"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

Child: "Hey, why is that guy in a wheelchair?  His arms are scary!"

Grandmother: "Shhh!  We don't need to talk about it in front of him!"

These are the comments I heard while sitting in the foyer at my workplace on my lunchbreak.  The prospective child and grandmother had just entered the building and were greeted by our receptionist who has cerebral palsy.  Avery has always been in a wheelchair and can only move from the waist up, but his movements are very jerky and stiff thus the "scary arms". 

Several messages were communicated to the child by his grandmother in the short reprimand she gave:
-Never point out handicaps
-Never talk about differences
-Never talk about differences in front of the person
-It's ok to talk about people behind their back

Avery is actually my cousin and friend.  Since I had time remaining on my break, I chose to respond to this child immediately.  His grandmother had to speak with our director anyway, so I took the opportunity to introduce the child to Avery and turn the experience into a positive learning one.  I desire to build community within the center where I work especially between staff and students. 

We went back to the office and shook Avery's hand being sure to remain standing in front of him since he can't move his neck very far from side to side (I explained this to the child).  Then I asked Avery if he could remember getting his very first wheelchair.  When Avery starts talking it is very difficult to stop him!  The simple question kept him talking about the many different wheelchairs and their capabilities throughout his life.  The child beside me stood in wide-eyed amazement.  Then Avery asked if the child wanted a ride.  The child nodded so Avery took a spin around the upstairs with the child sitting on his lap. 

As I viewed the media segments this week I thought of this scenario that occurred just a few weeks ago.  In the first segment, Start seeing diversity: Physical ability and characteristics, the narrator said educators need to be able to offer support when something like this happens (Laureate Education, n.d.).  We also need to be ready to "counter the bias" when faced with an uncomfortable confrontation of comment so that it may be turned into a learning experience (Laureate Education, n.d.).  One fantastic way to do this is to have persona dolls in the classroom as Nancy Spangler spoke of in her experiences this week from the multimedia piece and as were addressed in our course text (Laureate Education, n.d. and Pelo, 2008).  These are something that I have added to my list of materials to add to the classroom.

When educators take the opportunity to make the most of situations like these, a lot of learning can take place.  The aforementioned situation only involved one child, but that one child can have a huge impact of the rest of his/her classroom as he/she interacts with friends.  We need to recognize differences and demonstrate respect for those who are different than us.  The younger this is addressed, the better our world will be!

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Conclusion [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Physical ability and characteristics [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Pelo, A. (Ed.). (2008). Rethinking early childhood education. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.