Amy and others, I of course agree that it would be great if people with disabilities could feel free to "talk openly" about their situations. But we all know that not all people with disabilities do feel that comfortable. Disability is a stigma, like many others. For some, it is a visible stigma, and they can not help but let the world know. For others, it is an invisible stigma. To my mind, it should be the individual's choice whether to disclose that stigma in the classroom or not.
Since Amy brought up the analogy to sexual orientation, let me run with that for a moment. We want our students to feel comfortable being open about their sexual orientation in the classroom, just as we want our students to feel comfortable about their disability status. But would we ever place our students in a position where they are forced to proclaim their sexual orientation to all of their peers, openly and without a choice about the matter, on the first day that they meet these peers? Would we ask our gay and lesbian and bisexual students to walk into class wearing a sign labeling them? Or would we ask our poorest students, those on welfare or those who are homeless, to be sure and tell every classmate these details about themselves? I certainly hope we would not. Because as much as we want the classroom to be a space of honesty and openness, a space where sociologists can explore the role of stigma and oppression in our lives, it is also a space where peer hierarchies are worked out, where people make social ties beyond the classroom, where rumers and gossip begin. We need to be sensative to the emotional needs of our students and their own status as adults who should be given the choice as to when to disclose personal details about their own lives and when not to. As perhaps some of you do not know, this conversation is archived on google groups in a way which is accessable to anyone who searches for our names, and therefore I, for one, am not going to provide any anecdotal or empirical detail to back up my theoretical and policy statements. However, I would be happy to provide such information to anyone who emails me off-list. Finally, I want to suggest a reading for those of you who might be interested in thinking a bit more about the function of invisible disabilities in the lives of our students, and in particular the use of this analogy to sexual orientation (which seems so popular): Samuels, Ellen. 2003. "My Body, My Closet: Invisible Disability and the Limits of Coming-out Discourse." Gay and Lesbian Quarterly 9:233-55 --Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur New York University and Queens College, CUNY Amy Hite wrote: > Interesting. > As the parent of a student who needs various classroom accomodations, > I've given this issue some thought, and also immediately thought about > that when I saw the article (with which I agree). > Prefacing this comment as parent and teacher and not a sociologist or a > specialist in any way, I want to point out that both in dealing with my > son and my many students over the years who have disabilities that > require classroom accomodations, one thing I've tried to show them is > that they should not try to hide these learning differences or apologize > for needing these accomodations. If someone is not comfortable with > them, that is the problem of that person, not of the student who needs > non-traditional accomodations. I have found that an important way for > these students (including my son) to come to terms with these > differences is to be able to talk about them openly rather than behind a > veil of shame and fear of judgement by others. > If a good teacher is largely defined by being able to reach as many > students as possible, this should extend to their attitudes about > special accomodations. To do otherwise is to be a bad teacher. I do > not consider it discriminatory if an instructor has a particular policy > in general, but also makes whatever accomodations are necessary to > maximize a particular student's ability to learn. > And as far as peers goes, I would no more want to encourage a student to > "hide" their needs than I would tell them to pretend that they have a > particular sexual orientation. When "smart" "normal" students are known > to have different needs for learning, the stigma can be reduced and > hopefully ultimately accepted. > I know all of this sounds as if I'm naive to the many teachers (of both > young and old) who do not believe these needs are real, but I maintain > that classroom accomodations are now part of every educational setting, > and those who do not think so should be the ones we label as deviants, > not the students with special needs. So, in my opinion, changing our > classroom policies would compromise teachers' freedom to establish the > most effective learning environment just so that those who are ignorant > will be unable to act upon or judge on the basis of that ignorance. > Doesn't it make more sense to attack the ignorance, an effort which has > payoff far beyond the classroom? > Just MHO. > Amy Hite --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
