I was interested by Lennard Davis' comments on the connection between statistics, ideas of normalcy, and eugenics. As a mathematician, I love how pure math is often exempt from being tainted by the biases that plague other sciences (though at the cost of being disconnected form the problems of society). Statistics is different than math, and like other natural and social sciences has the power to be abused. In defense of statistics, I think that what Davis fails to point out is that statistics in and of itself is not inherently a problem. A normal distribution in the mathematical sense is purely descriptive.

These readings gave me a lot to think about. They made me think about bodymind and the supposed dualism. They made me think about how reason and emotion are intertwined. They also made me reflect on how my mental disabilities have been dealt with in academica. For the most part professors and administrators have been accommodating, but I do remember one instance where I was "overly emotional" and was told to practice being more professional and rational. All of this makes me wonder how we can make academia more accessible for mentally disabled people, or if that approach is misguided, and instead we should recognize that academia is not the only way to a successful and enjoyable life. 

I wanted to make a comment on what we have read in the story. I have actually read excerpts from this school in highschool but I don't think I was able to fully grasp what I was reading. I don't think I was able to fulling grasp who Fredrick Douglass was and the extreme tension that I feel reading it. I am also able to make the connection between literacy and how important it was for him in that time period. Literacy was a way out for him. I think that if he hadn't learned how to read and write, because literacy meant power which slaveowners did not want slaves to have, he wouldn't been able to even begin to think of a plan to find freedom or to even tell his story.

Sorry that it took me so long to make a post, I was having some issues with making the post and finally got it to upload!

Question: Which key issues in urban education seems the most pressing so far? Why? How might you rethink thesee issues?

I’m probably not a philosopher as well, just like Harriet McBryde Johnson. In this chapter of Too Late to Die Young, when Peter Singer was pointing out the suffering disabled people bring to other people, Johnson argued “as a society we should pay workers to provide that care in the home.” A philosopher like Peter Singer would consider individual sufferings and balancing the equation of happiness, but a practioner like Johnson would consider the role of the society in solving real world problems. This can’t make me stop thinking about the infanticide situation in China. Infanticide has only become illegal in China since 1949. Before 1949, infanticide and throwing away babies (which is about the same thing as infanticide) were normal for undesired infants.

Harriet McBryde Johnson’s chapter, Unspeakable Conversations was my favorite reading for this week. In the chapter Johnson recalls her visit at Princeton University when she spoke in opposition to Peter Singer, who is “the most influential philosopher of our time”(201).  Peter Singer wants parents to have the right to kill their disabled babies because he doesn’t consider them “persons”. In my last blog post I used the word outraged a lot, and again I’m here to tell you that I’m outraged by 100% of the opinions Peter Singer holds towards disabled people. I was at a loss for words when reading that someone could actually believe that it would be best to kill an individual who has a severe cognitive impairment.

I was, very frustratingly, sick again this past week, and so I was unable to go into the city with my group this week. I'm still not really sure what happened and I got sick again, but it hit me at once and then left me again three days later with nothing but some whispers of the weakness in my body from being ill. Though I felt extremely guilty when I woke up Friday morning with my originally set alarm, I immediately made the decision that it woudn't be a good idea for me to go to my Praxis site that day. It was frustrating, having to tell people that I was sick again and couldn't show up.