Blog Post #7 Hehir and Examined Life video

 

                                                       Hehir and Examined Life video

Argument - The main argument of both the reading by Thomas Hehir, and the video, examined life, is to show and explain the difficulties that people with disabilities can face, whether that is in the classroom or daily life. The reading focuses mainly on the classroom aspect, sharing stories from different people, showing multiple instances of ableism and how it affects people with disabilities in schools. While the video focuses on one person Sunaura Taylor, who has disabilities herself, sharing her stories and how people treat her affects her daily life. Both point that it is the people around them, and the thoughts and assumptions people have of people with disabilities that are the root to these problems and are what needs to be changed in order to solve this issue.

The reading by Thomas Hehir shares stories from different people to drive home his point on the struggles of people with disabilities in the classroom. One in particular was found in the section called, The Education of the Deaf, where Hehir explains the process and struggles that deaf and blind people went through to get their education. It is explained that when education for this group started, ASL was used in the classroom which educators would use sign language to communicate with their students. This worked for students and showed the educators were willing to learn in order to help their students. However, later in the 19th century, Hehir explains that oralism set back this movement, and students started to learn by lip-reading. This can be seen as an example of Delpit's culture of power in which able bodied people are more accepted than those who have disabilities. This is an instance of educators trying to mold their students into learning how to be more able bodied, rather than the educators learning how to teach them correctly. This is a theme echoed throughout Hehir's reading in which this idea of trying to "cure" or help these disabilities is the wrong way to go about it, rather celebrating these differences and finding ways to unite able bodied people with those who have disabilities.

Comments - While watching the video, there was one moment that stuck out to me the most. That was when Sunaura talked about her struggle of learning how to ask for help. I never thought about this problem, but for some people with disabilities, it can feel like they are being a burden when asking for help. It is a stigma in our society that anyone asking for help, including people who are homeless or those with disabilities, are somehow lower than us. She talked about how she started to understand that asking for help is not something that should be looked down upon. This is something that I agree with. We all have moments that we cannot handle all on our own. There are going to be times where we need extra supports. Asking for help should not only be not looked down upon, rather celebrated and accepted that you were able to analyze your situation, and have the courage to understand this is not something that can be done alone.

HyperLinks - https://blog.planbook.com/classroom-ableism/