Eliminating Ableism in Education

 For this blog I will be reflecting on this writing and sharing my own experiences with ableism in education. 

In Thomas Heir's article about eliminating ableism in education was very interesting to read because it is something I am not widely familiar with, but I do have experience with having a classmate in elementary school that was disabled. In the article Heir talks about how society conforms to the idea that people with disabilities are less than people are not. One quote that really stood out to me was, "that while disability is not a tragedy, society’s response to disability can have tragic consequences for those who have disabilities." (Heir 2) It is clear that in some cases society fails people with disabilities and do not provide them with the right thing they need to live their lives like education, job opportunities, etc... Society immediately thinks that people that are disabled aren't cable of being educated in a standard school, they are often placed in a completely different school specialized or students with disabilities or placed in "special classrooms" that satisfies their needs. This makes those students feel isolated from actually being with their classmates and learning the same material as them. 

In elementary school I had a classmate in my fourth and fifth grade class that was physically disabled. He wasn't always in the classroom because he would work with another teacher to help him with what he specifically needed. Although he had a hard time communicating my friend group at the time would always try and communicate with him. He was genuinely always a happy person and would always get excited when he would hear us talking to him. During lunch my friend group would get the pleasure to sit with him and his teacher aid and we considered him part of the friend group. He would always brighten our day and it was always great talking with him. I will never forget that amazing experience with him because it was one of the first times I ever constantly interacted with a person with disabilities. It was nice to be introduced to this at a young age because it opens my eyes to how different yet similar we actually are to people with disabilities. 

With this experience and after reading this article by Heir I am aware of the privilege that I had with education and with that I want to ensure that my future students in my classrooms have the same opportunities. I want to make my classroom as inclusive as possible for any and all students. It is important to make students feel like they are just as important as everyone else in the room. 

Understanding and Addressing Ableism in Schools (oregon.gov) 

This is a article that further explains Ableism in Education