Earlier this evening, I was discussing with my friend Megan, an English teacher, her lesson plans for this week. She has decided to do an overview of Helen Keller since their school has recently performed the play The Miracle Worker. I let Megan know of a recent project I completed for one of my graduate classes, a virtual fieldtrip on genres, which included a section on nonfiction stories. One of those stories happened to be This is My Story by Helen Keller and with it I offered websites and videos to view.
Beyond wanting to discuss Helen Keller, Megan also wanted to bring to the attention of her students information “about people with disabilities and the timeline of treatment.” At this point, I mentioned another graduate class I am taking, Assistive Technology, and an article I happened to read earlier in the day. Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley discusses a mother’s anticipation for the birth of her first child, equating it to her dream vacation to Italy. After months of preparation for her “dream vacation” the mother’s plans are changed as she ends up in Holland rather than Italy. Symbolizing a child with a disability, Holland offers a new, exciting, yet uncertain experience, and while it is no longer the mother’s dream vacation, she is ale to see hope and beauty is the place she has found herself.
After sharing the article with Megan, she decided she wants to share it with her students during the week. Her only concern is the position she is in as a pregnant teacher: will her students think she is trying to tell them she is having a child with a disability? We discussed this thoroughly, and I was able to remind Megan that she could use her position as an attention getting and as a learning experience. If her students do question Megan’s intentions, she should be honest by telling them she doesn’t know if her child will or won’t have a disability, however, that would not change her love for her child. She should then steer the discussion back to Helen Keller, whose family did abandon her, and who became a brilliant and intelligent woman in lieu of being a person who is deaf and blind. Overall, the article has been an eye-opening experience not only for me and my friend, but a possible learning experience for Megan’s students.
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