Re: [bhNEWS] Days Lesson: We're All Alike ( Interest: Kids, Disability, ASL)

[Guest guest]

Got this from a e-mail group, thought you might like

it.

--- hohbob <hohbob@...> wrote:

> From the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, March 6,

> 2002

>

>

> Day's lesson: We're all alike

> Disabilities Day raises awareness among Port

> youth

>

> By MARK SCARBOROUGH

> Tribune Staff Writer

>

> PORT EDWARDS - For a whole day Tuesday,

> kindergartners through fourth-

> graders at the elementary school had a chance to

> experience what it

> might be like to be challenged with a disability.

>

> Activities for school's first-ever Disability

> Awareness Day were

> coordinated by Deb Troyanowski, a Title I

> instructional aide, and Pat

> Sullivan, principal.

>

> Right smack dab in the middle of the day there was a

> " silent lunch, "

> when all 210 of the pupils had to keep their mouths

> shut, and " talk "

> only with their hands, using American Sign Language

> (a complex system

> of communicating based on visual hand signals that

> is used by the

> deaf community through the United States and parts

> of Canada).

>

> There was too much just-out-loud talking at their

> lunch table to suit

> second-graders Fabian Bogdan and Jack Arendt, both

> 8. " I signed, 'No

> talking' a couple of times, " Jack said. " It was fun,

> using our hands

> to make words. "

> Fabian - who said he didn't use his hands much to

> chat - nevertheless

> greeted an adult visitor to the lunchroom with

> perfect signs for the

> words, " You are my friend. "

> " It was cool to use sign language, but, basically, I

> just knew the

> words to 'You Are My Sunshine,' " said third-grader

> Wedig, 9.

>

> " I didn't use sign language very much, but it was

> fun because

> everyone was so quiet, " added kindergartner Sophie

> Weinfurter, 6.

>

> The Port youngsters had studied sign

> language for about three

> weeks, Troyanowski said. " Hopefully, because they're

> at such an

> impressionable age, these students will keep that

> knowledge for a

> long time, " she said. " Hopefully, the activities

> today will make a

> difference in the lives of these kids, especially

> when they come in

> contact with a person with disabilities. "

> Another major event Tuesday was a performance by

> Kids on the Block, a

> central Wisconsin version of an international puppet

> show. This was

> presented by a troupe from ative Educational

> Services Agency

> District 5.

>

> The show features a half-dozen pint-sized puppet

> " children, " with

> different characters challenged by cerebral palsy,

> Down Syndrome,

> blindness, deafness and dyslexia. Puppeteers with

> the group are

> Martha DeYong, Bonnie Ziegler, Barb Wade, Lois

> Schmidt and Chris

> Berger.

>

> " We're trying to reinforce the idea that all

> children are the same, "

> Ziegler said.

> " Our hope is that they'll walk away with an

> awareness of disabilities

> and the realization that people with disabilities

> need friends just

> like everybody else, " Schmidt said.

>

> Two fourth-graders were impressed. " It was a great

> program, " said

> Grimm, 9. " It tells everyone that people who

> have disabilities

> are just like us. "

> " We should care more, " added Luke , 9.

>

> Mark Scarborough is the Daily Tribune's education

> reporter. You can

> reach him at 422-6728 or

> mark.scarborough@....

>

>

>

>

>