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Everyone wants to progress. In fact, it is one of the national goals enshrined in the Pledge. We go to school to progress, we move on to working life to progress and moving from one life phase to another, like having one’s own family, is a kind of progress. The desire for progress and the confidence in achieving it give us a sense of meaning and, therefore, hope that there it is worth struggling against the great challenges of life. So it is a great thing that Special Education (SPED) schools exist today. They cater to persons with special needs where previously there were fewer options in educational institutions for them. In such places, there are trained professionals with better resources who can educate children with special needs. In this way, we are, as a society, trying to respect the dignity of persons with intellectual disabilities who also want to develop and progress.
See what the Church has taught about human dignity in Human Dignity and Rights.
Reflect: Have I encountered a moment when the dignity of a person with intellectual disability is not respected? How did I respond?
But children, with special needs or not, eventually grow up to become adults. But while many of us can hope for progress when we leave school, whether it is furthering our studies or beginning to earn money towards that coveted “financial freedom”, not all graduates of SPED schools who are adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) can hope for the same.
Some adults with mild ID may be able to do “mainstream” jobs. But let’s face it. Working life is tough. Who has not experienced difficult colleagues or bosses that can make quitting look so tempting? For them, their struggle at work is far, far greater. Moreover, few individuals are used to working with adults with ID. It is not difficult to imagine the kind of challenges they would suffer in an environment that does not cater to them.
But many of SPED school graduates would not even have the chance to do this because many have severe ID and existing approaches to evaluation often make it impossible for such persons to qualify for even a chance at getting a “mainstream” job. To graduate, then, is not to leave school with hope for progress. Rather, it is to enter a time of total uncertainty with very few institutions to cater to persons with ID. Too often, they will end up staying at home for the rest of their lives. For them, to graduate is to encounter the inevitable stagnation, or more probably, regression.
Yet, the Church teaches that it is the duty of Christians to strive for a society where every person, whether one has ID or not, is able to arrive at fulfilment relatively easily. Work, not necessarily a job, is necessary for this. Now, God came down to become man, becoming like us in all things but sin. Knowing what we can and cannot do, God came down to teach us and to save us so that we can rise up and become more like him. He accommodated to our needs so that we can progress, as individuals and a society, in our journey towards eternal life.
Can we not do the same for adults with ID? Should we really be expecting them to adapt, no matter how impossible, to “mainstream” roles or level of performance? Should we not, as an entire society, adapt to adults with ID instead through the formation of attitudes and genuinely enabling institutions that can help them acquire hope for progress?
See what the Church has taught about the necessity of work and the right to it in Dignity and Spirituality of Work.
Reflect: How can we help more persons with intellectual disabilities find ways to work but not necessarily in the context of a job?