National Special Education Week took place this past March 22 through the 26th. Regrettably, I was not able to post anything about it during that time. However, this issue- children with disabilities and their treatment in our society, is simply too important to pass without any comment.
Special education students are, all too often, the subject of jokes or humor. They, and their parents, are frequently misunderstood. Individuals with more severe disabilities are all too often seen, at some level, as burdens both on their parents and on society in general. For all these reasons, special education, and the way we address the needs of all individuals with disabilities, raise important policy questions that go to the very heart of who we are as a people; of how we recognize the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings.
This issue is a very personal one for me, as I am a former public school special education student. In the early 1980’s, special education lacked the emphasis on mainstreaming that is prevent today; instead, it was common for children with disabilities to be segregated away from the general education population, or clustered at specific locations. As a result, I did not attend my feeder-pattern elementary school untill the middle of third-grade. Instead, I rode the proverbial “short bus” to a centralized location (in this case, Gilpin Manor Elementary School, in Elkton, Maryland).
I was gifted and LD, so I was eventually able to exit special education and be totally mainstreamed. Even so, I was not reading/writing at grade level untill about 6th or 7th grade in middle school.
I wanted to share my own experiences particularly for the parents of special needs children. In my own life, it was a combination of loving parents and some excellent teachers who got me through some very difficult times and helped me along a path that took me from special education all the way to Duke Law School.
Obviously, my own story does not directly relate to children with more severe cognitive or physical impairments. However, loving parents and caring teachers have opportunities to help such children become as independent, and as capable, as they can be.
But it is a mistake to focus this discussion merely on what we can do for children with disabilities: they have much to offer all of us.
Many months ago, I read an article that discussed, in part, Sarah Palin’s failure to connect with suburban voters in New York. I understand Palin is a divisive figure at this point, but let’s put that aside for a moment and focus on one thing: her decision not to abort Trig after learning that he had Downs syndrome. Part of the author’s argument was that Palin’s decision to have Trig was simply incomprehensible to many voters in communities where children with severe disabilities, such as Downs syndrome, are simply aborted as a matter of course. Indeed, nationally, about 90% of the cases of Downs syndrome diagnosed by prenatal testing are eliminated by abortion each year.
Assuming this is true, what does it say about us as a civilization? What does it say about our future? At some point, will we create incentives and inducements to parents to simply abort children with severe disabilities in order to save society the “costs” of caring for them? Will we really, as the eugenicists of the early 20th century dreamed, “cull the herd” so to speak? And who, precisely, will we empower to decide which lives are worth living?
As Michael Gerson has written in the Washington Post:
The wrenching diagnosis of 47 chromosomes must seem to parents like the end of a dream instead of the beginning of a life. But children born with Down syndrome — who learn slowly but love deeply — are generally not experienced by their parents as a curse but as a complex blessing. And when allowed to survive, men and women with an extra chromosome experience themselves as people with abilities, limits and rights. Yet when Down syndrome is detected through testing, many parents report that genetic counselors and physicians emphasize the difficulties of raising a child with a disability and urge abortion.
This is properly called eugenic abortion — the ending of “imperfect” lives to remove the social, economic and emotional costs of their existence. And this practice cannot be separated from the broader social treatment of people who have disabilities. By eliminating less perfect humans, deformity and disability become more pronounced and less acceptable. Those who escape the net of screening are often viewed as mistakes or burdens. A tragic choice becomes a presumption — “Didn’t you get an amnio?” — and then a prejudice. And this feeds a social Darwinism in which the stronger are regarded as better, the dependent are viewed as less valuable, and the weak must occasionally be culled.
All this is based on a fundamental misconception- a propensity to see the disabled as “burdens” rather than as what they truly are: opportunities.
Yes- opportunities. As one of my heros, the late Representative Henry Hyde put it, “a handicapped child is an even greater opportunity for love.”
In an era that, falsely, celebrates the self, and that exults the autonomy and primacy of the individual above all else, we are too apt to forget the truth: that we are only really free when we set aside ourselves and live lives dedicated to the service of others. The disabled, the elderly, the poor, the most vulnerable among us- these populations remind us of this truth. They invite us to seize the opportunity to grow, to put aside ourselves, and focus on our ability to be of service to others.
And in the end, such service is not an act of mere sympathy, it is not condescending; it is an act of love. And it is only in love that we all find both freedom, dignity, and purpose.
The image attached to this blog is of Charles de Gaulle- the Free French leader and post-war French President who was, in many ways, the perfect embodiment of Gallic arrogance. It is often forgotten that de Gaulle had a daughter- Annie- with Downs syndrome. In the words of one author, the image the arrogant de Gaulle “rocking Anne in his arms at night speaks across the years.” Would that we all heard its message- one of acceptance and love.
Our treatment of those with disabilities speaks to the very core of who we are as a people. There is no such thing as a life not worth living; no such thing as an “imperfect” human. A civilization that thinks in such ways, that encourages their elimination, is not reaping the savings of burdens eliminated; it is impoverishing itself.
At Annie’s burial, de Gualle turned to his wife and said “Come. Now she is like the others.” We are, all of us, alike, in every way that matters.
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Watch out Bill Powers- here we come! My good friend Andye Daley has announced her candidacy for Powers’ County Council seat. Andye is very knowledgeable about transportation and land use issues here in New Castle County. She will also be a very diligent campaigner and I’m looking forward to helping her and working with her in her campaign. Go Andye!
Resolute Determination 