Comparing and contrasting Willy’s educational experience with that of his brothers always makes me a little sad. Willy is fortunate in that he’s found a way to take the world as it is and interacts on a level that most people understand. He’s very much autistic and still faces many challenges in how he interacts and what he’s considered able to do and what he is able to do (which are not always the same). But, he has a strong support system at Roosevelt and is able to compensate for most of his differences to succeed in a socially recognizable way. Alex and Ben are on a different track. They do not demonstrate a sufficient amount of self-control, communication, or interaction to participate (as per the Janesville school system) in an integrated environment. Their educational needs are met in a segregated classroom called the CD room – for cognitively disabled. The fact that they are not, in fact, cognitively disabled plays little significance in this designation, because they are not able to communicate their intelligence in an academically recognized fashion. Roosevelt is not equipped to meet their needs, so they are sent to attend school together at Kennedy.
I don’t mean to slam Roosevelt or Kennedy. The decision here is made at a level neither school can change. Both are goods schools with good people and both try to service their students as they are able. But I cannot help but remember my own time in school.
In one of several grade schools I attended there was a student with Down ’s syndrome. I only saw her on the playground and many of the students made fun of her. She first came to my notice when I saw another child push her for no apparent reason other than her poor balance meant she’d fall with only a little push. I didn’t usually see things like that, because a friend and I would go off as far in the field as we could to play our own games of make-believe. This girl would always come out a few minutes later than us, so we’d already be gone. After seeing our classmate push her down, we went to her an invited her to come play with us. She couldn’t quite follow our game, but enjoyed our company.
In junior high, I was somewhat segregated. They called the classes I took “gifted and talented” or “differentiated.” They were the opposite of CD classes, designed for students who excelled instead of those who struggled. I enjoyed these classes, because I was challenged academically for the first time in a long while. Yet, integrating with non-differentiated students in the regular classes was difficult. I was set apart, and they knew it. Most of my fellow differentiated students had the social skills to compensate, but I didn’t. I was an outsider. Not like any of them and being segregated for most of my classes seemed to make that worse.
In all my time going to school and in all the different schools I attended, I was only aware of the one girl with cognitive disabilities. The rest were kept out of sight, but I know now there had to have been more. Kennedy doesn’t try to keep Alex and Ben out of sight. Each child is assigned to an age-appropriate classroom with their typically developing peers. Each will visit this classroom as their schedules allow. And, at my recommendation, last year on Fridays one of Alex’s peers would come to the CD classroom to visit him. This became a special treat that his peers looked forward to and enjoyed.
So, progress is being made. Yet, I know fully integrated schools exist and that they can work for the benefit of all the students. I know that children with special needs should not be kept out of sight for the comfort of the bigots. I remember sitting in school, surrounded by my predominantly white peers, and learning about the history of segregated schools. I remember when I first learned what happened in Little Rock. I remember raising my hand and asking, quite honestly, “But why would they be angry that the kids wanted to go to the good school?” I didn’t understand. In a way, I still don’t. I can wrap my head around racism and bigotry. I see it as wholly illogical, but I understand that it is driven by emotion not intellect. I cannot wrap my heart around it. I cannot understand those emotions that drive racism and bigotry, however well I can label them: hatred, fear, disgust. I understand that people crave a sense of commonality and that those outside that commonality face prejudice. That it is so, and understanding that it is so, doesn’t help me to understand why.
I’m thankful for the progress that has been made and look ahead sadly to how much more must be done. But, my boys are lucky. They have a chance. So many have their chances stolen from them by prejudice and hatred. I cannot help but think my failure to understand leaves me powerless to affect needed changes. But I will try. Everyone deserves the chance to live, to be educated, to grow, to develop – without artificial roadblocks keeping them from their own potential.
