Educating the Handicapped

I recently came across an inspiring article from The New York Times in June.  Sharon Otterman writes about a 20 year-old man, Donovan Forde, who suffers from a variety of disabilities that leave him unable to walk, talk, or see.  As a result, he requires intensive daily care.  Despite these challenges, however, teachers and aides at his special education high school in New York work tirelessly to teach him and his classmates.  The work is challenging and under-supported:

His classroom teachers must divide their time with 11 other students with multiple disabilities. So more than anyone else at P.S. 79, the teacher’s aides may have the best shot at providing the intensive one-on-one time that many experts say it takes to make progress with a student like Donovan.

They are also among the lowest paid people in the system, earning between $21,000 and $36,000 a year, and requiring no specific training in special education beyond what they learn on the job.

Their low pay aside, what struck me is how emotionally difficult the work must be.  Donovan has shown little-to-no ability to “learn” in the normal sense of the word (he remembers almost nothing that is taught him) and he abuses himself regularly (he wears large cotton mittens at all times because he has the habit of hitting himself in the head).  Yet there are glimmers of hope and happiness:

Donovan looks as though he is resting, but when Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” comes on, he smiles and raises his chin. From the back of his throat, he sings a few rough, wordless refrains that loosely follow the beat.

And his mother is happy with her son’s life:

But despite her son’s lack of academic progress, Ms. Forde is not dissatisfied. She is grateful that her son goes to school like a regular student, and says that he seems happy most of the time. “The only goal I had for him was when he was in the hospital after the accident, when the nurse told me he wasn’t going to live,” she said. “He’s here, and he’s 20 years old. So he surpassed his goal. He’s alive.”

While this article is not a tale of miraculous healing, I think it gets at a deeper and more important truth: Donovan has been given the gift of life, and he has many moments of true happiness.  Moreover, he presents an opportunity to those around him – his mother, classmates, and teachers – to provide him with loving, sacrificial service.  In our culture of utilitarianism, where we work to define our worth by some kind of equation of happiness and functionality, Donovan provides a very real and inspiring counter point.  Read the whole article by clicking here.