Thursday, October 15, 2009

My talk to 7th Graders about Down syndrome


This past Tuesday, I went to Nic's 7th grade class to speak about Down syndrome. The purpose for my visit, was to prepare those 7th graders who are participating on John Michael's team in the Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk coming up on October 25th.

It was an easy audience to do my inaugural talk on Ds. They all love John Michael, who was in the classroom with us, but none have ever asked anything about him or Down syndrome.

I only had about 25 minutes to speak before the end of the school day, so I opened up by talking a little about what Down syndrome was and how the extra chromosome affects John Michael physicially as well as his ability to learn, that it's not a disease that you can catch and it can't be cured. I showed them a quick PowerPoint slide show that I made up with some Ds facts and photos of John Michael.

Once I had them hooked into the topic, I spoke about the R word. I acknowledged that everyone in the room, at one time in their lives, has probably said the R word to mean something was stupid or dumb. I told them that the R word is like hate speech to people with intellectual disabilities and that we need to replace the R word with the word Respect. When you use the R word around people with intellectual disabilities, it is a cowardly act, because their feelings will be very hurt, but they probably won't fight back. I don't know if they ever thought about the R word and John Michael at the same time, but I asked them to think about him if they were ever tempted to say the word. I then showed them 2 short PSAs about the R word. They really liked that.

The Arc "Respect" PSA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM96e0yWjhI&feature=related

End the R-Word http://www.youtube.com/user/SpecialOlympicsHQ#p/f/9/gXg5Q0dI6nM

Finally, I wanted to talk to them about the many different faces they'll see at the Walk. I told them that it's OK if seeing older children and adults with Ds makes them uncomfortable. Acknowledge and accept the fact that you're uncomfortable, but resist the urge to make fun of people just because they look or act differently than you. If someone with Ds approaches them at the Walk, I suggested the best thing to do is smile and say 'hi' and realize that they are more like you than different.

At the end, I showed a 4 1/2 minute video essay called "Difference is an Artist's Game" presented by an 8th grade girl who has a younger brother with Down syndrome. This is a very powerful video and she asks some very deep, pointed questions of the young audience. She relates her brother to a Picasso painting. It's very beautiful and moving.

Difference is an Artist’s Game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO911lWVGpQ Must see!


We didn't have time for questions and answers as this brought us up to the very last minute. I even had 2 more PSAs to show and couldn't get to them. I could have easily spoken and shared with them another 10 to 15 minutes if we'd had the time. The room was silent throughout the talk. Afterwards, several came up to me thanking me and some told me they really wanted to do the Walk. So far, we have 8 families registered from Nic's class, bringing our team total to over 25.


The links below are also excellent and I didn't get to show them. That evening, the 3rd grade teacher whose classroom we had used for the Smart Board, asked if I could come talk to her class, too. She was very moved by the talk. Yes! I would love to!


More Alike Than Different http://www.ndsccenter.org/

BE A FAN – “R” WORD CAMPAIGN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRUOL5Rm2XY&feature=related


19 comments:

  1. Glad it went so well! Thanks for sharing the links! I had seen all of them but the Art one... AMAZING! Hope you get lots of walkers to join your team! I know our 14-year-old's friends are SO supportive of our family and many come to our Buddy Walk each year! (Some even volunteer!) It's great!!

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  2. Way to go Monica...so neat to make a difference...and you did! You are going to have so much fun at your walk...what a great opportunity to speak to these school children....

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  3. Monica I have been so excited since Monday when you mentioned that you were doing this to hear how it went. I have been wanting to do something like this also. William knows more "big" kids at my girls' school than I do~LOL. Sometimes I wonder if they even realize he is "different" They are so accepting, however I know it will not always be like this and I would love to educated the kids about this very important subject. Thank you for posting and if you could give me some pointers I would love to do the same soon at my kids' school. You can email me at narrettog@yahoo.com

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  4. Awesome Monica!! I hope I can do that for Ainsley and Harper's class one day! You made a big difference today in a lot of little lives. Btw- you're beautiful and John Michael is beautiful too!

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  5. sounds like it was a great talk with the kids at nic's school! how exciting that you have so many people on your team for the walk! i need to go back and watch the links you included... thank you for doing that!!!!! :)

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  6. Oh Monica,that is just awesome!What a great job you did and it's super that the 3rd grade teacher wanted you to speak to her class too!

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  7. That's fantastic, Monica! You should be very proud of yourself - you've just educated a class full of people who will in turn educate others and other and others....Amazing!

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  8. Beautifully done! Thanks for teaching to make the world a better place for all our little ones!!

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  9. That is awesome! I can't think of a better way to bring awareness than to the younger generation.

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  10. Way to go, sounds like you did an excellent job.good luck and have fun on your buddy walk.

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  11. Awesome Monica. You made really interesting points and gave those kids lots of important information that they will never forget. Earlier this year I also signed up to speak in my daughter Hannah's 6th grade class about Ds. I am very excited about the opportunity to do this. You have given me different thoughts and persepctives...esp. about the R word. I personally am not offended when I hear it...so I don't give it a lot of thought. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt others, and for that it deserves to be said. Thank you so much for sharing.

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  12. What a great thing that you are doing. I am sure your talk was great instead of just reading about ds in a book or hearing about it. I love that you brought in sooo many resources for them.

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  13. That is so wonderful, Monica! What a great thing you are doing. 7th grade is such a receptive age. Gabby and I thank you!!

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  14. This is EXCELLENT!!!! If only this talk could be given in every school! These are lucky kids who have been freed of damaging ignorance. Fantastic!

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  15. Wow, sounds like a very moving presentation. What a great job of educating you are doing. The kids in that class will remember this forever and it will help all of our kids for years to come. Your amazing!!!

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  16. Monica

    great job

    do u think nick would be interested in trying to go to DC in January, He can apply to be part of the first ever Including Samuel youth summit. I am trying for a chance and thought it would be cool if Nick and I went together

    here is the link
    http://www.includingsamuel.com/home.aspx

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  17. It sounds like you gave an amazing talk that really raised awareness and opened their minds!

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