Text Journal #5 - 4.21.09

In response to the reading on Ableism, I feel burdened for the people who grew up in situations in which their parents were not at a place with their own self-worth that they could help their child grow to their full potential despite their disability. I know that it is much harder in real life than for a person who has no experience with raising a disabled child, but the reading did prove that children whose parents were able to adjust with the loss of the "perfect child" were more equipped to be a better parent to the child.
People who are disabled make up the largest target group, at 43 million people when this article was written and I am sure that that number has increased in number since then. It's important for me to assess how I would handle the situation if a. I had a child who was born disabled, b. had a child with a disabled friend, and/or c. worked with someone who was disabled in some capacity.
While I was reading this article over the weekend, I was on a high school youth retreat as a leader and I observed the interaction between students who were disabled with their peers during sporting events. One of the students was able to involve himself in a game of basketball despite the fact that he was in a wheelchair. There were other students with different levels of disability and their involvement was different as well. I wondered how much the parent's role and support during the developmental years of the child played into their adjustment/mal-adjustment on the retreat. It is hard to say definitively the role that the parent had to play and the effect of the child's own personality on the situation, but it was interesting to think about in light of the situation.