Special education students in my area have the opportunity when they are transitioning into adulthood and life after high school to attend a community based training. They are trained by a mentor to clean or organize businesses around town. Many of them work within the university cleaning for 3 to 8 hours a day.
I interviewed one student in the program recently. I asked if she liked being in the transitioning program, which is in conjunction with our public school district. She said, "Hell no". I found that she had a specific interest that she was good at and was still assigned cleaning duties. Why not further her talents, abilities and passion into something she wanted to participate in? I was told that most students in this program are given cleaning duties because those in charge have become complacent in jobs they have to offer students without really asking the students what they want and trying to go out into the community to find a match for them. A professor told me some time ago that if you hated your job would you stay in it? No, then why do we expect people with disabilities to stay in jobs they hate? Another professor told me that decades ago she supervised adults with disabilities pulling tinfoil off objects to recycle....all day long, for pennies. People with disabilities deserve the same interest given to them in search of finding appropriate employment as typical adults. As a young adult of 18 I had already held jobs from the age of 14. At 18 I began working at a nice restaurant as a busser. The main requirement was to pick up all the dirty utensils and take them back to the dishwasher for cleaning. My first day I had on my required pink shirt and took a large load of utensils back to the man behind the dishwasher. As I placed the utensils for him he threw a large pile of dirty dishes into the bath of dirty water so that the whole front of my shirt was splashed, on purpose. By the end of the night I knew two things, being a busser was not my calling in life, and that I didn't need to stay in a job where people threw dirty water at me. People with disabilities may not be able to think through how to approach someone to tell them they don't like the job and why. They might be under the impression that there is no other option or that they would disappoint someone by asking for a different position. Being the best advocate means knowing our students. Cleaning might be a good fit for 25% of the students, but I doubt it's a good fit for 90%. Starting with the assumption that students have interests, we should start with trying to find something that fits with their interests so they can have long term success and satisfaction. I often like to share wisdom from Temple Grandin about students with autism, she states that the best way to help a student with autism gain employment is to turn their fixation into a job. This idea can also be applied to other students with disabilities. Here are a few of her sites that are useful: www.autism.com/advocacy_grandin www.templegrandin.com/faq.html
0 Comments
|
AuthorSpecial Education major in a university teaching program. Substitute teacher, previous homeschool mom, wife. Archives
September 2019
Categories |