Making A Point

                         

It was the biggest class I ever attended at the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Instruction and Learning (DIL) when I was there to obtain my certification in teaching high school chemistry in 2001.  The class was composed of students seeking certifications in their respective disciplines or MAT degrees. It was a required course on Learning Disabilities and our instructor was Paula who was finishing her PhD.

The class members were usually not vocal about their opinions and pretty much just listened to Paula as she gave her power point presentations until that one day when a topic struck a chord among the students. The discussion was on the pros and cons of mainstreaming students with disabilities. I remember one student voicing the futility of the approach while another mentioning the added burden on the teachers.  Paula just listened to the opinions expressed passionately by her students.  At the end of the class Paula announced that we would have a guest speaker the next meeting but did not elaborate as to who it was and neither on what topic.

The next class meeting started as usual with us chatting before Paula entered the room.  When she did, we immediately stopped talking, a little surprised by what we saw. Paula was not alone but came with a teenage girl in a wheelchair holding what looked like a laptop. With her was a man in his forties which I assumed was her caregiver.

Paula introduced the teenage girl as our guest speaker. Paula then showed to us a video of another college age girl who spoke about how she was thriving pursuing a degree at California University of Pennsylvania despite her disability. Then it was our guest speaker's turn to speak. She was born with muscular dystrophy and could speak through a special computer looking gadget on her lap. The device she was using to communicate with us sounded like a robot and similar to what the late Stephen Hawkins used. She also in some ways looked and moved like him. She told us that she had a job at Goodwill doing bookkeeping since she was adept in using the computer.  At one point she sounded just like any  teenager complaining about some issue in her job.

Everybody in the class listened including the student who was opposed to mainstreaming. I could see a compassionate look in his face as well as in the other students'.

Then the man that came with the speaker stood in front of the class. He introduced himself as the speaker's father which came as a surprise to me. I did not see any resemblance but then again how could one considering her daughter's disability that distorted her appearance. He said he was actually looking for someone to help in giving care for her daughter. He told us his experience raising her daughter that included how his daughter used to crawl and knock on his door in the middle of the night for his help to go to the bathroom. When I heard this I lost it and tears  started coming down my  cheeks. This man's love for her daughter was palpable and so was the sacrifice he had to go through.

After the speaker and her father left no discussion was needed to drive a point that was debated during our last meeting on the pros and cons of mainstreaming. Everybody in the class after witnessing the visit of the guest speaker and her father somehow learned the reason for instituting it. It goes beyond debating pros and cons. Mainstreaming was instituted not only to respect the rights of the students with disability to learn but also the desire of their parents for them to do so among their peers. Learning after all is a community effort. That is how we live. We are all part of this world. No man is an island.