I am so excited to share this. I thought it was going to be awful (I talk out of the side of my mouth! I forget what I want to say!), but I’m really happy with this. Please let me know what you think. Love.
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I am so excited to share this. I thought it was going to be awful (I talk out of the side of my mouth! I forget what I want to say!), but I’m really happy with this. Please let me know what you think. Love.
by SIDDATWORK
[..YouTube..] Looking great and talking even better.There’s a lotя╗┐ to take home from your talk Jo.Thanks, i have been educated.
[..YouTube..] What an inspiring talk and story! You areя╗┐ my 11 yr old daughter’s hero…..she’s a #1 supporter of her special needs classmates @ school. She possesses an unwavering expectation that they receive fair treatment from peers and teachers. I feel like she is YOU in 40 years. Thank you Mary for sharing your sister’s good work w/ us!
Fantatstic Jo! I have been reading your blog and silently cheering you from the sidelines for a while now. Your work and your children are inspirational.
This was a really inspiring talk. I wish I had been there to watch it live. You are an inspiration to parents, teachers, human beings…
One of my internet friends came to India and stayed with us with her daughter and son who had Downs syndrome. I think the little boy – George – was one of the most intuitive and intelligent children we have ever seen. He could not enunciate words clearly – but made up for the inability to speak by instinctively conveying what he wanted by gestures and sing language and actions which spoke even more clearly than the spoken word ever will. I am so impressed by the beautiful talk given at your foundation. We were in Doon only for a couple of days and could not come and visit your foundation – but it is a certainty that we shall come and visit you all the next time we come to Doon. You are doing yoeman work in teaching otherly enabled children and we wish you the very best – you are the people who make heaven on Earth. Thanks
Jo, you did make me laugh and make me cry. A truly inspiring talk, though I wouldn’t want it to be the talk of a lifetime, because I wish you a lifetime of talking and inspiring people.
Great talk, Jo! You taught without preaching……Will always try and remember the seven lessons!
Shipra
[..YouTube..] the saints do not blush at their own lack of conformity, but make the world blush at its lack of vision, purpose, soul.
Jo this is amazing! I had goosebumps. I hope I get to come back and see the kids again soon.
Sarah Freeman-Woolpert
[..YouTube..] Great talk and presentation Jo!!
Extremely heart-warmingя╗┐ and powerful. Thanks for highlighting some of the forgotten facts about children with disabilities!!
Unborn babies who have disabilities who are aborted is not the same as being executed. Also, if someone is of the opinion that “cancer can change a person and make them stronger” does not mean they should wish all their friends and family get cancer just so they can become stronger. Same goes for wishing that someone you know has a baby with Down’s syndrome. A baby with downs syndrome has limited life expectancy, has a terrible struggle ahead with heart diseases and lung diseases.
By wishing someone to have a down’s baby or a baby with disabilities, Jo… you are wishing that a child be brought into this world to suffer a bunch of medical problems, operations and surgeries and then die prematurely. You are also hoping their family has to go through losing them at an early age so that “society” can benefit from their personalities. It is an extremely selfish and misguided view. I hope you gain some perspective because you are not helping the cause of disables children
Thanks, all, for the lovely comments. dharinibhammar, I understand your concerns. But many babies with Downs do not have the difficulties you describe – medical science has advanced a great deal. Many families in Haryana or Rajasthan, where female feticide is common, would react as you are if we hoped they would get a girl. We see them as unenlightened only because we’ve changed the story for girls. I hope that some day the same thing will be true for babies with disability.
I have a few comments. I have nothing against taking care of people with special needs and disabilities. I know I will probably be doing that or be at the receiving end at some point in my life. But by calling abortion of disabled child as execution, you are being extremely unfair. And , sex selective abortion is completely different from disability selective abortion. Did it ever occur to you that the 7% who chose to have that baby might have done that for religious reasons. These were probably mothers who would never ever consider an abortion no matter what the circumstances.
Our schools are not based on exclusion. I would love to know where you get your data from. All my friends (from a variety of schools) are helpful and kind and creative. We were never taught to hide out work (copying was only not permitted during an exam) and we were always taught to share. This is all through high school and medical school (which I’m sure you will agree is extremely competitive).
You have a warped perspective even though your heart is in the right place. There is a good reason for parents to choose to not have a baby with special needs. One good analogy that I have is that just because cancer survivors are strong and courageous and learn to appreciate life, does not mean we should hope that every one gets cancer so they can learn to appreciate life. In the same way, there is no reason for hoping that your friend has a Down’s baby… its like hoping she gets cancer just so she can be a better human who learns the joy of appreciating life.
Another issue that you fail to even talk about is the suffering that these disabled children have to go through. Kids with cerebral palsy have painful contractures, kids with Downs have heart defects and intestinal defects and they need to go through surgeries for that, they have an increased risk for cancer, if they have feeding tubes, there is always a risk of infections and they do suffer. And if they are mentally retarded, they do not even comprehend why they are suffering or why they have to go through painful procedures in the hospital. It is already so unfair when children have to suffer, but to wish that on someone… or to blame someone who has the courage to say “no” for that kind of fate for their unborn child, is extremely selfish. I hope you continue to spread awareness, but I also hope it is with more perspective than what I have heard today.
I will not live an unlived life.
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid, more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live,
so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
-DAWNA MARKOVA –
Thank You Jo. I attended the TEDx talks at YB Chavan Auditorium but I think your talk is inspiring, touching, beautiful and something I could listen to over and over again. I have a niece who is special and I love her to bits because of how much I have learnt from her. If God ever gave me a choice, I would want her as my daughter in all my future lives.
Dear Dharini,
Why don’t you try living or working with children/people with disabilities before you conclusively conclude whether or not they have the right to live? My greatest friend in kindergarten was a blue baby. She died when we were in Grade 1. She was often absent from school. In school too, there were many things that she couldn’t ever do like running around during sports. But if her parents had decided to abort her, a whole class full of young people like me would never have met and loved a person who influences (till this day) how I look at life and live it. And, more than that selfish reason, Deepa loved life too. She giggled with us, a lot, was pretty brilliant at studies and loved drawing. What do you think she may have said about living for a few years as opposed to having the right to be born taken away completely?
But more than anything else, would you consider wondering about (quite apart from any religious beliefs) that perhaps you and I don’t really have the right to decide for someone else whether they should live or die?
Thanks for the proactive comment. I agree with the questions you raise ЁЯЩВ
I agree with you completely… you and I definitely do not have a right to decide whether someone should live or die… but we are not deciding for ourselves anyway… you are trying to change a paradigm in a way where the ultimate result might be the government banning screening for disabilities in a fetus the way it has banned prenatal screening for the gender of a baby. If to you, those are exactly the same… then I guess that’s the stand you have taken.
I do not want to conclude whether a child with disabilities has the right to live, I just believe that all parents have a right a decide whether they want to bring a child into this world when the child may end up suffering and dying. Your friend may have influenced you and your friends, but she DIED when she was in grade 1. It is extremely selfish to hope that there are more kids who have to die in grade 1 (probably not very easy for her family or even for her!) so they can impact other kids who will live a long and healthy life. And while medical science has definitely progressed immensely, it cannot take away the increased risk of certain diseases that these children are prone to and end up suffering from. Many children with Down’s may not have a problem but many also will… Where do you want to draw a line. It is one thing to promote awareness about working with children with disabilities or encouraging adoption of children with disabilities, but relating this issue to the issue of abortion when a prenatal diagnosis is made, is the portion I don’t agree with. And I definitely don’t agree with wishing that more people would conceive a Down’s baby is the right way to go about it. It definitely is a striking talking point because it is out of the box, but I really do not agree with it.
I attended the Ted Nariman Point and I agree with the fact that there is a lot to share and learn from children with disability, having worked with children suffering from autism.
It is however extremely disheartening to see them suffer and I dont wish for that at all.
I would not judge someone if they didnt go through with having a child with disability only because it does require a lot of attention not to mention that some parents may not have that kind of money to support them.
The issue is different from female feticide because if these girls were infact born, they would live a relatively less pain-free life.
Life is unpredictable and children die everyday but I would not hope for any of my friends to have a child with disability only because its inevitable that her child will suffer and I cannot wish that anyone go through that kind of pain.
At a time when we teachers in mainstream education argue the purpose of having differently abled kids in the classroom, for not being able to cater to their needs, YOU have, in the first instance stated how these kids raise the bar, and that a teacher trained in special education is far more sensitive to the needs of the individual. Why not have teacher-trainees in BEd colleges learn how to engage with special kids in their classrooms? —Just a thought!
A special woman running a special school in Dehradun
I often shudder when I think how Natty slipped through the net of screening to join our family and be our greatest teacher. Of course Down’s Syndrome is a ‘mild to moderate developmental delay’ rather than a ‘severe disability’ but we need to explain that to the world. Thank you for your wonderful talk Jo. H x
Great talk Jo!
Just came back to see this again ЁЯЩВ