The "Disabled"

Walk a Mile in Her shoes

I was amazed by the courage that Aimee Mullins has. Her views on disabilities in general have given me such great insight into how I should view disabled children in my classroom.  Aimee states that kids are naturally curious about what is foreign to them. Like I said in my first blog about the students teaching themselves, students are curious about things that they are unsure about. At the age of a child, one does not fear failure. They are curious about a vast array of things and they are willing to do whatever it takes to find out the answers to their questions.

Aimee suggests the thought that the ‘disabled’ may really be the super-abled. I like her reasoning here. If every teacher were to stop placing labels on students, regardless of what the label is, I believe that they will uncover colossal potential amongst their students. For Aimee, it was her cry to people outside of the medical fields that she was used to working with that brought her answers and opportunities.

I think it is a flaw that every person has; we place limits. Instead of limiting things, we need to work with it, regardless of what our brain tells us.  We need to disguise the disability into something beautiful, because it is in that moment that people will stop degrading something because it is different, but rather will praise it because of the beauty that it can portray.

Aimee’s story is just one example of how things can change. He ‘flaw’ is completely medical. 50 years ago she probably would have been given a wheel chair and that would have been the end of it, but with today’s science and technology, nothing seems impossible. The science behind computers is complex to say the least, but within it is held the light of the future. Teachers need to embrace this new tool, work with it, challenge it, and in the end, we, the disabled included, will be able to accomplish great things.