dwarf schools/disability

[Guest guest]

Perhaps we'll never know exactly what the original public person with the

idea, intended. Certainly I agree that actual schools for dwarfs isn't a

practical idea for a number of reasons, that have been pointed out. But for

fleeting moments, it's a tantalizing idea. When I was a kid, one Christmas

eve, I

had a dream about a school with all dwarf kids. The walls were a deep red

in the classrooms. It was a large dramatic building. (That evening we'd

been to a Christmas eve service at a huge city church, much more dramatic in

architecture, with many meeting rooms to the side etc, as compared to the small

town church that I was used to.) That was my favorite dream ever. This was

in the dark ages before email of course. I called my best friend from LPA

national conventions once or twice a year, that was a big deal.

Ten or fifteen years later, I was invited to speak to a small group of dwarf

and I think, OI, secondary students at a private school for kids with

disabilities that was a block from my university, although it might have been

in

the year or two after I graduated from college. I was prepared not to like

the school, because philosophically I wasn't comfortable with kids with

dwarfism attending a disability school, and I wasn't really comfortable with a

disability school either. When I walked in, all I could think of, or really

feel,

was my old dream. It was so warm, comforting, safe. The teens were great -

I knew some already from LPA, but met a couple more. I had a hard time

lining that up - I wanted to not like the place, but did.

Fast forward ten additional years, attending a conference of the Society for

Disability Studies (SDS), there was a panel of academicians who were

wheelchair users, speaking on the topic of how mainstreaming for kids with

significant disabilities had backfired slightly - these guys had grown up

attending

segregated schools for kids with disabilities and had peers and to some extent

role models, and full social involvement. That's not often the case with

kids who are mainstreamed and may be the only wheelchair user at their school

or

even in the district. They were in favor of mainstreaming for sure, but

realizing something was lost along the way. At least when our kids are able to

grow up in or with some contact with the dwarf community, they have that

experience without having to be in a segregated school. The typical kid with a

significant disability though, doesn't get that experience easily. Kids with

developmental disabilities can get it through Special Olympics. Here in

Mass. they have an organization called Partners with Disabilities or something

like that, that tries to create it and they get it at the (independent)

disability camps that are hosting the several regional dwarf camps this

summer.

Personally, I also experienced it at SDS conferences and Federal

minority/NAACP conferences I attended for work, that subconscious feeling that

you can

relax and you are among your own (I say subconscious because I don't normally

feel on guard, it's not until I'm not that I realize it ...?)