brittney1.mp3

Would you say being a high school student with a disability could be depressing? I find it difficult to do what others want me to do better, when I know I can’t do it. That’s why I think it’s depressing to be a high school student with a disability.

I believe that being a high school student with a disability can be depressing

It can make me cry when I get made fun of because I need extra help in things that I’m not good at, like math or reading and other subjects. It’s more difficult when I go to school and tell people I have to go to a different English class other than a regular ed. student. That’s when they make fun of me.  They make fun of students with disabilities  because they need extra help in certain areas in school. That’s another reason why being a high school student with a disability is depressing. Being in high school student puts a lot of pressure on you and then when you get made fun of because you’re different from everybody else it only adds to the stress. It really stinks because you can’t do a lot of things you want to do like the regular ed. kids in the school can. 

 One of the times I was depressed because I was treated differently because I have a disability was during my freshman year. I got picked on all the time because I wasn’t like everyone else I hung out with. They made fun of me by calling me names like retard and tried to make me do things I couldn’t do, like math.  It made me not want to go outside because of them.

After I graduate from high school I believe having a disability will affect me in my job because I want to become a professional chef. It can affect me when I need to double a recipe. I would probably need a cheat sheet or someone to help me, but I know that I can still do the job.

Being made fun by people who don’t understand what it’s like to have a disability is why I think being a high school student with a disability is depressing.

I believe that being a high school student is never easy.  I also believe that having a disability changes all the rules.  Below are honest words that came straight from the heart of students with learning and cognitive disabilities.  These essays were patterned after National Public Radio’s series “This I Believe.”  Our class would like to thank Mrs. Reed’s class and their blog for the inspiration and George Winston for the “Linus and Lucy” piece to help introduce our essays.

Simply click on the mp3 icon to start the audio podcast.   We encourage youto listen and comment on the essay by clicking the comment button at the end of the post.

travis.mp3

Do you ever feel like People are always trying to put you down? Then you understand what it feels like to have a disability. I believe that having a disability doesn’t stop me from doing what I want. Having a disability dose make things harder. Some times I lose concentration when people are walking in the halls or when people are by me because I have ADHD. If you keep thinking that you can’t do the work you don’t accomplish it. But if you start thinking you can do the work. You will get good grads. You ever feel that it is hard to do work?             I have learned that when you care for people they will care for you back I have all so learned that having a disability things make you that you cant do you can acuty can do it if you put your mind to it. My learning disability sometimes stops me from to reaching my goal of success. Sometime I try hard to make things right but it dose not work out the way I want it to.

Sometimes I have a hard time believing that I’m going to graduate. Other disabled kids tell me that they want to drop out. I ask them why drop out now, you made it this far? Then I find myself falling in that same category and I ask myself that same Question and I could not come up an answer. But I realized that you can’t find a job with out a high school diploma so I chose to stay in school. I believe that even though a disability I can achieve my goal at earning my high school diploma.

brandon-2.mp3

Why do people judge people and make fun of each other?  I believe that people are not dumb just because of their disability and you shouldn’t care what people say about you because there’re just words and they can’t hurt you. Even with a disability you can do what ever you want because you are smart. So because you have a disability you can do what other people can do if you try. If people make fun of you so what? They’re just words and people must not be grown up if they’re making fun of you.  So, if you are picking on someone because of his or her disability that is wrong because you could hurt that person mentally. So please stop picking on the kids with disabilities because they get hurt really easily when they get picked on. 

How would you like it if you had a disability and kid where picking on you. How do you think you would feel? Don’t say that kids are dumb just because they are in special education. Our classes are the same just at a slower pace to help us to learn. So what if you can do it faster than us?   We are still smart so don’t call people in Special Ed dumb or stupid just because were in different classes. We are still learning. It is mean to pick on people with problems. For example, in English we have read the same book, like How to Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. We wrote the same papers as you did, it just took us longer to do it.

k-lynn.mp3

I believe that having a disability does not stop you from accomplishing things you want to do. I always wanted to be a chef. Then I thought, wait I can do this. I can became a chef with my disability. I now attend the Capital Area Career Center in the after noon in the hospitality program to succeed and became a chef. I mean you should not let a disability get in your way of accomplishing great things. Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you can’t be an astronaut if you want to.  Sure I know it takes a toll and is difficult, but if you work at it and you try, you will eventually accomplish the goal you are working at. I speak from experience. I was in 3^rd grade and I really wanted to try to write in cursive handwriting. I tired so hard to accomplish that and I eventually did.  I was so pround of myself. You see people with a dsbilality can go out there and get the same job as any other person out there. You should not let this disability be a red light in your life. All thoughout your life you will come across obstacles and having a disability may make those obstacles a little trickier but eventually you will overcome them I always say that if you want to do something try and try again until you eventually reach your goal. People may say that because I have a disability I can’t be a doctor, I will try my best and one-day I hope to accomplice these goals. People set goal all the time. Maybe the goal is eating breakfast and I believe if you work hard at it you will eventually accomplish those goals. I also believe that people with a disability can accomplish anything that heads their way no matter how long it takes then.

mandy.mp3

I believe having a learning disability can be embarrassing some times.  Having a learning disability is not that easy to deal with. People that don’t have leaning disability don’t know how hard it is to have a learning disability. They don’t know how it feels. It hurts it makes me always put my self down. I don’t feel good about myself because I know that no matter how hard I try to learn some thing I may not understand I will always have a learning disability, it will never go away. I want to be different from others but I want to be smart like them. Having a disability is embarrassing to me because it will effect me after I get out of school. I want to be smart and I‘m tired of people looking at me like I’m not a human being or I’m from a different planet.I have seen a lot of people in my positions that were made fun of because of their learning disability.  They don’t know how it feels. They don’t understand how hard it is to have a learning disability. If it were them that had a learning disability and people were always teasing them, how would they like it?  I know they wouldn’t like it because it is not easy to deal with. People think that just because you have learning disability and you have Special Ed that everything is easy for us, but it’s not. We do the same thing, it is just at a slower pace because it takes us more time to learn the same things that a student without a disability does. I just wish every one would understand how it feels and how hard it is to grow up with a learning disability.  

kevin1.mp3

I believe that all peoples have a disability. They just may know it because everyone has a flaw and it’s considered a disability in today’s standards. So it won’t stop you in life. My strongest beliefs are to never let someone put you down for any reason. Because if you do it will kill your motivation to do anything in life. I have personal experience with that I was put down, then the words got to me and I was in a mess for a long time. It was hard to get through, but I did find my way through it. Some people will say just ignore it. That doesn’t always work. It doses take you to stand up for your self in extreme conditions it can be necessary to fight. So think have you ever had to standing up for yourself? Be brave, but take only necessary actions and be responsible. An example is one time I got called a retard because I’m in Special Ed. By some one, It had made me think I could not amount to anything in life. But eventually I took a stand in my mind and proved to my self I could do something with myself. One time I had to take an extreme measure to get out of a situation. A kid was saying, “you’re a tard” to me. I ignored what he was saying for a long time, but I could not get it out of my head. So I confronted him. It broke out in a fistfight. I got in trouble, but I did get it out my head because he stopped saying it. I believe not letting people put you down is a very serious thing that peoples need to make sheer they aren’t being put down at all because it is a serious problem.

  matt.mp3

I believe that having a disability can make your life hard.  My disability will make it hard to get a job because it takes me some time to do what they said for me to do. It takes me some time to think what my mom told me to do today when I get home because I am slow at remembering things.  It takes some time to do what my mom or the teacher said for me to do for the day or at school because I work at a slower pace. It takes me a lot of time to do chores because I like to move around the house in slow speed or fast speed.

I believe that a disability can be a hard life. A disability can be a hard life or an easy life. A disability can make it hard to get a job. A disability can help you in life or a disability can not you help in life. I like to have my disability because I like to think what the teacher said to me to do and I like when the teacher says to other people and me what to do on the work or homework. When teachers tell me what to do it makes it easier to do the work.

I believe everyone has a disability that they like or do not like having. A disability can make some people happy or other people sad. A lot of people like to learn about their disability so that they how what they can do or can not do in their life. I would like to get a job where I will work with others who have the same disability. I like to do my work fast or slow because my disability. I work fast when I want to get the work done and I work slowly when people tell me fast directions and I don’t understand what to do.

            I believe that having a disability can make your life hard because people work at different paces. 

christal.mp3

I believe having a disability can be annoying sometimes. The only reason why I say a disability can be annoying is because people want to set there and make fun of people. The Most common form is name-calling like Stupid or retarded. After a while people who are criticized by other students become annoyed. It gets frustrating having to do your work when there is no one there to help you. You feel like you want to tear the work up into little pieces. Some students a disability also feel like hurting themselves by cutting, pulling hair or beating themselves up mentally. It is really hard having a disability because there are people out in the real world who treat you differently and it really does hurt. It does not help that other kids or people could end up helping student with disability not criticizing them. I believe it is annoying to have a disability because I am the one that has a learning disability. And I have been called stupid and retarded and all the other names that can hurt your feelings. I did have friends before I told them that I had a disability. But once I told them about it, they did not want to be my friends because they did not want to be seen with me. They did not want others to say that you are friends with a retard. So then they would turn and tell me to my face that they do not want to be my friend. I felt like I had no friends. It hurt inside because I thought I had a friend until they found out I was in Special Ed. I think that others are in Special Ed should not have to deal with that.

angel4.mp3

I believe that we should be treated the same way as everyone without a disability. Just because people have a disability’s doesn’t mean we’re different. We can do the same things as other people without a disability. The people who don’t have a disability are in other classes. My class is much slower to help me learn at a better pace for me. The regular classes are harder for some of the kids with a disability. It is harder for me because it goes too fast for me to keep up. The reason why it is hard is because people with a disability may read only a couple of sentences. Then we get behind and the work gets too confusing. The other students should treat us the same as other classmates. They need to treat people with a disability with respect.
I believe that we should not be put down by others. Name calling or saying something mean makes me feel upset. Just because I have a disability doesn’t mean that my feelings can’t be hurt. I get mad about being put down because it’s not right for others to put people down who have a disability. If the people who put others down had a disability they would feel the same way as we do. It is hard enough to fit in with different groups of people because we picked on differently. It bothers me that having a disability makes people think that I don’t fit in to their group. I have a disability that makes me talk differently than others. People don’t always understand what I am talking about and so they put me down. I want to be part of the group but it is hard for me to fit in.
I believe that everyone should be treated the same way even if they have a disability.