Productivity & Ignorance

I miss being productive.

I miss that feeling of accomplishment when I complete something and am able to cross it off my to-do list for the week in my planner.

Finishing a book is great.  Getting all the prep work and painting done at the job site is fantastic.  But neither of those things quite add up to the feeling I get when my day is chalk full of things to do and one by one I do what I have to do, go where I need to go, and see who I need to see.

To most people, while I am at school, I must seem like one of the busiest people alive. Shooting from place to place, always busy and out of breath, and constantly having something to do.  Many people look forward to summer vacation as a time where they can slow down, not have anything to do, and just relax . . . but me?  I thrive in chaos.  I can't stand to be idle for too long.

This is one of the many reasons I am looking forward to going back to school.  Organizing my apartment.  Getting everything ready to start classes.  Going back to work.  And of course, having my friends just a short walk away from my door.

I'm sure you probably think I'm crazy.  Who is this girl who wants her vacation to end and is looking forward to being thrown into the insanity that is 20 credit hours, approximately 4 field experiences, a part time job, Teaching Fellows obligations, and of course, friend-time?  I can't explain it.  I love to be busy and I do my best work the more busy I am.  The productivity will come again very soon.  And soon enough I will be stressing out, not sleeping, forgetting to eat, and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. And the strange part? I CAN'T WAIT!!

There is one thing, though, that I could never miss.  What is it you ask?

Ignorance.

This past weekend as part of my Teaching Fellows scholarship I was required to attend Junior Conference.  This is a weekend where all the rising junior teaching fellows from across the state get together at a university (this year it was Elon) and attend lectures and workshops aimed at making them better-rounded and more successful teachers.  One of the workshops I signed up for was named "Student Disabilities: Teaching Students to Understand Handicaps."

We had done disability simulations at school where we were able to see how people with different disabilities felt, but I was still interested in seeing what the presenter had to say.  First of all, we spent the first seven minutes of the session watching the video for Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." I love Lady Gaga as much as the next person, but this video did absolutely nothing to supplement what we were supposed to be learning about.  Then, the presenter proceeded to find a video of Weird Al Yankovich parodying "Born This Way" and she seemed more committed to making sure the video was working than actually wanting to give us information that would make us better teachers.

I could have dealt with all that if it hadn't been for the fact that the presenter was patronizing the use of political correctness when it comes to people with disabilities, NEVER used person-first language when referring to people with disabilities, and was completely ignorant when it came to asking a boy in the session about his Tourette's.

Let me explain.

Patronizing the use of political correctness when it comes to people with disabilities is pretty self explanatory. (not using the word "retard" to label someone with an intellectual disability. not using the word handicapped)

Person-first language is best demonstrated by an example.  Instead of saying "a Down's boy" you would say "a boy with Down's."  This phrasing implies that a person with a disability is not defined by the label they possess.   That the label doesn't make them who they are.  That they are simply a person who has to work a bit harder for something than everyone else.

A boy in the session came forward with the fact that he has Tourette's syndrome. Wikipedia tells us that Tourette's syndrome is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic.  The first question out of her mouth was asking him if he curses.  How ignorant does someone have to be?  Especially someone who is teaching a seminar on helping our students understand other children with disabilities.  Only 5% of people with Tourette's syndrome actually curse as one of their vocal tics . . . but you wouldn't know that if you only got your information from movies that portray people with Tourette's in a comedic way.  She should have asked him if he would be comfortable sharing with everyone how his Tourette's represents itself instead of being so blunt in her questioning.

This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but this is my passion.  A fellow special education major and myself exchanged glances throughout the entire session and when it was over, we could not believe what had just happened right before us.  That there was someone so incredibly ignorant teaching others to understand those with disabilities.  Words cannot explain how insulted  I felt by her words . . . and I don't even have a disability.

I can try to articulate how this made me feel the best I can . . . but some things simply can't be put into words.  Just picture someone's face with them slack-jawed in complete and utter shock and you will get only a smidge of how I actually felt during that 75 minute session.

So here you go folks.  Here I am missing productivity and ranting about ignorance.

Such a happy post, huh?