3 ms·

So what would you do if Stephen Hawking's disability had emerged a few years earlier? Keep him out of university?

brudgers 16y ago
My understanding is that cognitive impairment is not typical for people afflicted with muscular dystrophy. But I am not sufficiently familiar with the enrollment policies of English Universities in the 1950's to speculate on a counterfactual.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- jonhendry 16y ago
  I suspect a lot of people as disabled as Mr Hawking is never had the chance for anyone to discover they weren't cognitively impaired, let alone geniuses. People would take one look at the twisted limbs and stuff the poor kid off in a home, and let the kid's brain shrivel. That's one of the ideas behind mainstreaming: put the kids into mainstream environments, with assistance as needed, in order to bring out whatever potential might be there. (Kinda like with 'normal' kids, expose them to art to bring out artistic talents, etc.) Mainstreaming is not only about cognitive impairment. It's disabilities in general. Taking the deaf kid, the kid in a wheelchair, or the kid with a cognitive impairment, and putting them in classes with non-disabled kids, rather than isolating them with others 'of their own kind'.
  - brudgers 16y ago
    I completely agree that mainstreaming is an appropriate educational strategy when used correctly. The issue is the competing interests of inclusion of those with cognitive impairment and upholding academic standards. At the level of primary education, this competition of interests is easy for educators to ignore since many of the objectives are social rather than academic and primary classrooms naturally contain students with widely ranging levels of cognitive development. However, at what point do you use absolute achievement rather than relative to the individual? Middle School? High School? Undergraduate? Graduate? Professional Licensing? The article points to a case well down the slippery slope. Replace "PhD in Math" with "JD" and your at the bottom...unless of course, one advocates requiring courts to consider the cognitive impairments of an attorneys when evaluating the merits of their briefs. The problem is that at some point the consequences of relative standards could seriously affect other people...that's why chiropractors aren't allowed to perform open heart surgery. To cast it in terms of rights, my right to maximize my opportunities does not trump your right to maximize your opportunities, and vice versa.
forensic 16y ago
Hawking doesn't have a learning disability
- jonhendry 16y ago
  Not in the usual sense, no. But his current state of communication problems would certainly be a "learning disability" in a typical school environment where things tend to be a bit faster paced, and teachers and students are often not as patient as people are with Mr. Hawking today.
  - forensic 16y ago
    A learning disability is NOT just "a disability which affects learning" It's a specific thing. You're stretching the definition. It's like someone says, "I don't have cancer, I have aids," and you reply, "Well, aids is a kind of cancer, since it gets into your body and then spreads like a cancer eventually killing you."

My understanding is that cognitive impairment is not typical for people afflicted with muscular dystrophy. But I am not sufficiently familiar with the enrollment policies of English Universities in the 1950's to speculate on a counterfactual.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jonhendry 16y ago
I suspect a lot of people as disabled as Mr Hawking is never had the chance for anyone to discover they weren't cognitively impaired, let alone geniuses. People would take one look at the twisted limbs and stuff the poor kid off in a home, and let the kid's brain shrivel. That's one of the ideas behind mainstreaming: put the kids into mainstream environments, with assistance as needed, in order to bring out whatever potential might be there. (Kinda like with 'normal' kids, expose them to art to bring out artistic talents, etc.) Mainstreaming is not only about cognitive impairment. It's disabilities in general. Taking the deaf kid, the kid in a wheelchair, or the kid with a cognitive impairment, and putting them in classes with non-disabled kids, rather than isolating them with others 'of their own kind'.
- brudgers 16y ago
  I completely agree that mainstreaming is an appropriate educational strategy when used correctly. The issue is the competing interests of inclusion of those with cognitive impairment and upholding academic standards. At the level of primary education, this competition of interests is easy for educators to ignore since many of the objectives are social rather than academic and primary classrooms naturally contain students with widely ranging levels of cognitive development. However, at what point do you use absolute achievement rather than relative to the individual? Middle School? High School? Undergraduate? Graduate? Professional Licensing? The article points to a case well down the slippery slope. Replace "PhD in Math" with "JD" and your at the bottom...unless of course, one advocates requiring courts to consider the cognitive impairments of an attorneys when evaluating the merits of their briefs. The problem is that at some point the consequences of relative standards could seriously affect other people...that's why chiropractors aren't allowed to perform open heart surgery. To cast it in terms of rights, my right to maximize my opportunities does not trump your right to maximize your opportunities, and vice versa.

forensic 16y ago

Hawking doesn't have a learning disability

jonhendry 16y ago
Not in the usual sense, no. But his current state of communication problems would certainly be a "learning disability" in a typical school environment where things tend to be a bit faster paced, and teachers and students are often not as patient as people are with Mr. Hawking today.
- forensic 16y ago
  A learning disability is NOT just "a disability which affects learning" It's a specific thing. You're stretching the definition. It's like someone says, "I don't have cancer, I have aids," and you reply, "Well, aids is a kind of cancer, since it gets into your body and then spreads like a cancer eventually killing you."