Home » Education & Career » Special Ed. Teaching » Disabilty or difference? It's all in how you look at it.

Disabilty or difference? It's all in how you look at it.

© Lise Hogan

When I was in college (UTSA - San Antonio, Texas) working toward my special ed. degree - I took a class called "Modes of Inquiry". It was one of those "fluff classes" for teachers designed to expand your horizons and make you "think". (Side note - after I took all the "fluff" classes it was clear to me why they were required. I learned a lot from each of those classes)

The teacher in this class - the first day - told us to pair off and gave us some "getting to know you" questions. We had to find someone we did not know and do an interview. I'm sure most have had to do that in some way, but this one had a very profound effect on me. The last question was "If there was one thing that you could change about yourself, what would it be?" Up until that very second....I would have said "get rid of my learning disabilities. Let me read like a normal person, let me be able to sit still, let me act like a normal adult, let me understand things the first time I hear them." Then I stopped. I looked at my partner (Mary Margaret) and just froze. It was at the moment that I realized all of those things had made me who I am.

There I was, in my mid thirties - trying college for the THIRD time and I had faith that I was going to make it. It took 6 long years during this time I could no hold a full time job. I worked at a college bookstore, I substitute taught, but the money I earned was not enough. I had to keep telling my husband hang on I'll finish then I'll have a real job. He had a hard time believing it. If I just had not had to deal with all these "differences" I would not be in school, waiting and waiting and waiting to get through classes that were SO hard for me - and I'd get C's! Others in my class it seemed barely lifted a finger and got A's! IT WAS SO UNFAIR! WHY did I have to have this? There were night I cried my way through most of my homework. Sheer determination got me through it. I had to show my husband who swore up and down that I would drop out before I was done because it was what I always did, that I could complete something. Seeing things through can be very difficult for people with learning disabilites.

The copyright of the article Disabilty or difference? It's all in how you look at it. in Special Ed. Teaching is owned by Lise Hogan. Permission to republish Disabilty or difference? It's all in how you look at it. in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.