Tags
disability, economic well-being, mental disabilities, police brutality, poverty, special needs, starting your own business
A California high school apologized for making special needs students dig through the trash for cans and bottles to earn money.
“I personally apologize to any students who may have been humiliated,” said Elliott Duchon, superintendent of Jurupa Unified School District. “Our teachers care very much about the students they teach.”
That statement is a LIE and I can prove it –
Instead of makers space to learn how to invent, problem solve & make money from it, instead of online skill sets, biz incubator – that school had students dig through trash to get what amounts to filthy, unhealthy, humiliating and dangerous activity for pennies while not giving them the skills to make a living to provide for their own needs.
Let me tell you a thing or two about special needs people, including students and adults in the communities of America. We are not less than you. We are not less than others. In fact, because of our unique perspective, we bring to the table things you could not begin to imagine. Many of us are solution oriented thinkers because we have to be just to survive through daily living.
We’ve seen the worst of humanity in the most brutal and obscene ways AND had to deal with it for you to be meeting us today at all. That is true of a 3-yr old with special needs to every adult and student of any age in between with “special needs” for whatever reasons. We are not less than you.
When programs are made for us, we deal with the worst of it – not the best – because of prejudice, limited short-term thinking of those who are providers, social outcast status in the caste system of America that shouldn’t exist here and all of our other problems every moment on top of it. There is so much that would be needed to even begin to have a level playing field that to make it harder for us is nothing short of cruel.
When I read of a high school having special needs students rake through trash to get cans and bottles to turn in for money, it does not tell me there is a healthy respect for fellow human beings underlying those decisions. It does tell me that a couple things would have to be true for that to have been considered at all.
A California high school apologizes for making special needs students dig through trash. http://nydn.us/1v2z9EH
A so-called functional skills program tailored for students with learning disabilities included a lesson on rummaging through garbage for recyclables that can be exchanged for money. Parents of students at Patriot High School in Jurupa Valley, Calif., were outraged that teachers would make their children do that when they could have been learning real-life skills.
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On top of not serving the students, money given to fund the programs was wasted by giving them another lesson on being “less than” without any opportunities in America to do anything beyond that.
It also means the people in the school, including administrators who allowed the class to be used that way – didn’t know these things either –
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The World’s 12 Highest-Paid DJs
Calvin Harris is once again EDM’s Cash King, pulling in $66 million over the past 12 months. The top ten earners on our list racked up a staggering $268 million this year, 11% more than the $241 million haul of last year’s top ten. Read on to see the full list.
That came from this article –
The World’s Highest Paid DJs: Electronic Cash Kings 2014
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Why weren’t those skill sets being explored – obviously capacity for that, obviously money to be made with that, obviously healthy self esteem goes with it. But, no.
And the decision-makers in that school didn’t know this one about crowd-funding which they could have shown those students how to do –
Crowdcube sets World Record raising £1.2 million in 16 minutes http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/?p=25835
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Disgraceful: Half of all Americans killed by police every year are mentally ill http://slnm.us/FQhpShu
And it is no wonder – as special needs people and students – despite millions of dollars being spent on programs to “help” us – there are none of them offering opportunities for independent living skills and financial income producing skill sets such as those available through makers spaces, business incubators, coding, app development with teams of people who could work together with us to make those, inventing solutions and crowd sourcing them as startups, citizen science opportunities to invent and innovate in a larger world – none of it.
Then in the community, to be treated as something less than a dog with no real income potential, shunned, misunderstood, brutalized by police and community members and often, by family as well. But this is America and every one of us know it at the same time and every one of us, special needs or not – know when such a deep wrongness is happening like these – that it IS wrong.
And none of us know how to make it better which is why the programs for special needs students and adults were put into place in the first place and funded to help make up the difference and change our life skills into a more equitable level playing field in our lives. But, prejudice simply won’t allow that view even while taking those funds, being paid to serve us, using the money intended to serve us to do no more than provide jobs and nice homes to those working in them, few of which have special needs at all.
Why didn’t those school officials and teachers give these opportunities to their students to understand life skills about money –
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The Makers Trend in America and around the world –
Maker Pro Newsletter – 04-13-14
Showing vast array of makers space information including prototype building, crowdfunding, new products being created by makers and makers groups.
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Edinburgh Pre-Incubator Scheme (Epis) which will halt next month after Scottish Enterprise withdrew its funding.
Aside from Pufferfish, which makes spherical displays, other notable successes from Epis include, Burdica Biomed, which earlier this year signed a distribution deal with Chinese giant Sinopharm, and waste water manager H2Ology.
Entrepreneurs who are currently using Epis – which provides mentoring, academic partnerships and workspace
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So instead of taking the valuable perspectives, problem-solving skills and life experiences of students and adults with special needs to apply them into incubators, app development, team business building, team innovation creation, makers spaces, incubators, business accelerator or pre-incubator programs, 3-d printing and prototyping, or online business skill building – they had them digging through trash and filth for pennies. There is nothing right about the thinking that would do that and call it, giving them life skills.
– cricketdiane
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Quirky – create a product idea, submit it and they build it, offer it online and share the revenue from it with the creator.
Zazzle and CafePress – allow products to hold the artworks, sayings, words, designs and ideas of the creator, then shares the proceeds from sales of those products.
InnoCentive – offers problems that need solving – innovations that are needed by businesses, industries and government agencies across US – solutions get money.
Android and iPhone encourage app development and offer tools.
Coding opportunities for learning are available for free online whether a person does better with a video or written materials, webinar, or podcast – or interactive.
Accelerators, incubators and pre-incubators are online, around the world and throughout the US in nearly every community large and small for inventing / making a business.
Crowdfunding through Kickstarter, IndieGogo, GoFundMe and others with various specialties can fund a project including table-sized interactive monitors for teamwork.
Makers Spaces, Makers Faires, Kinetica and Hack-a-thons are hacking everything from Ikea furniture to joining for weekend prototype building / problem solving incubators.
Design a fabric, design clothing to be offered for sale for a portion of the proceeds from sales have been shown on international news shows – haven’t checked those yet.
Pinterest, social networking and blogging allow personal expression, exploration, how to, and design / invention / innovation / inspiration that can’t be beat even at a library.
Deviantart and many other sites online offer print on demand services that share proceeds from the sale of prints and canvases of any possibility of art & drawing.
Video can be made with revenue sharing – including to offer how to and information rich videos, sharing funny stories and musical talent, creating original animations, etc far beyond the prat fall humiliations some might force special needs students to do. And, blogging with a video channel on YouTube or Livestream channel on Livestream and others – about a focused subject matter can offer enough money that some are making six figures out of them from Mommy Blogs to Makeup and Fashion Blogs written by young women. It is simply a different way of thinking about those with special needs, of what we can do, and of what could be available to us, and of what we are worth to the society in which we will live for the duration of our lives or be killed by it’s vagaries.
it is a problem – it speaks to the unveiled prejudice all of us are metting everyday with people not knowing there is another way and forcing those unable to stop them with further abuses to their self-esteem.
It shows nothing but that and didn’t show them what could be done.
– cricketdiane
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On NHK news – In Japan there is a mall with an area for children with small suites set up like different kinds of businesses manned with adults as they would work there and the children try being employees along side them in small groups to understand what it is like in those jobs. They have fast food restaurant style, emergency aid type, retail and others in this and groups of children come try them as a neat, wonderful thing to do. Why can’t we do that in America? Why is it so hard to consider people in context including those of us with special needs on top of everything else? Why is that so hard?
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littleBits: DIY Electronics For Prototyping and Learning
by littleBits TV – littleBits puts the power of electronics in the hands of everyone. Make your own electronic creations with no soldering, wiring, or programming required.
CreateSpace: Self Publishing and Free Distribution for …
CreateSpace provides free tools to help you self-publish and distribute your books, DVDs, CDs, video downloads and MP3s on-demand on Amazon.com and ..
Makers Spaces can be found throughout the country – this is how MIT does it –
MITERS
Originally founded as a club to give MIT students free and open access to computers, … creative haven and build-anything-you-want, if-you-break-it-fix-it space.
SketchUp: Home
SketchUp is 3D modeling software that’s easy to learn and incredibly fun to use. Download SketchUp today for free and get started drawing in 3D.
Download SketchUpYou’re about to download SketchUp. Step 1: Let’s choose …
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Shapeways – Design, buy, and sell products with 3D Printing
Design, Prototype, Buy and Sell custom products at Shapeways; The world’s largest online 3D Printing Service, Community and Marketplace.
WIX.com: Free Website Builder | Create a Free Website
Create a free website with Wix.com. Customize with Wix‘ free website builder, no coding skills needed. Choose a design, begin customizing and be online today!
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Don’t tell me what this school did was in any way right. It wasn’t. – cricketdiane
There’s no time to waste. In five weeks you will begin to build a founding team, validate an idea and get out a working prototype. Ideally, the end of Founder Labs is the start of a new venture with a great team and a validated idea.
