Wednesday, January 17, 2007

multnomah county ESD board

So Mr Chinn makes this comment about a physically disable student who they were going to place in a class with mentally disabled students, whom he describes as "slabs, low, slow and belows", you all know what I mean........

I am sad to hear this kind of crap coming from the board of a ESD, knowing the struggle I went through to get the help my daughter needed after 7 years in school. Listening to her teachers tell me she had a bad attitude, that she was probably not receiving the support she needed at home, that we were not giving her the discipline she needed. I was also told, even after she was diagnosed with ADD that she would not be able to get special services, don't even bother trying, they don't do that for kids like her, she needed to have a real disability. I think 7 years of failing in school indicates a real disability. But these are comments from teachers, and counselors, those people most closely invovled in the care of kids, and involved in the identification of kids with special needs. I had to stop working and fight full time to get her services she needed. She is not low, slow or below, she has trouble taking in information and paying attention. She has trouble processing what she hears and reads. She has trouble managing her behavior, she is impulsive and easily frustrated. She is many things but she is not stupid. You know what she says when she is frustrated and upset? I am so stupid! Thanks to people like Mr Chinn, that is the message she gets.

I am sad but not surprised. There is so much misinformation out there even within the educational establishments. You would think they would know better but I don't count on it.

It isn't just education, it is in all walks of life. People generally know that it just isn't ok to make fun of people with disabilities, people of a different race, people who are just different in any way, but that doesn't stop them, especially if they feel they are in a safe place to do so (although in the middle of a public ESD board metting hardle seems a safe place). Is it publically ok for stupid people, old and young, to make fun of others? I was in a tai chi class several years back, trying to get healthier. Some old broad who was obviously poorly brought up, says to me after class "I thought all you young people cared about being in shape (I am and was overweight)" smirking as she said it. Well, what the hell was I doing there in the first place if not trying to get in shape? How does it help people who are not perfect but trying to do something about it to belittle them?

Some people just feel it is their right and their job to point out the flaws in everyone around them. Why? I don't know. Wh does anyone think it's ok to sit back and speculate on what is the "matter" with those around them, veiwing every flaw, fault and ragged edge as under a microscope. How dare anyone come out of their cave less than perfect? How dare those stinky people ride the bus, and sit next to me, how dare those obnoxious, uneducated bufoons walk up to me in the grocery store or Dr office and try to make small talk when it is obviously a second language. How dare we all be so HUMAN, what maroons! How dare those stupid kids try to get an education when they so obviously aren't going to benefit from it. Why not just put them to work in the menial trade industries now and save our resources for the ones that really matter?

My daughter got an assignment sent home to be redone because her teacher didn't believe she really did it, said she took it off the internet. Why? Because she used paragraphs. She told me, Mom, I know how to use paragraphs, I just don't bother to. I know, that is one of her problems, she knows better. But her teacher is instilling in her the idea that she is incapable of producing good work.

Look beyond the present reality folks, become a prophet, see what lies hidden beneath the exterior. REVEAL CODES! This is what God does to us all the time. We only look at the outside, look within, look to the spirit. I know, you can't see it, but you can sense it! Speak not to what you see but to what is possible! Stop speaking to the problem, we all know what that is, speak to the solution. Get beyond yourself and others, see it from God's point of view.

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