So I worked at a summer camp for the past two summers, and one of the best counselors there was a hearing-impaired man (also a dancer, so score one for gender discrimination, too). A lot of the groups (mostly girls groups, oddly enough) ended up having prolonged discussions about people and their differences and how they need to be respected--why? Because some of the kids kept picking on this guy, because they didn't know how to react to his impairment. (Note that a lot of these groups included kids with learning disabilities and the like, even if the rest of the people in their group didn't know. Bet they were the subject of teasing for similar reasons, too.)
And it's just. No one deserves to be the subject of mockery just because they got the short straw as far as genetics are concerned. As a parent, if you're letting your children go out into the world and make other people's lives miserable because you don't want to have a tough conversation? You are failing your child.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-02-28 08:47 pm (UTC)So I worked at a summer camp for the past two summers, and one of the best counselors there was a hearing-impaired man (also a dancer, so score one for gender discrimination, too). A lot of the groups (mostly girls groups, oddly enough) ended up having prolonged discussions about people and their differences and how they need to be respected--why? Because some of the kids kept picking on this guy, because they didn't know how to react to his impairment. (Note that a lot of these groups included kids with learning disabilities and the like, even if the rest of the people in their group didn't know. Bet they were the subject of teasing for similar reasons, too.)
And it's just. No one deserves to be the subject of mockery just because they got the short straw as far as genetics are concerned. As a parent, if you're letting your children go out into the world and make other people's lives miserable because you don't want to have a tough conversation? You are failing your child.