In 1925 without telling the head of the school board, Mr. Jordan Ida Bidson, a fourteen year old takes over her teacher’s job secretly after the teacher left when an emergency popped up with her mother. Ida and her fellow classmates continued on with their studies hoping not to repeat everything that they learned this year. Until the county examiner comes, she finds out what they are doing but agrees to not tell Mr. Jordan if every child takes the exam. Ida and Tom, the only two eighth graders in the school were the only ones that had to take it to pass the eighth grade and move on to high school.
Women were an important aspect to the Civil War. One of those woman was Clara Barton. She took on many roles during the Civil War that were focusing on helping others.
While doing so, Mairs uses logic, humor, and an optimistic tone to break the societal attitude towards people with disabilities, portraying her success and the positivity throughout her life with multiple
In the article Beautiful Brains by David Dobbs, evolutionary research conveys that during the adolescent and teenage years the brain encounters an astonishing amount of growth and transformation. Dobbs states that these developments contribute to many of the irresponsible decisions made by teens. In the past, the brain was thought to cease maturing around the age of ten, however, new investigations have found that between the ages of twelve and twenty five, the brain continues to develop, undergoing a considerable metamorphosis. During this metamorphosis, myelin insulates a greater number of neuron’s axons, increasing the speed in which messages are exchanged, dendrites branch out and become broader, accelerating the rate at which messages are received, and synaptic pruning occurs which causes the brain’s cortex to become slimmer and more adept. During teenage years, the brain is still learning to network as well as deal with day to day obstacles such as stress, exhaustion and problems. Dobbs explains that teens act the way they do because their brains are not done maturing.
“2.2 million people in the United States depend on a wheelchair for day-to-day tasks and mobility. 6.5 million people use a cane, a walker, or crutches to assist with their mobility”. Every single day, people varying in ages, struggle to live their lives due to conditions out of their control. Whether it be life threatening or not, it can have effects that are both socially and emotionally harming. Although some of them may change appearances on the outside, other people cannot forget that all people, not matter the disability, have brains and personalities of their own that may not be seen to the human eye. The book Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, shares the story of Melody, a girl who is much more than her cerebral palsy: she is brilliant.
Meet Jason, a child with severe special needs. Jason is a young boy who spends his whole life sitting in a wheelchair and hitting words. If that sounds like a depressing life, it is. Jason wants so badly to just live like a normal boy. Being paralyzed in a wheelchair and the inability to talk makes Jason 's life all that much harder. Then, he meets Catherine, a girl who just can 't stop staring at him in the Occupational Therapy office. Rules by Cynthia Lord, teaches a valuable lesson that people are not always as they appear to be.
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was an important woman figure in the time of the Civil War. She was every soldiers’ angel in their time of suffering. She was even given the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield”, but let’s start off with getting to know Clara a little bit more before I tell you about how great she was.
Clara Barton was a shy young girl who grew up to become one of the most respected women in American history. She spent much of her life caring for and inspiring people. Throughout her life she was a teacher, a nurse, and a great organizer. When she taught she helped and inspired the kids to do better. When she nursed people she comforted and cared for them. By founding the American Red Cross she took care of people during disasters and inspired people to help each other. Clara Barton helped many people by teaching them, nursing soldiers and others, and by founding the American Red Cross.
Nancy Mairs, a feminist writer who has Multiple Sclerosis, defines the terms in which she interest the most with the world. Nancy Mairs will name herself a cripple and not be by others. She will choose a word that represents her reality for example in the beginning of her story she mentioned about her being in the bathroom trying to come up with a story about cripples. She was in the handicap bathroom and when she tried to open the door she fell, landing fully clothed on the toilet seat with her legs splayed in front of her and she said “the old beetle -on-it’s back routine.” not only does she make fun of herself, but she also has a great sense of humor. The little details she puts on her stories will make you picture it in your mind. She just doesn't want her readers to see her as a handicap person, but a person who wants the world to see her as a tough woman. One whom the fates, gods, viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her disabilities.
As an individual who developed a serious case of multiple sclerosis, Nancy Mairs begins to see herself in a different way, not as a normal person but as a “cripple”. As she opens with “I am a cripple.”. The disease ripped away her ability to walk. The disease allowed her to realize the deeper meaning of derogatory terms, such as “disabled” or “handicapped, especially the term “cripple”. The disease redrew her personal sketch, becoming something though physically lacking, yet resilient beyond comparison. By combining rhetorical strategies with rhetorical appeals, Mairs presents herself in a way that invokes an emotional response from the reader.
Scott Hamilton once stated, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” Disability is only an obstacle in a person's life, but it does not set the identity of that person. John Steinbeck's novel shows how disabled people are treated differently by writing about their heartbreak and sorrow. Many individuals with disabilities feel that a disability is a wall blocking them from achieving their goals. In our society, people are told what to be and what to do with their disability, but one should have the choice to carve their pathway to success. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrayed a political statement by looking at mental and physical disabilities through different characters such as Curley's Wife, Crooks, and Lennie.
Waist High In the World is a novel that focuses on the importance of accepting everyone with dignity and respect despite their disabilities and differences. The author of the book, Nancy Mairs purpose when writing the book was to create awareness and share her experience as a “cripple” in order to create consciousness and understanding of those who are going through the same process. Mairs uses different persuasive strategies to convince readers to want a world with people like her in it, this includes the use of pathos, logos and ethos.
The Body Silent, by Robert Murphy, was published in 1987. The story is about Murphy’s personal account of the physical and social changes he underwent after becoming a quadriplegic. Robert Murphy was an anthropologist at Columbia University. In his early career, he spent a year observing indigenous tribes in the Amazon with his wife. In 1972, Murphy experienced a muscle spasm that was later realized to be a symptom of a growing tumor in his spinal column stretching from the C2 vertebra to the T8 vertebra, leading to partial paralysis; he underwent a few surgeries to reduce the size of the tumor, but eventually his paralysis spread until he was fully quadriplegic in 1986. Injuries and growths in the high cervical region of the spine, including the C2, have limited or no movement from the neck down, though a person
It was a normal day at School everybody looked and acted the same until one person came and changed everything and that person was named Brianna Ostrowski
Imagine receiving a task of writing simple alphabets with your toes, and being expected to complete it without any help rendered. Does it not seem like an impossible feat? This is exactly how it feels like for people who suffer from mental disabilities to write out letters A to Z using their hands. Just thinking about it, I can already imagine the frustration. Looking at the bigger picture, imagine the anxiety and anger that they face everyday, having to wake up daily to try and complete a series of tasks that society expects of you, although it is much harder for you to.