Unit 4: What is K-12 education and how is ableism embedded in the system?
In this unit, you’ll investigate various aspects of K-12 education (learning, teaching, “special” education), identify the ways ableism is baked into the system, and ponder how K-12 education could be different. This unit’s big question is broken down into 4 smaller questions that guide the modules:
- What is learning and how does it happen?
- How are students supposed to behave at school?
- What is “special” education?
- What is K-12 education that values and embraces diverse disabled students?
In her book Being Seen, Dr. Sjunneson, a DeafBlind professor, offered insight about why it is important to talk about ableism in schools:
“If you’re wondering why we’re spending so much time on ableism in schools, it is because that’s where, for the most part, you are taught to hate yourself. Not only by the teachers or by the source material, but by your classmates, who will exploit your disabilities, and by the system itself, which is not built for you. You will be sent to buildings that are unsafe, you will go on field trips that are unsuitable, and every time that someone abuses you (and until the eleventh grade, there will be many of them) you just have to take it.” (Sjunneson, 2021, p. 80)