Gardner's What is Intelligence? was a little tough for me to get through - I'm not very science-minded by I will admit that the idea of intelligences does pertain to our field so I stuck with it. The facts I walked away from it with are limited, but it was the conclusion that stuck with me - intelligence is a social construct (Gardner, 1985). Much like everything else we have read about, it's all in our minds!
That being said, Hehrir's Eliminating Ableism in Education article really struck a chord with me. I'm going to let you all in on a little secret here ... when my mother was pregnant with me she was told that I had tested positive for Down Syndrome. It ended up being a false positive, but the point is that she kept me anyway! Had I been born with Down Syndrome I would be struggle against ableism much like the children in Hehrir's article are. My mother would have had to fight for my right just like many parents of children with disabilities have to. And for what? All to fight against the socially constructed notion that if a person does not appear to be normal, does not act normal, or can not do things in a manner that most consider "normal" then they should be pitied. What got to me the most was how parents with disabled children are expected to hold lower expections for their children's future than other parents do (Hehrir, 2005). This has nothing to do with the disabled child themselves but everything to do with society's low opinion of them. Hehrir (2005) points out that children with disabilities often spend their lives focused on overcoming the disability, and by putting one's effort only to this end the child is missing out on the rest of their lives. I really hope that someday society is able to become more accepting of those who are different. Much like struggling students disabled individuals need to know that those around them care and are supporting them. This is done by holding them to high expectations and helping to build their confidence when they meet those expectations. Holding lower expectations for disabled children does nothing for them other then hindering them from progressing as individuals.
Reference
Hehrir, T. Eliminating Ableism in Education. in L.1. Katzman, A. G. Ghandi, W. S. Harbour, J.D. LaRock Special Education for a New Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review, 11 - 38.
That's a very personal thing to put online, thanks for sharing it. It really put things in perspective to think about what could have been for you. It does seem like most people have misunderstandings about people with disabilities, especially those with learning disabilities. People assume that if someone has a learning disability it by default means they're unintelligent. This isn't necessarily the case, people are all individuals and every case is different. All people should be given equal opportunities and not pre-judged about what they can or can not do.
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