Attention Students with Conditions that make them OH SO SPECIALLY DEMANDING:
I understand that you are caught between two places: an historical trend that dismisses everything about you as wrong and terrible, and the current atmosphere that coddles you and praises you and convinces that you can do no wrong because "Ooh! Conditions!"
Listen, MFs. I'm on to you. And this is why: I've been disabled since I was 13. Twenty years earlier, and my disability would have landed me in a mental institution for life. Instead, I got to work triply hard to get through school. I said no to parties in order to use my time more efficiently. My 4.0 was a beautiful thing compared to rich-chick-with-no-problems who got a measly 3.4. Disabilities are a beautiful challenge. Use it to propel yourself into greatness. Profs can do only so much. In the end, you (and your classmates!) must CHOOSE to do well.
Guess what? You can try to make your profs uncomfortable on purpose, but I want the readers of CM to know that this shit AIN'T COOL. You have a bona fide condition with treatment options and a special letter that gives you privileges like time and a half? Guess what: OWN YOUR CONDITION.
This isn't your mother's problem, or your prof's problem. It's your own condition. The only thing that makes you special is that you get the wonderful opportunity to tell Frat Boy Steve to fuck off when he has every privilege in the world and you STILL own him at finals time.
You don't get to throw your hands up in the air and scream "No! ADHD!" when handed a project assignment. Instead, you have to double down, take on the new challenge, and blow our minds that you are able to conquer everything the world throws at you.
You are challenged, you must overcome. You must not take advantage of people's pitter-patter of special needs awkwardness.
Profs, you need to hold your students accountable. I know it can be a fine line of holding students accountable and feeling like you are penalizing accommodated students. But students who are handed everything in life will not be able to function in the real world. You cooperate with their accommodations, tell them to OWN YOUR CONDITION, and then push them to be better than any able-bodied asshole.
Guess what, Asperger's, Blindness, Epilepsy, and ADHD? What you have earned is the PRIVILEGE of showing off how fucking great you are. And if you fail to show that off and work twice as hard? Then you get the grade you deserve. Done.
The folks in our disability office aren't too bad.
ReplyDeleteThe ones at my previous school seemed to me to be trying to justify their existence by pushing the disability racket wherever they could.
Love your thinking. Those without a need to be accommodated (myself included) should be ashamed.
ReplyDeletePreach on!
I have often wondered what happens to student who make it through college only because they had accommodations, i.e. they cannot do the work without it. I have always thought it is unfair to them. What happens when they get a job and no one reads the reports to them, gives them extra time etc?
ReplyDeleteI work with them in my disabilities counsel group. They excelled in college because people were too embarrassed to hold them accountable and gave them easy grades. Then they graduate, fail to keep a job, move back in with mom/dad, and flitter away their 30s angry at the world for abandoning them.
ReplyDelete@ Academic monkey - that job sounds worse than mine. I didnt think that was possible.
ReplyDeleteSome students with documented disabilities at my school are legit, and some are just full of it. Sure, there might be 1 out of 100 students diagnosed with ADD/ADHD who ACTUALLY HAS IT, but the rest are misdiagnosed and just grew up without enough structure and focus at home. I don't pity them at all. Real disabilities? I DEFINITELY feel for them, but they're RARE at my school. And as other posters noted, HOW ON EARTH are they expected to succeed in the real world if they've been CODDLED at school? Gee, I kinda think that LYING to students to make them feel good about themselves SUCKS and it totally immoral.
ReplyDeleteSome students with documented disabilities at my school are legit, and some are just full of it. Sure, there might be 1 out of 100 students diagnosed with ADD/ADHD who ACTUALLY HAS IT, but the rest are misdiagnosed and just grew up without enough structure and focus at home. I don't pity them at all. Real disabilities? I DEFINITELY feel for them, but they're RARE at my school. And as other posters noted, HOW ON EARTH are they expected to succeed in the real world if they've been CODDLED at school? Gee, I kinda think that LYING to students to make them feel good about themselves SUCKS and it totally immoral.
ReplyDelete