There were a few things from last class that I wish we had discussed in more depth. For one, the intersection of ableism and queer identity, and the parallels between language that has been reclaimed in the disabled and queer communities, or perhaps discuss other parallels between those communities. I also don't really understand a lot of the assumed perceptions of disabled people and where they come from. What is the theory behind them, the rationale? Why does society see disabled people as broken, in need of cure, incompetent, etc? I feel that in our discussion, we take that fact for granted and have not dissected why that is the case. 

When we arrived to YASP we got to know two of the other people that work with the program including Sarah who is the co-founder. She is actually the one that does many of the visits/workshops and has created a bond with the people who where incarcerated and are now working for YASP. We discussed what we would like to do to help them and they were very welcoming towards us. They even suggested that we attend some of their meetings during the week if it fit our schedule. I found some interest in helping them promote the program after I learned that they had a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter page that had not been updated frequently. Another thing that interested me was the poetry workshop that they have at the jails.

Hello peers, friends and optimistic learners, 

Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund (DREDF) Statement on Executive Order

"DREDF strongly condemns the immoral and unconstitutional Executive Order issued by President Trump on January 27, 2017, which suspends all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days, bans all people coming from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, for 90 days, and prohibits refugees from Syria for an undetermined time.

1/28/17, after the announcement of Trump's executive order on immigration.

1-22-17
Dear Friends,

This is an article I read over winter break while waiting to get my wisdom teeth extraction consultation that solidified my decision to take these courses. BTB people especially might connect with it. Former inmates discuss, among other things, how what they read in prison motivated them to pursue higher education and start a prison to school pipeline movement for other formerly encarcerated people at high ed. institutions.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/the-ex-con-scholars-of-berkeley

While reading the Plemons piece, "Teaching," I was reminded from the very first paragraph of our own classroom dynamic. Plemons explains that her goal in a classroom is to create an environment where students feel as equals so that they can "contemplate, challenge, and create in ways that validate their role as co-creators." In the short time we've been a group so far, I've found myself feeling in a way that I am not very familiar with while in class.

Unfortunately, I've been sick with the flu since Tuesday so I missed class on Wednesday and Thursday and wasn't able to join my group on our first Praxis trip. While I am excited and anxious to get better so I can return to the class and join my classmates, as well as hear about the other Praxis sites, I can't help but feel like I've fallen behind just a little beecause I couldn't join everyone for the majority of our second week of the semester, and therefore missed a lot of the courssekeeping and discussions that took place in the classroom.

After reading through the first chapter of Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity, I realized that was the first time I came across the description of disability studies. Simi Linton claims that disability studies challenges the notion that disability is primarily a medical category. To be frank, I’ve never put much thought into the academic field of disability studies and I must admit that my understanding of disabilities has only be centered around the medical aspects. Linton goes on to expose a major flaw in the liberal arts curriculum with respects to the study of disability, demanding that disability studies be reframed around a primarily social and political significance.