disability-research
Hi Mairian et al
I know that my small sub culture of inclusive and democratic education
was/is a rarity, but lead to my discovering, as an Adult that mainstream
society was/is so laden with mechanisms for grouping and discriminating
against other groups. Even now, watching the documentary series 'Deaf
Century' shows how little I understood discrimination as a concept right up
until adulhood. Indeed in 1976 I was in a pub one evning while on a working
holiday with a camp of 40 children. I saw two young men playing darts and
obviously communication with subtle non verbal signals. I fell into
conversation with them starting with gestures, then writing and finally
they showed me how to finger spell.
I was joined by my bearded dad and was asked if his beard ever got caught
in his bicycle wheels, and what with one thing and another I invited them
to our camp fire gathering any evening.
They arrived bearing a token gift and joined in with us, a group ranging in
age from 7 to mid 50's. The kids got exited and confused when one 'Deaf'
person told them to 'shhh' so he could listen to the guitar and singing,
and the kids' reaction when he then began to sing..a strange noise to all
of us of his recent aquiantance, was hilaroius to me.
Over the next few days the chaps came and played football with the kids,
and finger spelling spread like a new religion throuought the camp.
Only now do I realise how brave these two young men were to risk meeting
the whole camp. I honestly however, never thought anything much at the time
except how nice the chaps were, and how friendly to me...I was only 16 at
the time and they were 18 and 19.
Hopefully all the kids who were at that camp will have with them a seed of
good feelings which will come up in other encounters with Deaf people.
So what? Well I can assure anyone interested that one can grow up able to
accept difference without 'value judgement' being part of the package,
though at times I feel a little like Miranda (The Tempist) for having an
'Oh brave new world that hath such creatures in it' attitude (oh and a
bearded socerer for a father!).
Amaryllis
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