Glitter Ninja wrote:
If you kick out the person with Tourette's who is unable
> to control outbursts because it bothers you, then the lady next to you
> can kick out the paraplegic who is drooling because it bothers her.


The problem with this argument is that it works in both directions.
(Can someone provide me with the Latin phrase for it-- the idea of
taking a good idea and making it absurb by taking to a ridiculous
extreme?)


I agree that there's something wrong with being able to get rid of
people because of some small trait that they can't help but which
someone else finds offensive. If it is Tourette's or a breathing
machine today, who is to say that it won't be drooling or being ugly
tomorrow? Good point. Now consider the opposite extreme.


Let's say that instead of a low hum on the breathing machine it was a
lot of machinery, something that took up a lot of room, smelled bad and
made a loud clanking. Let's say the disabled person needed it to
breathe and live and really couldn't go out without it. Does that
person still get to attend the symphony because he can't help it no
matter how many people he disturbs?


And then you get into dueling disabilities. What about the person who
is nearly deaf and can't hear the music when there is distracting noise
around? Shouldn't she be entitled to a special environment where her
disability is taken into consideration and accounted for? An
environment that consists of, say, a concert hall with no machinery in
it making noise?


That's pretty much the situation you have in some schools today. I'm
all for mainstreaming the kids with special needs, the ones who can't
help being disruptive, running around the room, yelling out of turn,
etc. I do believe that attention disorders are real and that children
with the disorder need educations too. The trouble is that there are
other children who can't study and learn in an environment where kids
are being disruptive, running around the room and yelling out of turn.
Shouldn't their needs be met also?


There are kids who really need class work taught at their grade level,
not one with Down's syndrome children there who are being mainstreamed.
So you get dueling disabilities. The Down's syndrome kids will
benefit most from being in the regular classroom, not segregated out
with other Down's syndrome kids. The ones without Down's syndrome will
benefit from being in a class with other children who are learning and
progressing as they are. What to do?


--Lia