author_by_night (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
author_by_night) wrote2009-02-28 08:31 am
author_by_night) wrote2009-02-28 08:31 am
Entry tags:
What the flying...?
Disabled show host causes controversy
In one chat room, a father lamented that Burnell being on the show forced him to have conversations with his child about disabilities.
Um... so what?
Now, I realize the show is meant for little kids, but.... I just think that the fact that parents are implying that a TV show host shouldn't be a host because of a disability shows that society still has a lot to learn.
Why is it bad to teach your kids that there's different people out there? If you expose them to it early, they'll learn there's nothing to be afraid of.
And you know what? When I read the headline, I looked at the picture before reading article, and it took me a while before I even noticed she only had one arm. I did notice her pretty smile right away, though.
I read the comments, and here's what one says:
Do any of you who think this is so "unbelievable" actually have kids? It's very hard, as a parent, to have every social issue jammed down the throat of your kids before they even hit first grade.
I'm no parent, but I'd rather my kids be exposed early on, when they're young enough to matter-of-factly accept that everyone is different, than when they have a disabled classmate and I find out they've made fun of him because I never taught my kid that it's okay to be different.
In one chat room, a father lamented that Burnell being on the show forced him to have conversations with his child about disabilities.
Um... so what?
Now, I realize the show is meant for little kids, but.... I just think that the fact that parents are implying that a TV show host shouldn't be a host because of a disability shows that society still has a lot to learn.
Why is it bad to teach your kids that there's different people out there? If you expose them to it early, they'll learn there's nothing to be afraid of.
And you know what? When I read the headline, I looked at the picture before reading article, and it took me a while before I even noticed she only had one arm. I did notice her pretty smile right away, though.
I read the comments, and here's what one says:
Do any of you who think this is so "unbelievable" actually have kids? It's very hard, as a parent, to have every social issue jammed down the throat of your kids before they even hit first grade.
I'm no parent, but I'd rather my kids be exposed early on, when they're young enough to matter-of-factly accept that everyone is different, than when they have a disabled classmate and I find out they've made fun of him because I never taught my kid that it's okay to be different.
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This thinking is pravalent and it often comes from a feeling that my child is more important than anyother child or person. I don't want my child to ever experience sadness or pain or fear so I will go so far as to isolate others to achieve that end.
Two years ago my niece was in preschool with a child whose father was dying of cancer. The family was very stressed and needed families from the school to take the child home after school for a few hours to play with the other children from the preschool. This allowed the child a break from the situation and the parents some time to visit the father in the hospital alone.
Very few families were willing to do this. (I ended up taking her almost every day which was fine, but the reason made me angry.) They were afraid that she would mention her father's death and they didn't want their child to know that a parent could die. They were afraid it would scare them. Perhaps they feared the idea themselves. The result of giving in to their fears was social isolation for a grieving child. Cruelty created by the attitude that imagined happiness for my child must come before all other children.
This attitude creates social isolation for the disabled which is worse than the disability and it makes me mad.
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