O' Wad Some Pow'r the Giftie Gie Us, Tae see Oorsel's as Ithers See Us
(From: To a Louse: On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at
Church. Robert Burns)
Or
Observing How People React to My Having Cerebral Palsy
It's not obvious to most, at first glance, that I cannot use my
right hand and that I walk with a limp, because my right leg is
shorter than my left and my ankle doesn't bend. So, one of my biggest
challenges is explaining to people why I cannot do certain things and
require assistance, at times. But, I have so much practice at doing
tasks with one-hand, that some friends who have known me for a long
time, no longer notice. But the fact that my disability is not
immediately obvious has created some "interesting"
situations.
An early memory is of the days when corporal punishment was
permissible and used frequently, in school. Until 1975, in Scotland,
teachers were permitted to administer punishment by hitting pupils on
the hand with a leather strap. This link will explain more:
http://home.freeuk.com/mkb/instruments/scotsbelt.htm
For the most part, the teachers used the strap to discipline
recalcitrant boys, but on some occasions a few teachers administered
it as punishment for bad work.
I have a clear memory of one such occasion, when I was about 9
years old, in primary school. The teacher had given the class a set
of math problems to solve: probably concerning trains going at a
certain speed over a certain distance, or baths filling up at a
certain rate and overflowing. I never had any aptitude for math and
came up with an incorrect answer for most of the problems.
But, I was not the only one with incorrect answers and the teacher
called about 12 of us to the front of the class. I took my place in
the line and waited my turn for the strap. Thwack! Thwack! The
teacher struck each child on the left hand with the strap and they
returned to their seats, rubbing their palms.
I moved up to stand in front of the teacher and I held out my left
hand as the others had done. She did not raise the strap over her
shoulder in preparation to hit my offered palm, but she stared at me
with horrified eyes and jerked her head to indicate that I was to
return to my seat.
She gave no explanation, but obviously she could not bring herself
to hit a child with a disability. If that were the case, Why did she
choose to hit any child?
But, even if the teacher let my mistakes go unpunished, my
classmates made sure I did not get off so lightly and they taunted
me, as only classmates know how.
When I think about that incident, I wonder why the teacher didn't
use it as an opportunity to educate the class about disability. But,
instead, her silence served to help make me "other."
2:54:18 PM 
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