After watching the video's, I caught myself reflecting on how I treat, think, or interract with people with disabilites. For example, the story of the child using the stairs and the principal being impressed was eye opening. While the principal congratulated the student, Mrs. M found this interaction as an exception for this child, who is blind, alone. She mentions how she believed the principal did not congratulate every other student. How many students or people have I looked at differently and not expected them to perform daily task believing their disability would prohibit it? Additionally, Mrs. M has high expectations for all of her students and most of them know the entire braille alaphabet by second grade. She equips them with the knowledge they need so they have minimal differences in the classroom; she wants her students to feel welcome and like every other student in the room. The only difference is they are unable to see, but Mrs. M makes it possible for that issue to be a minimal difference in the classroom.
This also caught my attention while listening to Mrs. M! Along with you, I found myself thinking back to the bias quiz we took and how I was slightly shocked at my results. And as I listened to Mrs. M explain this scenario, I thought about the biases that were present. Like you said, these are daily tasks and the principal did not applaud other "typical" students. It just made me think back to the bias quiz and how everyone will always have a sub-conscience idea/understanding of students with disabilities.
I also was impacted by the story with the principal and the student taking the stairs. You mentioned how it caused you to question how many people you have had lower expectations of just because of a disability, but this story really made me reflect on the impact of our words. Personally, I questioned how many times I have congratulated or gotten excited for someone with a disability for completing an every day task without ever thinking about how they could view this as insulting. Now, I am genuinely excited for them, but that is most likely a result of having lower expectations, as you said. I think it is important to recognize this and fix it so that we can raise our expectations and standards for students with disabilities so they have the opportunity to grow and meet or even exceed these expectations.
I agree with you. It brings out what we see as a whole or what we feel in those moments. I can think back to what I've done in this kind of what can I do to change that bias? Going back to the bias behind it could be an amazing thing to see but because we may not know what it's like to go through that every day, we need them to know that they can be treated the same as a person with vision. She brings knowledge to those to show they can do anything they believe they can do, and she puts them on the same levels as everyone else which that's what it needs to be. It lets them know that no matter their disability they can do anything.