The goal that I as a Special Education English Teacher hope to accomplish with this curriculum unit is to help high school students with disabilities not equate their disability with an “evil” in themselves. “Evil” in this case may be considered self-hatred. Self-hatred results in negative thinking and inability to compensate for disabilities, thus, turning a disability into a handicap or liability when unnecessary. Instead of becoming proactive, a student becomes inactive. Many times special students try to hide their disabilities instead of facing them. This inability to accept themselves is an evil. It prevents them from coming to terms with their own special gifts and strengths. It also prevents them from being self advocates. “The Americans With Disabilities Law” is difficult enough to enforce without the disabled not trying to help themselves.
My Unit will lead students to personal definitions of evil. I hope to have them examine their feelings about disabilities through the use of a questionnaire. We will examine different types of handicaps and how people have dealt with them differently. Historically, many evils have been perpetuated against people with mental and physical disabilities. We will read, view films, view pictures, have guest speakers, visit hospitals, have parents speak, and have peers (non disabled) speak. Students will be asked to make concrete plans to show how their disability will not become an “evil” (a handicap). They will be expected to design a plan for their futures that will take a positive approach to their disability. The “future” may be considered a “5 - year” plan after finishing high school. Viewing their disability as a challenge instead of a handicap will be the goal. Students will be taught different ways to confront their disability instead of hiding from it. This should improve their self esteem and be a motivating factor for change. To hide and cover up a disability is an “evil”, especially when one is hiding from one’s self. Hiding a disability makes it difficult for others to help and teaches students that there is something wrong with them, personally, for having a disability. After all, if a person will not speak up for himself, why should anyone else help? Changing self attitudes is a difficult goal for a curriculum unit, but that is the purpose of this unit. Since much of the material will take time to digest, I would see this unit as taking one year - “off and on”. Students would have time to react to films and books in a deeper way because they would be growing in their ability to incorporate new ideas into their repitoir.
PART I. A PERSONAL DEFINITION OF EVIL
Many times high school students do not wish to discuss or recognize their disability. This factor prevents them from seeking help, learning to cope, and being a self-advocate. Each disability has a different style of compensation depending on student learning style. Step one must be a recognition of individual disability and willingness to discuss problems with both disabled and non disabled peers. High school students, in general, are most concerned with their image and fitting in with peers. Appearing “different” or “unusual” is taboo. If mainstreaming of “special” students is to be successful, both disabled and non disabled students must recognize their biases and use appropriate curriculum material to counteract them. This unit could be taught twice - once, when students enter high school, and again when they are ready to graduate from high school. Results of Questionnaire “A” should be kept and compared “before and after”.
Activity # 1 - Have students complete the Questionnaire “A” (see Appendix A). Scores of 30 or lower reflect a positive feeling about people with handicaps and a score of 31 indicates negative feelings.
Activity # 2 - The teacher will collect a series of five photos of handicapped and/or deformed people, e.g. “elephant man”, elderly person, bent over person with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and braces, person with severe acne, person with a leg missing, etc. Try to use pictures of teens whenever possible. Then, collect five pictures of popular school leaders, 5 male, 5 female. Finally, collect five pictures of 5 young male movie stars and 5 pictures of young female movie stars. For more possible examples, use the web site and suggestions in Appendix B.
Outcomes And Interpretations Of Activity # 1 And Activity # 2
Activity #1 and #2 were tried out during the Spring of 1999 on a group of disabled high school students (28) and non disabled students (31). The disabled students ranged from 9th - 12th graders who had Learning Disability (LD), Cerebral Palsy, Slight Mental Retardation, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Traumatic Brain Injury. The outcome of Activity #1 was surprising. Scores of regular education students indicated a neutral to positive response to questions about the “disabled.” In contrast, scores below 30 indicated a negative attitude towards the “disabled” questions by the disabled students. In other words, negative feelings were present in disabled teens when asked about their “public” persona.
The results of the questionnaire were significant. The average score on the questionnaire for the disabled group was 18. The average score for the non disabled group was 42. The scores indicated that non disabled students seem to view and react positively to disabled people. On the other hand, disabled students have extremely negative feelings about people with handicaps. It is possible that nondisabled students were just “polite” in their comments, but society frowns about not being polite.
The outcome of Activity #2 showed similar results. The nondisabled students selected 80% of the photos of the elderly person and the “elephant man”. The special students selected 75% of the photos showing teen disabilities. The positive pictures among regular students showed 75% approved of movie star pictures in males and females. In contrast, special students tended to pick 81% of the photos of real people, the school leaders. This indicates to me that special students disapprove of disabilities in people of their age and they desire to be as popular and successful in school as the school leaders. They seem not to be so interested in Hollywood versions of “beauty” and make believe.
PART II. RECOGNITION AND ANALYSIS OF “EVIL” OR “NEGATIVE THINKING” IN OTHERS AND HOW PEOPLE HAVE OVERCOME THEIR DISABILITIES AND PREVENTED THEM FROM BEING HANDICAPS. IN OTHER WORDS DISABILITIES HAVE BECOME A CHALLENGE INSTEAD OF A HANDICAP.
View films, read books, discuss TV shows about disabled people that have not let disabilities become handicaps.
Multiple Schlorosis (MS), Lupus and/or Cancer Societies to come to the high school.
Try to request as young a person as possible.
Guided Questions For The Books, Films, Speakers and Field Trips. See Appendix C. The questions should cover the ways the characters and/or speakers overcame their disabilities to make them a challenge to overcome and not a handicap. Students could come up with their own questions as well.
This will be the most difficult and painful part of the unit. Students will be willing to discuss speakers and/or characters in books or films. They will not want to confront their own disability. I suggest a “three-pronged” attack.
Activity # 1 - Have students practice by role playing getting up in class and saying their disability. Then, students would ask their peers for support of their plans to challenge their disability. This is very much the model of AA meetings. Students could report back to the group several times about their progress.
Activity # 2 -A chief component of student challenge is help with diagnosing learning style. Many learning disabled students are auditory learners. Many learn very little from what they read but require hearing material in order to learn The “group” could be taught ways to address different learning styles. Suggestions could be audio books, study buddies, videos, helping visual learners with audio visual aids. Students, in their strategy groups, could brainstorm different techniques to address different learning styles. By being comfortable discussing learning styles, students can learn to be self advocates. Another type of special prevalent problem is Attention-Deficit. Not all “ADD” is ADHD”. Many students are disorganized, and have scattered attention. They could be helped by the group with concrete time management plans. and organizational skills. Feedback could be given to them as to how to keep notes, organize a notebook, and get to places on time. Activity# 3. -Finally, at the end of high school, each special student should have a concrete plan for the future. This plan should be written, have input of parents, teachers, and counselors. This plan should be written and evaluated in the fall of the Senior Year. any special students put off making decisions about their futures because of their internal “evil” (negative thinking and low self esteem). By working with other special students in making plans, special students raise their self esteem and learn to take charge of their lives.
Disabilities can be a life long challenge and not a handicap if students are helped to address issues and are taught how to cope with disabilities with full support of their peers, parents, teachers, and themselves.
The class should discuss the points of the results of the questionnaire. The teacher should supply the results of the surveys. Previous results from other groups should be compared with present results.
b.“Brain-storming” and/or cooperative learning groups used to have students “discover” the implications of the results.
(See Refrences and Appendices for more information)
REFERENCES OF SUGGESTED STUDENT MATERIALS
disabled African American young woman about addressing her disabilities as a college student and young woman. Edited by Barbara Findley. Seattle: Seal Press, 1995
(see Appendices for student questionnaires)
Please rate your feelings on a scale of “1” very negative,“2” slightly negative, “3” neutral, “4” slightly positive, and “5” very positive - Please add total score.
Total Score:_____________ APPENDIX B Further References or Resources Web Sites www.skinema.com
“DERMATOLOGY AND THE CINEMA” - SKIN CONDITIONS AND EVIL - BY, VAIL REESE, M.D. (1999) An excellent source of examples of the depictment of evil through skin diseases or related deformities.
DISABILITY AND LITERATURE, DISABILITY AND THE ARTS Dr. Susan Koppelman’s course about art, beauty, and disability.
APPENDIX C Possible Guided Questions For Books, Films, And Field Trips Books House On Mango Street
Films“Miracle Worker”
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”