeing with such a statement might require major changes in your personal ways of thinking. These photographs are made with the purpose of garnering agreement, with little to no analysis of how you (in a position of power and privilege) prevent it from becoming true. For those of us endowed with positions of power and privilege, children with disabilities seem to get in the way of our ‘normal’ and ‘capable’ children. In fact, “Their [children with disabilities] presence creates problems for teachers and administrators as they sought to provide an education deemed appropriate but also wished to operate classrooms efficiently and economically” (Osgood, 2000, p. 57). This need stems from the creation of Common Schools, well-illustrated in the following clip from the well-known documentary, Waiting for Superman.

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Baglieri, S., Bejoian, L.M., Broderick, A.A., Connor, D.J., Valle, J.W. (2011). [Re]claiming “Inclusive Education” Toward Cohesion in Educational Reform:  Disability Studies Unravels The Myth of the Normal Child. Teachers College Record, 113(10), pp. 2122-2154.

Osgood, R. (1997). Undermining the common school ideal: Intermediate schools and ungraded classes in Boston, 1838 – 1900. History of Education Quarterly, 37(4),  375-398.

[supernewnycteacher]

I first watched Waiting for Superman two years ago, it was one my first introductions to the field of education. This clip in particular always pops into my head when discussions of tracking, Eugenics, and Inclusion arise. The separation of students based on skill level, or more likely ‘normalcy’ andprivilege, is seen as beneficial to society as a whole. It is just as Osgood (2000) states, “Children with disabilities demanded individual attention at the expense, it was argued, of the great majority of students in a given classroom” (p. 62). These same arguments are made today with equal vigor. The system in place is a remnant from the Common School movement and Eugenics and it remains because it privileges those whose children are deemed advanced and ‘normal’. I disagree with this system on the whole and believe it ought to be rectified, but sometimes there are moments when I see how students with disabilities do require extra work and awareness and I wonder if they are better off separate. ______________________________________________________________

DBA. (2011, April 17). Waiting for Superman Tracking. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMjUSQk5WH4.

Osgood, R. (1997). Undermining the common school ideal: Intermediate schools and ungraded classes in Boston, 1838 – 1900. History of Education Quarterly, 37(4),  375-398.

[supernewnycteacher]

Ella was another camper of mine and she, unlike Billie, was identified as being on the Autism spectrum. Upon learning this, both the camp director as well as my head counselor admitted that they were unprepared for students with special needs. My head counselor, while speaking to the mother, even recommended some schools solely for students with special needs (Ella attended public school throughout the year) as better fitting Ella and her needs. They were following the trend Reid & Knight (2006) describe, “Disabled people continue to be considered defective and are more segregated educationally and socially than any other minority” (p. 19).  I remember finding this strange and inappropriate but also struggling with her in our group of campers. This reflective letter to her was my way of grappling with some of my conflicting emotions surrounding her. What I have come to understand by interacting with children like Ella and the readings from this course is that inclusion, while taking perhaps more effort on the part of the teacher, has the power to benefit all students, but especially that student who would have been segregated. Ella would not have benefited from attending a separate facility designed for students with special needs. In fact, such a label might be damaging, “When we identify categories of children, whether we refer to children at risk or children with a disability or children whose first language is not English, we not only make difference visible but work to maintain power imbalances and structural inequity by reifying unnamed attributes that carry social, political and cultural currency” (Graham & Slee, 2008, p. 287). Labeling and separating children has consequences beyond what can be immediately seen. As a future teacher therefore, it is my responsibility to be prepared. I must be prepared not only to include students of all backgrounds and levels but also to be comfortable with all students, no matter how different, difficult, or annoying. 

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Graham, L. & Slee, R. (2008). An illusory interiority: interrogating the discourse/s of inclusion. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 40(2), 277-293.

Reid, D. K. & Knight, M. G. (2006).  Disability justifies exclusion of minority students: A critical history grounded in disability studies. Educational Researcher, 35(6), 18-23.

[learningally-blog]

[luteskk]

So true!