School or nothing??

My daughter was recently asked to chose a topic she is passionate about to write an argumentative essay on in school. Needless to say, I was thrilled to bits when she showed me her topic of choice and what she had written. I just had to share it with you. Note: I have left it in it's original format, no editing.

Have you ever felt excluded from a group? Sadly, that’s the everyday life of someone who is disabled. It could be argued that sometimes they could distract the other kids in the class and when that happens people think “ Gee, these kids shouldn’t be here right now”. But they are so left out that they are not accepted into schools and many other places. Disabled children really should go to school and have the same/similar rights as us at school, because all children can learn just not on the same day in the same way. They too are humans not just us but they often get super excluded. Do you want to give the disabled a chance to go to the same school as the other children?

Firstly does your whole class learn in the exact same way? No, because you see all children can learn just not on the same day in the same way. One of the most famous people with autism is Temple Grandin who is an American Professor. She was teased as a child and this is what kids said about her “She spins to comfort herself. She talks fast, often too fast and she talks repetitively” and then the children called her tape recorder. Now she is an amazing American Professor. This proves that all children can learn just not on the same day in the same way.

Secondly, aren’t we all human? So why do we treat people slightly different way differently? People with disabilities are also human and need the same/similar rights as us. Gayathri Ramaswami, a teacher in a school that supports people with disabilities, All Hands Together says “They deserve the same rights as us because they’re all human and equal to us so they should have equal opportunities just like anyone else.” This cool quote says “God created autism to counter the excessive number of boring people in this world.” We all think differently and look different. So why should people who are even more different and special be treated badly?

Lastly, Do you love being in a group where everyone treats you like they would treat the other members in the group? Most people like it, but not everyone is included in groups like that and treated well in groups like that. Most disabled people actually get excluded from those kinds of groups. You don’t like being excluded right? Neither do they so lets treat them fairly. Letting them go to school doesn’t only benefit them it also benefits the other kids in the school, because they learn to accept the disabled kids. In America there was a survey that showed that kids who went to school with the disabled were doing better than the kids who did not. Gayathri Ramaswami quotes “Some people don’t let them go to school with them because they’re afraid of them, and don’t understand their conditions.” This shows people are unequal to the disabled for the good of themselves, and that they should include everyone.

The disabled kids may be different but that does NOT mean that we treat them differently at school or anywhere else. Disabled kids should go to to school and be treated fairly at school, because we are all human, everybody can learn, and they don’t like being excluded. Childhood is an important part of a child's life and education is an important part of it. So let’s give everyone equal access to education. Next time you see someone alone consider talking to them! So what do you think, should we go to the same school as the equally deserving disabled children?