Blog 18, Week 5

Sapna you are correct that teachers must show students that being different is ok. It is a travesty that disability awareness is not taught just as sexual ed is taught. It's not the old days where a student may not ever be in contact with a disable person, so by not informing students correctly a great disservice is done. It is wrong that I had to take special classes (Intro. to the Exceptional Learning and American Sign Language) to learn more information about disabilities. Since disability awareness is yet to materialize it is important, like you say, to teach students about disabilities ourselves. Every educational subject has famous people who deal lived with disabilities (i.e., Steve Nash (math)- Schizophrenia and Edgar Allen Poe (English)- alcoholism among other things). It may be difficult to incorporate this teaching into already full curriculum; however, highlighting these type of individuals can go a long way in helping students learn about different disabilities.