What the flying...?
Feb. 28th, 2009 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_nightDisabled 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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
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.