Disability in Education

I remember learning about the industrial revolution in middle school and learning how our education system began to reflect the standardization of factory spaces. Students lined up in desks facing the front of the room. Standardized tests were administered to assess the large increase in students attending schools. I remember being appalled by the similarities between working on a factory floor and working in a classroom. Yet, despite that revelation, our teachers and school system do not do anything to change the classroom orientation nor how we assess students. The readings for this week on disability in academia highlighted some of these restrictive and standardized methods. Specifically, Margret Price in “Introduction to Mad at School” describes the topoi of academia which “intersect problematically with mental disability.” The foundation of our education system (and factories) is definitely based on productivity, which has led to standards that exceed what any human is capable of doing in a healthy manner. Additionally, this also highlights what Alison Kafer mentions in “Time for Disability Studies and a Future for Crips” as we have been taught that time equals money and that we must sacrifice our health to produce work. Kafer also noted that crip time is not simply time and a half on an exam, but rather a reorientation of time. How can this reorientation of time be incorporated in the classroom? Price mentioned how a writer may not be able to keep up with the demands of their work in a linear fashion as the process of writing may take different forms for different people. However, there is an expectation that students not only reach certain expectations, but continually surpass them. Another topic that Price comments on is independence. On the factory line, each person completes their section, and while their work is dependent on other factory workers, there is no sense of collaboration. School and society, for the most part, prioritize independence and individual abilities without considering how people rely on each other for support, to generate ideas, and facilitate community. 

The “Introduction to Academic Ableism” by Jay Dolmage also highlighted how higher education restricted people with disabilities from attending their institutions. Just as university restricted women and people of color from studying, people with disabilities were also disqualified to attend institutions of higher education. The idea of higher education also suggests that there is a “lower” form of education as well, which creates a hierarchy and secures non-disabled white men at the top of the pyramid. I was also interested in how Dolmage describes the aesthetic steep steps that many universities have. These iconic steps supposably illustrate the grandness of the school and the heights that you will reach in your education, yet both physically and metaphorically restrict people with disabilities from engaging in the classroom. And within the walls of these inaccessible classrooms, students learn about eugenics as a scientific topic.