This blog (and the YouTube and Gmail accounts associated with my public voice) has a word the other social media accounts don’t have. (Instagram and tiktok still had @PracticingScience available.) Even though it makes the name clunky, the “Together” part of the webpage title actually matters. The “one room schoolhouse” model is what I see myself bringing to the table. While the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model focuses on diverse learning needs, I want to zoom out to the needs of our communities and our families. We NEED to be together. It’s urgent, and it matters.
“Right there was our catch-22: Because the country was so inaccessible, disabled people had a hard time getting out and doing things—which made us invisible. So we were easy to discount and ignore. Until institutions were forced to accommodate us we would remain locked out and invisible—and as long as we were locked out and invisible, no one would see our true force and would dismiss us.”
― Judith Heumann, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist
When people are invisible (i.e., separated), it is easy to lose track of their humanity and their voice and their value. This is one of the many important reasons for integration, public schools, the PRIDE movement, coed schools…the list goes on and on. Togetherness matters. The Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act mandates the “least restrictive environment appropriate,” and we’ve translated that to mean segregation and restricted access to the classrooms and lunch periods and playgrounds and gym classes that put families in community with each other. Separation to the detriment of the whole community.
We are all missing out on the vitally important voices and contributions of many of our fellow human beings. It matters to them, and it should matter to us. My time with human beings of differing abilities has taught me that we should be outraged to have been denied access to their gifts and talents and divine presence (speaking as someone who believes each of us is a divine presence). We should also be outraged that the onus for inclusion is falling on marginalized people and their families.
I have been deliberate about using the “verbal/analytical” terms to describe what has been classified according to imaginary age designations. As an educator and the mother of a dyslexic child, I have seen the damage done by pressures around grade designations. Everyone develops skills on their own timeline. And, also. The verbal and analytical skills are not the only skills we can use to interpret the world or express our thoughts.
Some children who have been on this planet for 5 years express themselves using words that are printed on a page. Some don’t. Some appreciate the semi-universal cultural construct of assigning “numbers” to similar objects and then manipulating those numbers to make predictions or describe outcomes. Other people don’t find this construct useful at all. Life is happening to all those people. Science is happening to all those people. All those people have questions they want answered and ways of manipulating the world to answer them. We can experience science together. We can Practice Science Together.
There are reasons for the ways we do things. Change is difficult. Also, having been inspired by Carol Dweck, I spend a lot of time telling my fellow learners: I love doing difficult things. Let’s try working on it together and see if that helps.
Also, this…
Here’s her story in a different style/format: