proud of my big girl

[Guest guest]

Today had to give her Powerpoint presentation on her

" controversial issue " paper that she's been working on for several

months for Freshman English. The topic she choose was prenatal

diagnosis. She argued against forcing people to be tested, doctors

making value judgements, insurance companies forcing abortions, eugenics

and talked about society's desire for perfect, designer babies, etc.

She had lots of pictures of children with various disabilties, all

showing them in a positive light, along with her charts and graphs and

statistics. By the time she got to the end of her speech, the teacher

had tears in her eyes (and we still don't know why, but I could

certainly think of many reasons... I hope it was just a teacher's

reaction to 's passion about her topic.) So finishes up, and

opens it up to questions.

Right away, a girl said " well, my aunt has Down Syndrome and she has a

really hard life and I don't know how you can say that people with

disabilities can have a good life. " At that point, teacher starts

crying and leaves the room, leaving alone up front to deal with

the other student. So, does not hesitate and says " well, my

sister has Down Syndrome and she has a good life... she goes to the same

schools we went to, she has friends, does stuff, and sure, she has to

work harder at things but so what... she's a great kid. " Apparently the

girl didn't give up and continued to argue with about why it was

not a good thing, on and on, and apparently stood her ground,

saying didn't we all have challenges in life, etc. The whole class was

staring at this girl, said, with a look that said " shut up

already. " Finally, she said " well, I don't really know my aunt, it's

just what my mom says " and the conversation ended.

This was NOT supposed to be a debate, just a presentation with time for

questions, but I am so proud of for so freely standing up to this

girl and being so openly proud of her little sister! I feel awful for

her teacher, I hope 's presentation didn't bring up painful

memories from her past. And my heart breaks for the aunt... I hope she

does have a good life somewhere, and that her family is just missing it.

, mom to (14), (12 DS) and Sammy (10)