| The PRIDE Curriculum Promotes Disability Awareness | |||||||||
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By Stuart Strothman |
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Imagine a school where people with disabilities are completely accepted; where all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential as learners and members of a Vermont school community; where the ideal is independence. This is the vision of the Vermont Statewide Independent Living Council (VSILC), a Waterbury-based organization with a K – 12 curriculum designed to build awareness of disability issues. |
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Below are excerpts
and summaries from VSILC’s 06-07 implementation data report. |
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| What
They
Liked
Best
and
Least Students in the 6th and 8th grade loved the t-shirts they received for their participation, seen in the photo accompanying this article! Predictably, some liked the creative writing involved in the program, and some didn’t. The strongest message from the students’ opinions about what they liked best included understanding another perspective, learning about real people who have fought against barriers to inclusion, and learning skills to combat prejudice and bullying. In the “liked least” category, three themes emerged from students’ responses across all grades. First, some wanted more community-based and action-oriented activities. Second, student comments identified the actual barriers individuals with disabilities face (the students’ new awareness of issues) as being the thing they liked least. Finally, a significant number of students in the 9th grade “World of Difference” class were concerned that some of the reading assignments stereotyped people with and without learning disabilities. Students were generally surprised to learn how many people they knew with disabilities, and also, how many different types of disability exist. Their awareness of related social issues seemed to blossom. This topic area included comments about learning appropriate language, no longer “being afraid” of people with disabilities, seeing the importance of treating all people with respect, realizing that people with disabilities are “the same as everyone else,” understanding the importance of inclusion, observing the importance of having a sense of pride in one’s status as a person with a disability, and the critical importance of how bullying and other social isolation add to the barriers that a person with a disability encounters. The positive theme in all student responses in this topic area was that students’ recognized their role, either as disabled or non-disabled individuals, in changing behavior towards and attitudes about people with disabilities. Teacher Feedback: Learning Outcomes The teachers involved were pleased to find the entire curriculum either “very easy” or “somewhat easy” to implement. They identified new awareness of various disability issues: |
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All of them would recommend the program; specific areas of the curriculum were all rated “very effective” or “somewhat effective.” Scotty Tabachnick reflected: “We had a town meeting at the school and a young woman said; "I am in life ed in this building and you people go by and laugh at us." It was a big surprise to the kids that a student with learning difficulties might be in the same category as an American Black in the 1950s, who for various reasons, would be segregated and sectioned off from American Culture. We identified areas in the school where students "don't go." It was a very valuable springboard for conversations. Once I said, "Truly in a perfect world, every kid would have an IEP." And a student said, "Yeah, then you wouldn't have to be ashamed about your IEP." And another student said, "Why should you be ashamed of your IEP?" It was a good discussion, all around. This past May, our middle schoolers presented a signed (by them) copy of the curriculum to Governor Jim Douglas at the Vermont Statehouse on Vermont Mental Health Awareness Day. In June I had the opportunity to tell middle school teachers about the curriculum (as well as other service learning programs of the Guilford Middle School) at the Vermont Middle Grades Institute in Castleton. I presented PRIDE at the NCIL (National Council on Independent Living) conference in Washington DC in July. These events were lots of fun and very exciting. But much more important, collectively, are the little steps we choose to take in our classrooms, with actual children. As I watch the kids coming in each year, I know the social skills the PRIDE curriculum develops are useful for everyone involved. |
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Stuart Strothman teaches at Guilford Central School in Windham SESU. He is a member of the district Diversity Committee. |
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