Journal 12- Fazal Mogaddedi

This was a tough question to answer, but after thinking about it for a while I think disability is something that is a concrete/mental characteristic and it can also be a way of classifying people as well. I went to a high school where we had a room that was primarily to teach "special education" kids, and I knew one of the kids who was in that class. The interesting thing is that kids that I knew loved rap music, and he rapped at school all the time. At lunch time he'd battle students in the cafateria. There were times where he was alitle incoherent, BUT there were also times where he was able to freestyle and be totally coherent and everything! No one could deny that this young man had a mental disability, but when he'd freestyle he'd be able to put words together that rhymed, he'd be coherent in his rhymes, and he'd have a lot of fun throughout it all. I remember I always thought why he wasn't allowed to take the classes that all the other students were taking, and why he was stuck in a special education class. I'm not denying the fact that he doesn't have a mental disability, but why couldn't he have been taught the material in a different way. People have different learning styles, so maybe that was something the school could have done just to see if he or any of the other kids in special education could comprehend the material given. Another special education student who I knew was really excited for college, he was going to begin attending the local community college that I attended but he never did. I asked him why one day, and he said that his parents didn't want him attending. I knew the young mans brother so I approached him and asked him why he was unable to attend college and he said his parents said it'll be a waste of time for him to go, he'd be better off staying at home with his family. I think that's why it can be socially constructed as well, people just assume that people with disabilities won't make it in life so they just never give them the chance.