Challenging Assumptions
How often do we find our assumptions challenged in a very powerful way which has quite a profound impact upon us. For me this morning’s session was such an occasion.
As we entered Longfellow Hall for a session on inclusive education by Norman Kunc I was surprised to see a man in a wheel chair sitting on the podium. I was even more surprised when it became clear he was Norman Kunc and was our speaker for the morning. As he started to speak I realised he had cerebral palsy and physical difficulties and speech difficulties. I sat listening to him wondering how on earth I would be able to understand him and be able to listen to him for the next 3 hours and take anything meaningful from the session. How wrong could I be? The lecture was profound, moving and challenging. But for me the most challenging aspect came in the section of the session where Norman was discussing how to support teachers in an inclusive school and in particular how society perceives disabled people.
Norman asked us how many of us had thought at the start of the lecture there was no way they could listen to a disabled guy (his words) with a speech difficulty speak for 3 hours and the majority of people in the room fell into that category. He then went on to discuss how society perceives disability. For him his disability is one tenth of who he is. And the other nine tenths is an ‘ordinary’ individual. But research has shown that most often society perceives the disability as the defining characteristic of a disabled person and does not see the person beneath the disability.
I realised that that was exactly what I had done this morning but as the lecture developed I found that I was no longer focussing on the disability but on the lecture and didn’t see Norman as a disabled man but as a highly intelligent individual from whom I could learn so much.
For me this was a very powerful message that too often in life we can have preconceived ideas about people and we need to consider the whole person and if our society is to be truly inclusive we need to see people for who they are not what they are.
This video says it all!!!!
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